Jubilee #3

Issue Date: 
January 2005
Story Title: 
Hard Knocks With Shane Shooter
Staff: 

Robert Kirkman (writer), Michael O’Hara (pencils), Mostafa Moussa (inks), Transparency Digital (colors), VC’s Dave Sharpe (letters), Casey Jones (cover), Cory Sedlmeier (editor), Axel Alonso (executive editor), Joe Quesada (editor-in-chief), Dan Buckley (publisher)

Brief Description: 

At school, Jubilee has to council a former honor roll student, who suddenly got all F’s and is suspected of being enrolled in a street gang. Jubilee tries to talk to Charlie, but he doesn’t want to listen and runs away in the middle of the session. Later during the day, Jubilee meets up with her friend, Meg, and Dale Spangler, who has once again broke up with Missy. Dale even invites both Jubilee and Meg to a dance the school is giving. Jubilee goes back home to her aunt, where she gets a call from her former partner, Wolverine, who wanted to know how Jubilee was settling in. Jubilee also goes to check on her aunt, who is getting better. Next day, Jubilee has a talk with Charlie’s street gang leader, Shane Shooter. Shooter wants Jubilee to stop interfering with his gang, but Jubilee puts it in Shooter’s head that he is ruining Charlie’s life. Jubilee goes back to school and on with her life. Later that night, Shooter gathers his group and Charlie, and tells Charlie that he’s out of the gang, and that he better focuses on his schoolwork. Charlie happily thanks him, and Shooter gives Charlie one final good-bye show. Shooter aims at a nearby can, and points his finger at it. Suddenly, energy comes out of his finger and Shooter shoots right in the middle of the can! The entire gang, plus Charlie, cheer, and say “Shane Shooter, so cool.”

Full Summary: 

Street punks gather around in a dark alley, and count the value of what they’ve stolen. The group leader, Shane Shooter, decides to only keep the money and the credit cards, and tells his minions to throw the rest away. One thug wants to keep some traveler’s check as well, but the boss tells him not to, explaining that the owner can cancel and replace them in case they get stolen. The thug says that goes the same for credit cards. Shane agrees, but says that there’s always a day in between before that cancellation can be done.

The group counts the cash, and has at least two grand and twenty credit cards – not bad for a Sunday! Shooter is glad that things went smoothly, thanks to the good structure in their plan. A newbie in the gang asks permission to leave, as he has school tomorrow. Shane isn’t happy that the kid is still going there, because he should only keep attention to his group, according to him. But Shane lets him go, and the kid says that he’ll see him tomorrow.

The next morning, at school…

Jubilee rides her scooter harshly through the crowd and parks it. She still can’t believe that she actually owns a scooter. Meg meets up with her. Jubilee can’t stop talking about her new scooter, but Meg stops her: she agrees at how cool it is. They walk through the school halls. At their lockers, Meg asks Jubilee if she studied for the World CIV test. Jubilee says she has, but not as much as she would have liked to. Dale shows up and hands them both a flyer. He explains that the basketball team is holding a dance to raise money for the senior trip.

Jubilee asks Dale if Missy is okay with Dale inviting other girls to the dance. Dale says that he doesn’t think that Missy cares much, since they broke up; again. Jubilee tells Dale that the dance sounds interesting. Dale leaves, as he’s got some flyers to hang up on walls before first period. Jubilee tells Meg that she is going to jinx it, but so far, she is having a fantastic day. Meg suggests to keep the fun up, and go to the mall after school. Jubilee agrees and tells Meg to meet her after seventh period. Judy overhears them, and remembers to Jubilee that she has an appointment with her after seventh period. Jubilee totally forgot and promises to be there. Meg says that they’ll meet up after the appointment, and jokes that Jubilee jinxed the day. Jubilee knows.

Later in the day…

Judy tells Jubilee that her “patient” is waiting for her, and informs that the kid once was a honor roll student, but suddenly began getting F’s. Judy thinks that he is involved in some sort of street gang and wants Jubilee to talk him out of it. Jubilee goes into her office and talks to Charlie, but he isn’t responding. Charlie finally answers and says that he doesn’t want to be here, and absolutely doesn’t care that his grades are slipping and that he wants to be in the gang. Jubilee tries to talk Charlie out of it, but Charlie gets even angrier. He says that he knows all about Jubilee, with her living with her aunt in Bel-Air, but she doesn’t know anything about him. He claims that Jubilee doesn’t know what it’s like to need protection, or what’s expected of him. Charlie angrily walks out of the office.

