Doop: Where Do I Start?

Mean. green. unintelligible.

That’s what you get when look at the unconventional hero known as Doop. Part of Marvel’s X-Men family for almost a decade now, his current role is at Wolverine’s Jean Grey Institute for Higher Learning as its religion professor and the secret protector of the campus and all within. Originally created by Mike Allred and Peter Milligan as one of the stars of their take on X-Force (later renamed to X-Statix), Doop has floated around on the outskirts of Marvel’s mutant escapades since then before finding a home in Wolverine & The X-Men. He’s a riddle wrapped in an enigma, with a juicy anomalous center… and he’s something some fans (like I) can’t get enough of.

In September’s Wolverine & The X-Men #17 we saw Doop shine as a time-traveling, lady-lovin’, crime-fighting school resource officer of sorts for the Jean Grey institute, but there’s more to this diminutive bean-shaped hero than that. And we want you to know about it.

X-Statix Omnibus: A Star Is Born, mutant-style. Peter Milligan and Mike Allred were given the reins of X-Force back in Joe Quesada’s initial takeover of Marvel, and boy did they take the title for a spinoff. Veering wildly away from the Liefeldian origins of the book, Milligan and Allred introduced a new team of media-maven turned superheroes, distilling the best of reality television into a superhero story with some of the greatest new characters Marvel’s seen in the past decade — Doop being at the top of that list. This big book collects 46 issues chronicling all of the team’s run under the X-Force banner, as well as the 26 issues of X-Statix and even two spin-offs and three anthology appearances. Doop does great as part of the X-Statix, and the two-part mini Wolverine/Doop included here is so great I’m giving it its own entry below. Although this recently went out of print, this immense compendium is still available from Amazon, eBay and various sources for a reasonable price.

Wolverine/Doop: Although this is collected in the above X-Statix Omnibus, if you’re on a budget I’d forgo that and go straight for the gold and find this extremely under-dated two-parter by Peter Milligan and Darwyn Cooke. Yep, that Darwyn Cooke. This unlikely duo take Wolverine and Doop on a journey to find the Pink Lady and chase down something called the Pink Mink. The duo fall head over heels for the Pink Lady, leading Doop and Wolverine in a battle for love — and their lives — in an excellent tongue-in-cheek story that’s ideal for fans of Wolverine, Doop or just plain good comics.

Wolverine & The X-Men #17:  Although scheduled to be collected in January’s Wolverine & The X-Men Vol. 4 TPB, I wouldn’t wait if you’re looking for Doop. Instead I’d track down this single issue which should still me in most store’s on-sale racks. Aaron really shows off his comedic chops here, partnering with Doop’s co-creator Mike Allred to uncover the true reason Wolverine hired Doop to be a part of  his mutant school. This covers everything from Logan’s herculean attempts to convince Doop to be a part of the school to what Doop actually does, unbeknownst to the entire school, to protect their safety. And as gruesome as it is, it sure is pretty when Allred draws it. If you’re a longtime X-Men fan and long for those one-off stories i.e. “the baseball issues”, then this fun little one-off is the modern inheritor to that style and that great bit of storytelling gusto.