By Meghan O’Keefe
Despite what you may think, comic books are not just read by boys. In fact, there are a lot of girls out there who enjoy reading about killer robots and mutant superheroes. So we thought it was time to get a woman’s perspective on an industry that is creatively dominated by males. Enter Heroine Chic: a monthly look at female comic book characters and the people who have created them, written by Meghan O’Keefe, a girl who reads X-Men just as voraciously as she reads Vogue.
Recently, a friend and I developed an improv show about teenaged superheroes and I had to invent an original character to portray. This experience forced me to consider an issue that has been rattling around in my mind since I’ve begun to write this column. What makes a female character a GOOD comic book character? What strange alchemy of qualities much she have? For instance, why do I love Kitty Pryde, but can’t stand Jubilee? How can I like a character as demented and whipped as Harley Quinn? And even though I loathe her, why do I have a begrudging admiration for Emma Frost?
It didn’t take me long to realize that this is a much bigger question than one column can handle, so I’m going to devote a series of columns to this one issue in an effort to try to break down what it takes to be a truly great comic book heroine. And I’m going to start with a showdown between two X-Men darlings, Kitty Pryde & Jubilee. (For the record, I’m going to deal with pre-M-Day Jubilee, as her recent development in New Warriors has almost entirely changed her as a character.)
Both Kitty and Jubilee were introduced into the X-Men to fill a little sister role and provide a gateway for a young female readership to enter the comic. As a result, the two share similarities in the way they are written. They both have to consistently face the villains of the Marvel world as they stand side-by-side with the X-Men, while also being told that they are “too young” or inexperienced to be taken seriously. These situations provide endless amounts of whiny dialogue: Kitty’s famous “Professor Xavier is a Jerk” line and most of Jubilee’s mallrat one-liners. They both fill a minority gap, Jewish and Chinese-American, and possess an additional skill to their powers; computer expertise and Olympic-level gymnastics respectively. So why does it often seem that Kitty Pryde is adored by fans while Jubilee comes off as a joke?
It would be easy to say that Kitty is just written as a more fully fleshed-out character, except that they were both written and created by the same person (Chris Claremont). It is also easy to say that since Kitty came first, fans look at Jubilee as a knock-off. However, I don’t think that’s the crux of the issue. There is something else about Jubes that seems to annoy people. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard, or thought to myself, “Jubilee is so lame. She sparkles and fizzles out DVD players. What’s so cool about that?”
In short, everyone thinks her powers are lame. However, if you step back and assess what it is Jubilee can do, she actually comes across as a badass: she can short-circuit machinery, shield herself from telepathic assault, and has the potential to detonate matter on a sub-atomic level. Kitty Pryde can walk through stuff. Oh, and she has a dragon…or did until Joss Whedon turned Lockheed into a double agent for S.W.O.R.D. Put in those terms, Jubilee should own Kitty Pryde, despite her ninja training. So why is Kitty featured in the films and in Astonishing X-Men, while Jubilee was elected to be depowered by M-Day? Because Kitty has spunk.
In Kitty’s first appearance with the X-Men, she’s a thirteen-year old who takes it upon herself to save the X-Men from the machinations of the White Queen. Vice versa, Jubilee discovers Wolverine being tortured by the Reavers and waits for him to set himself free before offering help, since she’s afraid of getting caught. From their introductions, Kitty is far more pro-active about being an X-Man and using her powers to help fight evil. It always seemed like Jubilee, though, would be happier at the mall. Like Kitty, she becomes Wolverine’s unofficial sidekick, but when she leaves the mansion, she goes to LA to become an actress. Kitty leaves and joins Excalibur. One of these two girls is far more apt to kick Mr. Sinister’s butt — and it has nothing to do with fighting skills.
Until M-Day, Jubilee seemed a lot like a Dazzler or Polaris. What I mean by that is that she’s happy to use her powers to help people, but that her heart is really elsewhere. For fans of the X-Men, it would be a dream, a fantasy come true, to be a member of the team. Reading about a character who seems less than completely committed to the team is not exactly fun. While their point of view may be realistic, it comes off as ungrateful. From day one, Kitty is feisty and ready to fight. It’s not the kind of spunk that doesn’t come with a side of chili fries, but with a side of knuckle sandwich to an opponent’s face. That fire and determination is what drives us to love Kitty Pryde so much. Could you see pre-Wondra Jubilee deliver a “Now it’s my turn” comment like Kitty did in Astonishing X-Men #15? No. She just never had the fire to face a villain man-to-man like Kitty did.
