By: Jason Aaron (writer), Michael Allred (art), Laura Allred (colors), and Clayton Cowles (letters)
The Story: So just what exactly IS Doop’s job at the school, anyway?
The Review: No more AvX tie-ins for Wolverine and the X-Men!!! Is it any surprise that this is the best issue of WatXM in months? I highly doubt it; with the shackles of AvX gone, Jason Aaron is allowed to go back to his usual craziness and here he gives us the kookiest issue in quite some time.
It’s a done-in-one that spotlights Doop and is drawn by the Allreds. If that sounds awesome to you, rest assured that it is awesome in every way that you think it is. It’s been quite a while since I read a Marvel comic that was this freaking funny from cover to cover. Seriously, Jason Aaron does not let up for one moment with the jokes. Once the issue gets started, it’s gag after gag after gag, occasionally even simultaneously. The issue is so utterly ludicrous and some of the jokes are so completely over the top (and even, in one case, kind of twisted…) that it almost feels like WatXM has gone on a Doop fueled fever dream for a month.
Really, all that ridiculousness also shows how wild Jason Aaron’s imagination is. I mean, