I Will Show You Fear In A Handful Of Boogers: All-New Doop Coming In April

There are two constant givens that I can tell you about Marvel Comics at this particular moment in time: Peter Parker will somehow return as Spider-Man before The Amazing Spider-Man 2 comes out in theaters in May (yes, I’ve been saying that since Doc Ock took over, but clearly I’m not the only one thinking that), and that Doop is awesome.

Yes, Doop. That floating green spud that acted as camera man for X-Force and X-Statix during Peter Milligan’s and Mike Allred’s run on those books in the early 00s, and who has been a stalwart faculty member of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning in Jason Aaron’s Wolverine And The X-Men. In fact, the Doop-centric 17th issue of that series was one of my favorite single issues of 2012. The little (literal) booger is just cool; an enigma wrapped in a riddle shrouded in mucous. It’s just an interesting character that can move from fringe comic relief to an international snot of mystery. While remaining funny as hell.

And for anyone who feels like me, there’s good news: Marvel has announced that Doop will be getting a star turn in All-New Doop, a miniseries by Milligan with art by David Lafuente with covers by Doop co-creator Mike Allred.

The series is gonna be set during the Battle of The Atom crossover, and will show Doop’s previously unseen role in that event. So what are we in for, Pete?

Ever since I wrote X-FORCE, which morphed into X-STATIX, Doop has been a character that’s close to my heart, and probably several other organs to boot. The very idea that such a bizarre being could still be going strong in the Marvel Universe is, I suppose, a kind of testament to his strange power. Maybe his staying power can be put down to the fact that he’s so hard to pin down or fully understand: the fact that we can never know what he truly is means he can be anything we wish him to be. This is evidenced in Doop’s weird speech, which allows us to interpret it as we wish. So, maybe we should ask not: Why Doop? But rather, why not Doop?

… Doop is a character who lives mostly in the margins, and this story takes place, if you like, in the margins of Battle of the Atom. It shows what happens in those moments just before or after or behind the main storyline. And though Doop seemed to play no part in the original Battle of the Atom, this story reveals the truth. And the truth is very surprising, in a very Doop kind of way. So in this limited series Doop’s sharing the spotlight with most of the main players from that original storyline: Kitty, Jean Grey—present and future versions—Cyclops, various Icemen from the present, past and future, Wolverine, and so on…and on…

I haven’t been shy about saying that most of the X-Men titles – with the exception of X-Factor and Wolverine And The X-Men – don’t particularly grab me and I don’t really follow them. So I don’t really know what the hell happened in Battle of The Atom… but I will follow this. Because Doop is awesome. Because on an infinite timeline, we will see Mister Sinister knocking on Doop’s door. To deliver pizza. While Doop is busy doing the kind of business that serious people do.

All-New Doop #1 drops in April.