Wolverine and the X-Men #17
Written by Jason Aaron
Art by Mike and Laura Allred
The short of it:
Deathlok and Wolverine are walking through the school as the cyborg gives his evaluations of the teaching staff. For all the good and bad, ‘Lok has faith in the staff to do a fine job and make the school succeed…save for one member of the staff with no official title, no jobs, no real apparent obvious purpose at all.
I’m talking about Doop.
This issue serves to show why he’s there, both in how he came to be a teacher and just what exactly he does that’s so important. Wolverine had to jump through some crazy hoops to get him to agree, after all, the Doop-man isn’t known for being simple, but sometime after a terrible movie marathon and stabbing himself in the face, Wolverine gets his man. The one person he knows capable of handling all the things that need quiet handling. A solver of problems that the rest of the team doesn’t know are even problems. In other words…be Doop, this is the guy who took an X-Statix try-out member and killed him in the woods for killing someone during his audition. Now, he’s hardly doing that these days, but he is taking out Nazi Bowling Leagues, sleeping his way to getting the school board off their backs, and even teaming up with Howard the Duck.
The rest of the faculty think he’s just a lazy freeloader, but they don’t know just how much he really does. They see the sleeping all over campus, or the ability to be experimented on, or, apparently, the ladies see him as a must have. The thing is…he very well may be the most heroic person in the entire school. He saves them from problems big and small and expects nothing in return.
But at least Wolverine respects him for his contributions.
What I liked:
- We finally get a feature on Doop for, really, the first time since X-Statix ended, and Marvel is nice enough to their readers to get Mike Allred to draw it. I’ve been waiting for this story for years, ever since we realized that Doop survived where the rest of his team didn’t.
- Jason Aaron really channeled Peter Milligan here. It felt more like I was reading a lost issue of X-Statix than an issue of Wolverine and the X-Men.
- The threats Doop gets called to do are absolutely hilarious. The absurdity absolutely makes this book. The League of Nazi Bowlers and a gun that shoots bees. Amazing.
- Speaking of absurdity, the things Wolverine has to go through to get Doop to agree. Everything from diving into an icey pond, to Mexican wrestling, to stabbing himself in the face on stage. Humor you really wouldn’t see in too many other non-slapstick books.
- This is the first time I’ve really liked a Sabretooth appearance since….you know what? I’ll get back to you on the when. I have to think about it for a bit.
What I didn’t like:
- Finishing the issue and realizing that next issue’s Doop vs. Galactus was a joke.
- Not getting more Doop from Mike Allred any time soon unless the characters joins FF.
- Just how long it’s been since anyone at Marvel gave any love to X-Statix.
Final Thoughts:
This is the single best issue of this book so far, and one of the best things Jason Aaron has ever written at Marvel. Maybe I’m completely biased, but he does an amazing job with the quirkier setup of this issue and it makes me want to see him ditch superheroics to try more like it.
HOWARD THE DUCK!
So if all the students live on campus, and there are only probably a few dozen of them, why are there so many lockers?
Doop’s cameo in the Xavier family journals is priceless, and is something I would love to see mentioned again. His origin was pretty much tossed together as a ‘maybe it’s this’ at the end of X-Statix, but the idea of him being longer lived than Wolverine and still being pretty much completely off the radar is a good hook.
Can we get an explanation on the Bamfs already? It’s been seventeen issues without so much as a mention.
The complete overworking of Doop is evident throughout the story, and it really does a nice job of painting the scenes between the panels to explain why the little guy is always passed out somewhere. The exhaustion shines through though, and the last encounter we see he’s so fed up with it he just takes out a bat to smash something and leave instantly.
I am very tempted to do a top five moments of this issue for my list this week.
Overall: 10/10
