Doop (character)

Doop
Doop. Art by Mike Allred.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	X-Force volume 1 #116
Created by	Peter Milligan Mike Allred
In-story information
Team affiliations	X-Force X-Statix
Abilities	Levitation, Accelerated healing factor, Superhuman strength, Extra-dimensional void within body that can store objects and people

Doop is a fictional character in the Marvel Universe who was created by writer Peter Milligan and artist Mike Allred. He made his debut in X-Force vol. 1 #116. He is a green, floating spheroid creature of unknown origins who spoke in a "language" all his own (represented in text by a special font). Although Doop has no obvious physical sexual characteristics he is almost always referred to as male.

Publication history

Doop first appeared in X-Force vol. 1 #116, and appeared in every issue until the end of the series, and then appeared in all issues of X-Statix. Doop also appeared alongside Wolverine in a two-issue limited series.

Fictional character biography

Doop was said to be the product of a Cold War era U.S. military experiment, becoming instrumental in the fall of the Soviet Union.

He later served as the cameraman for the celebrity mutant superhero team X-Statix (formerly known as X-Force). He films a mission to North Africa which is later criticized by then-team leader Zeitgeist, he feels Doop should not be going for artistic shots. The next X-Force mission is to New York, where they are to rescue the boy band 'Boyz R Us' from hostage takers. While in the briefing room, U-Go Girl asks Doop not to keep shooting her rear from a low angle. Doop replies in his language only the characters know, while unexplainably mouthing some of his recording equipment.

The building is attacked by a helicopter gunship, killing the hostages and most of the terrorists. Most of the team dies also, with the exception of Doop, U-Go Girl and Anarchist. Doop gets high quality images of the two slaying the remaining killers.

Plush Doop dolls are seen on sale at the X-Statix cafe, for five dollars apiece. One of these is vandalized by Wolverine.

At one point, Doop secretly videotapes the rookie X-Statix member El Guapo succumbing the temptations of fame and having a threesome. The released video destroys El Guapo's relationship with his original girlfriend.

A section of X-Force headquarters is set aside for Doop's family, who are never seen in panel. This part is talked about very little by the team but is used when they believed themselves to be in supernatural danger.

Corkscrew

In a training/audition session for X-Statix, one of the applicants, Corkscrew, needlessly kills an opponent. It is discussed that Doop would take care of matters. Despite the seriousness of an innocent man having just died, Doop makes a joke in his language, which greatly entertains the team members present.

Doop is sent on a camping trip with Corkscrew. At the end he simply kills Corkscrew with an axe, but not before subjecting the mentally unstable mutant to psychological torture; including tricking him into killing wild horses.

Brain power

In one incident, Doop's brain explodes, and parts of it land all across the world. X-Statix and Avengers combat each other to gain control of the brain pieces. Doop, running on a back up brain in his butt and now capable of human speech, joins in. He fights Thor to a standstill, sucking in his hammer Mjolnir and recreating multiple copies. Captain America states that Doop was an American-created superweapon that was capable of destroying the entire planet. The Avengers, in the end, allow Doop back in to X-Statix custody, after they show courage and responsibility in facing the Asgardian threat of the 'Three Sisters'.

He is acquainted with Wolverine, and the two even teamed up in a two-issue miniseries.

It was revealed that at some indeterminate point in Doop's life, he had an affair with a beautiful married woman. Her husband hired a private investigator, Chandler, to spy on his errant wife. Chandler found himself falling in love with Doop. In the end, Doop ditched the woman to have an affair with the detective.

Death?

After the incident with the Avengers, X-Statix has a farewell party, attended by fans and multiple superheroes. They are hired for one last mission, ridding a billionaire's mansion full of terrorists. Doop's teammate Anarchist notes that this resembles a mission in the past where all but two X-Force members die. Not only is the mansion full of armed gunmen, it is surrounded by attack helicopters. The uniform of the gunmen are identical to the ones that the 'Boyz R Us' hostage takers wore. During the mission, everyone, Doop included, apparently perishes. Doop is seen sprawled in a chair with a large stomach wound.

However, the vacationing X-Men Havok and Polaris encounter a Doop-like entity when it crashes to Earth from outer space. Polaris immediately identify the creature as the being she had seen in space before, and called it Daap. Havok eventually blasts it to pieces, but it began to bring itself back together, and its amorphous jelly-like remains flew off with both Polaris and the mutant-hating Leper Queen. The Marvel Handbook states that Doop and Daap are in fact the same being, but it has yet to be fully established.

Powers and abilities

Doop's abilities displayed in the comics thus far have included superhuman strength and durability, flight, regeneration, physical malleability, a vaguely defined ability to manipulate time and/or space, and the ability to replicate physical objects by unknown means. In the "silent" issue of X-Force, he accidentally sucked the entire team into his body or mind via a popped pimple. He entered himself by picking at the pimple, and rescued his teammates from their own subconscious minds. When they were restored to reality, none but Doop was aware of what had occurred, and only a fraction of a second had actually passed.

Doop uses his mouth as a storage space for his camera equipment, among other items; it is unknown whether these items are simply stored inside his physical body or are actually transported to another dimension like the one to which his teammates were transported.

In the "Lacuna" storyline in X-Force, Lacuna's ability to stop time does not affect Doop. Whatever his control over time or space may be, it is apparently not powerful enough for the team to use him for teleporting the group; they relied first on U-Go Girl and later on Venus Dee Milo for long-distance travel.

In the "X-Statix vs. Avengers" storyline in X-Statix, Doop's brain was removed from his body and forced to project energy blasts at his teammates (a power that he did not demonstrate previously or afterwards). The brain was accidentally smashed into fragments by Thor, but his second brain (located in his hindquarters) was temporarily installed in his head until the original brain could be reassembled, though it was stated that this second brain would only keep him alive for a short time. Later, when Thor struck Doop with his hammer, Mjolnir, Doop absorbed the hammer into his body and fired Mjolnir and a number of duplicate hammers from his mouth at Thor.

Doop has stretched his facial features and tongue on numerous occasions, and once plucked an eye from his head and then replaced it. He expanded his body into a cushion in the Wolverine/Doop miniseries. It is unknown if Doop possesses any other powers. On the one instance where he was forced to kill someone, he apparently used an ordinary axe, although the killing itself was not actually depicted on-panel. Some time later, when Doop thought that Wolverine was dangerously insane, he was prepared to attack the X-Man with a broken glass bottle.

Doopspeak

In 2001, several websites claimed appeared to decipher Doopspeak.

Marvel quickly responded. Series editor Axel Alonso, in an October 8 2001 article by Eric J. Moreels on the now-defunct X-Fan site at Cinescape.com:

It was brought to our attention only last week that some folks were popping over to Blambot.com to ostensibly decode the enigma of 'Doop Speak'. Do not be fooled. Says [series writer] Peter Milligan, and I quote: 'Any such alphabet that purports to exist is to 'Doop Speak' what a Greek Restaurant menu is to The Iliad. The complexities and nuances of Doop Speak — understood only by an initiated few — cannot be encompassed or delineated by any one image system.' Folks should 'translate' at their own risk.

Merchandise

A figure of Doop was included with the Marvel Legends Wave VI Deadpool figure. Doop merchandise is also popular in the Marvel universe, particularly among children; Paco Perez was seen wearing a Doop t-shirt, while Molly Hayes is the known owner of both a stuffed Doop doll and Doop poster. Jean Grey has also been seen with a Doop keychain.