Greg Love, Jubilee Hate
Our friend and Office Manager/Event Coordinator Greg Peterson also has a blog. He is a man of many talents. His writing is humorous, so if you have some time to kill head over to his site and read his stuff.
While Greg is a man of many talents, liking good comic characters isn’t one of them. He loves Jubilee and I can’t abide it. Jubilee is an awful character and has no redeeming qualities. During the early to mid-nineties, comic companies were doing whatever they could to gain readers. They tried every bad idea possible. (Batman: Knightfall, anyone?) The comic companies created characters to force dramatic ideas and sell a concept. Doomsday, Bane, and Ben Reilly are some quick examples off the top of my head. Despite my personal feelings, those stories were huge sellers. Death of Superman was revolutionary. Knightfall gave us Bane, and although I dislike him as a character, Dark Knight Rises could redeem that whole series. The 90s also introduced some great characters and titles: Spawn, Sandman, and Preacher to name a few.
Like Bane and Doomsday, Jubilee is a gimmick. If you read old Jubilee comics you’ll see the words “mall rat” in every issue. We get it. She’s just like us. She’s young and she goes against the grain, she’s a rebel, blah, blah, blah. Nothing about her was developed for her to be a good character. She was developed to be statement of our culture, a fad. Like all fads she had a time and place, but it doesn’t mean you keep those old parachute pants in the closet hoping they come back in style.
Despite the poor concept, comic book companies still try to make Jubilee relevant (which can’t be done, because she was created as a marketing idea). There is a saying when it comes to writing: “show, don’t tell.” It’s the writing equivalent of, “actions speak louder than words.” They say how good her powers are, they add new powers, make her a vampire, but it doesn’t matter. While saying how great she could be, Wolverine is busy slaughtering 50 guards in addition to dealing with this worthless teenager who follows him around. Sure, she should be able to do amazing things with her powers. Instead, she’s screaming for Wolverine to save her.
Finally, don’t you think it’s a little racist to give an Asian American the power to make fireworks? I rest my case.
