The daughter of two prosperous Chinese immigrants, Jubilation "Jubilee" Lee, was born and raised in Beverly Hills, California and lived a charmed life. Jubilee attended an exclusive Beverly Hills school and was believed to have the gymnastic potential to participate in the Olympic Games. However, all in one fateful weekend, her parents lost their money in the stock market and were then mistaken for their neighbors (also named the Lees) and killed by two hit-men, while Jubilee was out with a friend of the family.
Jubilee was then sent to an orphanage, but ran away and hid in a Hollywood shopping mall, stealing food to survive. Jubilee first discovered her mutant power, to generate blinding and explosive energy "fireworks", while running away from mall security. The stress of running away from the security guards caused Jubilee to emit a large light energy blast while in a back alley. This completely disoriented the men and allowed the frightened young girl to escape. Upon learning about her mutant ability to create fireworks, Jubilee realized she could earn money by using her powers to entertain customers and visitors in the mall.
Frustrated with the young girl's rebellious nature and powerful light-shows, the mall security hired mutant hunters, known as the M-Squad, to capture her. Jubilee held her own by blasting the M-Squad's energy tractor beams, but she was eventually caught. Lucky for her, Jubilee was rescued by the X-Men Dazzler, Psylocke, Rogue and Storm, who happened to be shopping at the mall. Curious about these strange women, she followed them for a while and later jumped into a portal after them.
On the other side of the portal, Jubilee found herself at the X-Men's temporary base in the Australian outback. Jubilee stayed hidden and, while living in the underground base, the mutant known as Gateway was the only person aware of Jubilee's existence. During her stay in the base, Jubilee stowed away in Dazzler's quarters and found an immediate kinship, in the extent of Alison Blaire's wardrobe. Jubilee stole food and borrowed clothes from several of the X-Men to create a makeshift costume for herself. Jubilee was present when Nanny and Orphan-Maker ambushed the X-Men at their base, but simply hid while the battle ensued. Once while the X-Men were out, Jubilee was harassed and hounded by a Reaver guard dog that was left at the base. Jubilee stayed in hiding until the X-Men had abandoned the base, and their enemies the Reavers had captured Wolverine and taken over the base.
While sneaking around the caverns in the outback base, Jubilee was startled to find Wolverine hung up on a cross and near death. Jubilee helped Wolverine get down from the cross, and nurtured him back to health. Afterward, she teamed with Wolverine on several of his missions throughout the world. During this time she held her own against The Hand and blew up a section of the Mandarin's castle with her powers while being held prisoner there with Wolverine and Psylocke.
Jubilee and Wolverine grew a close father-daughter relationship with one another. Jubilee needed the guidance of a parent, while Wolverine needed the peace and joy of a child. Due to this relationship, Jubilee was referred to as Wolverine's unofficial sidekick. The duo teamed up to fight Sentinels, Omega Red, Sabretooth, Sauron, and even seek revenge on Reno and Molokai for the murder of her parents.