Later, at home in Bel-Air, after the much-needed visit at the mall..

Jubilee takes her shoes off and Brad approaches her. He hands her over a phone number, and informs her that a man named Logan called for her. Brad believes that must be her boyfriend, but Jubilee says that he isn’t. She goes to her room and searches for her phone. Jubilee finds her phone – which is in the shape of Johnny Storm – and calls Logan up. Wolverine answers, but is in the middle of a fight against ninja’s. He says that he just wanted to know how Jubilee had settled in, but promises to call back after the fight. Jubilee understands and tells Logan to call back and hangs up.

The doorbell goes. A suspicious Brad, secretly holding a gun in his pocket, answers it. It’s a pizza delivery guy, but Brad says that he didn’t order a pizza and tells the guy to go away. Jubilee comes downstairs and says that’s it her pizza, and tells Brad to pay the man.

The next day after school (yeah, we skipped it all, but there’s really nothing to miss. Except for the one thing in Chemistry, but, uh…never mind!)

Shooter and his gang approach Jubilee and tell her to stop interfering with Charlie. Jubilee, not impressed by them, tells them to knock it off. She tells them if Charlie wants to talk to her, or any of them, fine, but Jubilee tells them to knock of the “cool” thing; it embarrasses her. Shooter doesn’t stop threatening Jubilee, but she doesn’t let it go to her. She tells Shooter that he is holding Charlie back, simply because he lives in his neighborhood. Jubilee says that doesn’t mean that Charlie can’t have a chance on a proper education. Jubilee puts her helmet on and takes off on her scooter. Shooter and the rest of his gang watch her going, and are impressed by her tone and cuteness.

At home…

Brad tells Hope about the delivery guy and jokes how he almost shot the poor guy, were it not for Jubilee. Jubilee enters the room and asks her aunt how she is doing. Jubilee tells her aunt that she is going over to Meg’s house, to help her study with a hard exam. Hope says that’s fine and asks Jubilee to call her if she is going to be back later than 10:30. Brad and Jubilee both leave and wish Hope the best. Brad says that he knows Jubilee is going to hang at the mall. Jubilee, impressed, asks Brad where he is going. Brad says that he’s going to a Razor’s Edge concert. He tells Jubilee that is kind of a hip-hop band and that she can borrow a CD if she wants to. Jubilee says that she would like that and goes back to her room, and smiling sighs “So many crushes, so little time…”

The next morning…

Shooter stands relaxing on her driveway, and asks Jubilee what she meant that he is holding Charlie back. Jubilee says that she meant that Charlie had good grades, that he even planned to go to college. But now, she thinks that Shooter thinks he is protecting him, but he isn’t. Shooter says that he didn’t know about Charlie’s grades and tells Jubilee that she has given him a lot to think about. Jubilee tells Shooter to leave, as she has to go to school. Shooter leaves, and so does Jubilee. Shooter turns around and watches her leaving.

Payton-Noble High…

Jubilee tells Meg about what happened with Shooter. They are disturbed by Dale, who informs Jubilee that they weren’t able to get the gym until the week after they had planned the dance, so now they’ve got to make new flyers. But Dale knows that flyers cost money, so he spreads the word by just talking to people. That’s fine by Jubilee, and she asks Dale if he and Missy are back together. Dale denies, and says that he’s through with her.

Later that evening, Shooter’s gang…

Charlie meets up with them and Shooter immediately cuts to the chase. He tells Charlie that they are letting him go, and that he better does well at school and make the gang proud. Charlie thanks him, but says that he thought Shooter would never let him go and would be in this for life. Shooter says that normally he would have, but that he’s putting some changes in now.

Suddenly, another gang member tells Shooter that he can’t let Charlie go without “showing him at least once.” Charlie gets interested and wants to see it. Shooter agrees, but makes Charlie promise to leave the second after and do some schoolwork. Charlie agrees. Shooter points his finger at a can that stands on some tires. Suddenly, energy comes out of them and Shooter shoots right through the middle of the can! Everybody is thrilled and say “Shane Shooter: so cool.”

Characters Involved: 

Jubilee

Wolverine (X-Man)

Hope Lee (Jubilee’s aunt)

Brad (the butler)

Meg Devereux (Jubilee’s friend)

Dale Spangler

Judy Kingsley (the principal’s assistant)

Shane Shooter (gang leader)

Charlie and other gang members (unnamed)

Story Notes: 
Issue Information: 
Written By: