OK, despite being a big fan of Kirkman's work on Invincible and Walking Dead, I really didn't expect to like Jubilee. I've never liked the character, I hate the expansion of the X-line that makes it all too easy for comic fans to buy more X-titles instead of maybe expanding their taste into other areas and another high school book didn't really sound all that interesting either. While I didn't love Jubilee #1, though, I have to admit that I liked it. Kirkman sticks pretty close to high school superhero outsider formula, but diverges in a couple of interesting ways, and his take on this character is much more grounded and entertaining than seeing her as a member of the X-Men, New Mutants or whatever. I'm guessing this is going to be one of those books like She-Hulk and Mary Jane that I start off skeptical about and grow to love, but I'm also guessing that it might face the same uphill battle in sales, so I will say that if you enjoy Invincible, you ought to give Jubilee a chance as well and see if it sparks the same interest.
With an aging fanbase, the comic book superhero has to some extent moved beyond high school and into the more adult notions of jobs and families. However, the high school as setting seems to be coming back, in everything from Invincible to Firebreather to Ultimate Spider-Man, and Jubilee is another book about being a teenager. Unlike the original Spider-Man, though, Jubilee isn't about a teenager who goes to school by day and fights crime by night. Jubilee is just wanting to escape the craziness of being an X-Man and go back to become a high school girl. This is an important element, as it separates Jubilee from every other high school book. Instead of just trying to fit in, getting good grades, etc., Jubilee views school almost as an escape to some extent, a chance to get back a normal life she never really had. It gives her an essential joy that overwhelms the potential angst of high school.
Of course, high school stories tend to rely on angst and some elements of formula, and Kirkman has included those as well. Jubilee is given a friend who is the friendless nerd of the school, and she has a run-in with the in crowd of girls, both story touches that anyone who has read a few high school stories can see coming miles away. Kirkman has a couple of twists, notably the big man on campus having an interest in Jubilee rather than just being a jerk, but even that is something we've seen before. Fortunately, while these tropes of the high school story might be familiar, Kirkman carries them off well, and I find his take on high school politics to be as believable and entertaining as those of John Hughes, at least. Which, to this '80s mind, is where one should aim if you're going to do high school stories.
As I read the book, I was trying to put my finger on why Derec Donovan's artwork looked familiar. It definitely reminded me of someone, but it wasn't until the second read-through that I realized that his work really reminds me of some of the work that Keith Giffen has done. Donovan's work isn't always perfect, and the locker room fight scene winds up being kind of hard to read because the girls all look essentially the same, but since I think he's trying to convey the chaos of a locker room brawl, it's possible that the confusion is intentional. At any rate, he does a great Jubilee, giving her the Asian/South Californian style and look that defines the character and doing a great rendition of the SoCal high school scene as well.
Jubilee is another X-Book in the same way that She-Hulk is another Avengers book, which is to say that it mostly stands on its own rather than tying back into the line from which it sprung. Kirkman has a couple of outlandish elements here, including a potentially hilarious twist revelation about the nature of Jubilee's aunt and guardian, but in general this is a straight look at high school life in Southern California from the point of view of a girl who has seen far more outlandish things in her life.