In this case, spunk is the winner against powers or abilities, and Kitty Pryde has it in spades.
All these arguments seem pretty groundless to me. Kitty has quit the X-men to pursue other goals a TON of times and Jubes has routinely faced foes like Sabretooth and Bastion, despite being hopelessly outclassed. Personally I like both heroines, and I don’t see how one has more “spunk” than the other.
People just hate Jubilee because she is so obviously a creature of the early 90’s, while Kitty was always more timeless and has been allowed to grow far more as a character.
You raise an interesting point in contrasting these two characters’ attitude towards their powers and their roles as “superhero.” I think it’s an oversimplification to say that this is the only factor that helped Kitty and hindered Jubilee in terms of popularity, but I’d say you are correct in identifying it as playing a role.
I think that the attitudes of the X-characters towards each of these young women, and the extent to which the writers chose to involve them in their stories also played a role, heavily favouring Kitty. And while both are Claremont’s creations, his treatment of Kitty over the years far outstrips his interest in revisiting Jubilee (he left the X-Men shortly after creating her).
Then there’s the “Wolverine factor.” Kitty never really served as Wolverine’s “sidekick” – unless you count the Wolverine and Kitty Pryde mini-series or the yet-to-be-relased Wolverine: First Class. In contrast, Jubilee appeared in 39 isues of Wolverine’s solo title – and this after Wolverine tried to distance himself from her. The result was that Jubilee earned the emnity of many Wolverine fans who felt that her presence “emasculated” him in some way.
Also, Jubilee didn’t “quit” the X-Men to become an actress. She voluntarion left the X-Men to train in the use of her powers with Generation X. When the school disbanded (before she could graduate – she was 16) she was left to her own devices and chose to accompany teammate Skin in returning to their hometown of LA, where she sought to support herself as an actress.
“Jubilee discovers Wolverine being tortured by the Reavers and waits for him to set himself free before offering help, since she’s afraid of getting caught.”
Since he was unable to move due to his severe injury, he would have been caught and put back on the cross, or worse. She dragged him back to the base and nursed him back to health under the Reaver’s very noses and risked being caught to bring him bandages. And she had to clean his fecal waste. He was there for a couple days! She even comments on the smell. I think the sin of her letting him rip himself on the cross has been absolved.
“Reading about a character who seems less than completely committed to the team is not exactly fun.”
I have to disagree. Jubilee risked her life to save the X-men from Operation: Zero Tolerance. You can’t get more committed than that.
I think the article is flawed with the idea that spunk alone makes one more likable than the other. Kitty Pryde being better than Jubilee has to deal more with overall appearance and the way her character growth has been managed.
Kitty Pryde is; Dynamic and evolving!
Jubilee is; prepubescent.
For almost 20 years, she has suffered from Peter-Pan syndrome and had been learning how to use her powers. Most men, over 50% of the readers, are NOT going to find Jubilee attractive due to her age. Even most female readers can’t identify with her anymore – they’ve grown up. Her stagnation is the fault of writers who didn’t care about letting her character evolve.
Where comic writers paid Kitty Pryde the attention and character growth she deserved, Jubilee was de-aged over and over again, given conflicting history and a forced portrayal of being lame.
How many comic writers made her say all she could do was pull off a “cheesy light show?” The real Jubilee was proud of her Mega-Paffs! And she was more than happy to jump into a bar brawl in the old days.
This is an interesting argument, but are you sure your views on her popularity aren’t a little biased? Yes it’s fair to say that Kitty is more popular (and I agree with the other posters, that’s the writer’s fault) but it’s not fair to say that EVERYBODY hates Jubilee. When she got switched to Generation X (a point you apparently forgot since she didn’t just “quit” the x-men) i’ve heard people say she was the reason people originally picked up that book. Now it’s been many Jubilee-less years and the New Warrior writers claim she’s popular enough to make her a focal point. It’s also important to remember back in the 90’s cartoon show she was a main character and tons of people watched that show and although some (the male audience) didn’t like her so much tons of the girl audience related to her and thought she was awesome.
