Doop (comics)
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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 volume 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.
[edit] Character history
Doop was 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). It was hinted many times that he might have been manipulating the team or that he was trying to control them in some clandestine way, but nothing was ever resolved or proven. Captain America stated that Doop was an American-created superweapon that was capable of destroying the entire planet, and later in the same storyline, Doop held his own in a one-on-one battle against Avengers member Thor. He was acquainted with Wolverine, and the two even teamed up in a two-issue miniseries.
Doop was thought to have died with the rest of X-Statix on their final mission. However, the vacationing X-Men Havok and Polaris recently encountered a Doop-like entity when it crashed to Earth from outer space. Polaris immediately identified the creature as the being she had seen in space before, and called it "Daap". Havok eventually blasted 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.
In a segment written by Peter Milligan in the I (Heart) Marvel: My Mutant Heart one-shot, 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 be with the detective.
[edit] 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 did 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 (not unlike the Star Trek episode "Spock's Brain"). 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 pluckled 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.
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.
[edit] Doop Speak
In July 2001, comics reader Chris Griswold noticed a similarity between the language Doop spoke in X-Force and a font he had downloaded from series letterer Nate Piekos' Web site called Roswell Wreckage. Using the font, he was able to decipher Doop's dialogue for the next few issues.
In October 2001, Griswold released it to the public on several Web sites, from which it spread throughout X-Men fandom. There were even reports of comics stores giving their customers printed copies.
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."
