Jubilation Lee: X-Woman of the Year

M-Day. In and of itself this arc could constitute an article for this blog, but it is only a supporting role, an explanatory piece of the puzzle as to why one of my favorite characters of the X-Men titles, my second favorite of the mutants, has lost her power. I speak, of course, of Jubilation Lee; once known as her X-Man moniker “Jubilee” but now resigned to being the New Warrior known as “Wondra” she seems to have fallen far from her power of infinite possibility, as Emma frost called it, to a simpler role as super tutor in heroism.

Once a mutant with the power to expel tiny firework-like puffs of light she called “pafs” and cause an explosion inside them at a molecular level she soon learned to cause these explosions in almost anything, once even combusting the clothing of a guard to make an escape, she is now resigned to more cliché powers; superhuman strength, limited invulnerability, and flight-assisting disks. Jubilee once had the unlimited potential to be one of the most powerful mutants ever, exploding the atoms of anything leave possibilities without end, but the Scarlet Witch saw to it that she had her future ripped from her hands and thrown into limbo.

M-Day robbed all mutants of their astounding powers, altering their very genes, but it also took away their identity, their sense of community. They had, for so long, been united by their need to survive the onslaught that the Homo sapiens had begun upon the Homo Magnus, but with the loss of their powers they could actually blend into society. No longer was it a two-sided war, the harsh no man’s land had been cleared of some of its barbed wire, a few mortars stilled their shells on each side, and the trenches no longer seemed so deep, so some of the mutants naturally formed a gradient into the norm, leaving the home front open to attack.

Jubilation, having grown up a rich Asian-American girl, had her parents torn from her by the assassins called Reno and Molokai, and was forced to live by whit and will in a shopping mall in Hollywood. She has a naturally acuity for gymnastics, which aided her in stealing food to survive, and she’s got good hand-to-hand skills, which Wolverine later honed even further, and is both street- and book-wise.

If haunting the temporary Outback base of the X-Men was Jubilee's way onto the team, her linchpin was saving Wolverine from the torturous Reavers. She cut him down and nursed him back to health, earning her the right to fight with the best of the best on the good guy's side. Going through stents with almost every X-Team Jubilee is truly a mutant of all trades, and a respectable fighter in pretty much every way. Whether she’s standing in a yellow trench coat and denim shorts or the Wondra get-up, whether she’s causing molecular explosions or bench pressing a freight train, Miss Jubilation Lee gets my vote for X-Woman of the year.

But seriously, Marvel; powers, she deserves ‘em. So make with the creative solution, some science experiment, hell, let her make out with Quicksilver and his healing touch for all I care, just the Jubilee Paffing again.

John Constantine: Blue Collar Warlock

Who has so completely captured the minds and souls, often literally, of comic book readers and occultist devotees than British Warlock John Constantine? Nobody; that’s who. From his early days as a magical consultant to the Swamp Thing in his ever turbulent saga, to the days of Mucus Membrane, to the battle against The First of the Fallen, John Constantine has done what needed doing with an arrogant smile on his face and a heartfelt “fuck you, wanker.” on his lips. Constantine believes, very harshly, that everyone will eventually falter, that Hell claims at least a few fleeting moments in every life.

Hounded by the Holy and Unholy alike, his whole life, even before he was born, and he shall be until someone claims his soul, Constantine has been wheeling and dealing, often backpedaling and double dealing, with the biggest and baddest of mythology, religion, and every sin on earth, since he cursed his father to waste away and ran from home. Drawn into a pocket universe where the Super Heroes of the world seem to have simply faded into nothingness, Constantine was conceived of "really good ideas... about serial killers, the Winchester House, and... want[ing] to draw Sting in a story." says creator Allan Moore.

Having strangled his twin brother with his umbilical cord while they were still in-utero, Constantine literally started out life with a bang and a body at his feet. His mother, Marry Anne, died while giving birth, which left Constantine guilt-ridden his whole life long, and his father blamed him for the loss until John cursed him to waste into nothingness. John and his older sister, Cheryl, had to move from their fathers Liverpool home to their aunt and uncles home in Northampton because their father was arrested, in a drunken stupor, for stealing a neighboring woman’s underwear. With a childhood so riddled with cloak and dagger family matters, so chock full of bad parenting, is it any wonder one of his earliest acts of magic was to round up all of his childhood innocence and vulnerability and pack it into a box just to be rid of it?

John has dealt with the power players of England, America, Heaven, Hell, and every other place rational human’s fear; he’s fought Angels, Demons, Gangsters, and the occasional over-zealous groupie. I say Hellblazer is not only a great comic, but something akin to a warning, a foretelling of things that may yet come, and I beg you all to heed it and read it.