The meat of your argument also seems a bit unfair. The argument about the writers totally botching her aside, Jubilee still had quite a bit of spunk. She was mouthy, would stand up to people far stronger than her and would put herself into dangerous missions voluntarily (she followed around Wolverine, how much more spunk can you get?) Also, you seem to knock her for not being a perfect super heroine, but why is that a bad thing rather than a point of interest? Yes Superman is cool, but tons of people like Batman because he’s more down to earth. I’d argue the same logic could apply to Kitty and Jubilee. Yes Kitty is a perfect girl scout and Jubilee is not always, but in my opinion that gives Jubilee more spunk. She’s constantly the underdog (because pre M-day people all thought her powers were lame) and thus had to be crafty and use everything at her disposal to win against stronger enemies.
So long story short, I think that your argument is interesting but doesn’t focus on enough factors. Jubilee has gotten the short end of the writing stick since Generation X, and that lack of screen time probably has had more of an effect of her popularity than you really consider.
I think your feelings are bases on the fact that you like Kitty. You obviously have no concept of Jubilee’s character. To me Jubilee has always had more depth than Kitty has.
If you knew Jubilee you would know all the spunk she has since her first appearance Uncanny X-Men #244. I mean she stepped through Gateways portal into what would be the great unknown, this was while she was living in a mall after her parents died. That takes some guts to walk through when you have no idea whats on the other side.
Have you even read X-Men Unlimited #5? If you haven’t maybe you should check it out. Jubilee willingly joined a group who were being treated unfairly.
Jubilee has just as much spunk. So like everyone else has said I think it has come down to the writers and bad development by the Marvel/X-Men creators.
Oh yeah and I don’t think Kitty has been put through as much as Jubilee has.
I’m sorry but your column is very short sighted and you obviously know very little about Jubilee’s characters or her motivations, also you have to admit that she has been truly disrespected by many writers who did not care about or respect her backgrounds and experience. Jubilee for me, as for several friends, became the window that got me into comics and their fantastic world and she’ll always be dear to my heart. I also like Kitty but she’s always been too sweet to my tastes.
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I’d like to explain further but I’m supposed to be working, so, so long.
Well, you make some good points, but ultimately it all comes down to how the writer portrays the character.
Then again, the combination of her powers and her personality are difficult to reconcile. Kitty’s power is more defensive, and so there is less risk of her going to far, whereas Jubilee’s is destructive and if they allowed her to use them as irresponsibly as is in her nature, it would be less believable that someone wouldn’t die. Then again, maybe not, we are already suspending our disbelief with the idea that she has powers to begin with.
I love Jubilee as a character, but I do think she is rarely portrayed as well as is possible. She had moments where she was fleshed out in Generation X, but it was rarer in X-men. However, I don’t think that’s a flaw in the character, its a flaw in those that write the character.
For one thing, she’s a delightful middle finger for racial stereotype… she’s an asian girl who is bad at math… being of the same ilk myself, I enjoy the character. She’s both sarcastic and a wise-ass, but also caring. Also, initially, her background was tougher than Kitty’s. I mean, Jubilee was made an orphan who after her parents were murdered and had to live on her own in a mall… which is why I like her, she is mature in some ways, and perpetually a child in others.
I don’t know how everyone feels about her, and I don’t think anyone can make a truely comprehensive consensus anyway, so instead of jumping on the Kitty Pryde bandwagon, I’ll just form my own opinions about both characters positive, negative or neutral.
Kitty has more spunk than Jubilee? Hardly. Jubilee has more spunk than Kitty because she went through a lot of hard times but never let them get the best of her. I kind of like Kitty in the 80’s x-men comic but she’s becoming into a “whatever” kind of character
Jubilee was in fact never seen as a joke, when she got older she left the x-men and lead her own team. that’s where kitty took jub’s place. but she’s seen many times after saving all of the x-men. she becomes way cooler than when she was in the original x-men series. Jubilation Lee is infact my favorite x-men character because of her remarkable abilities.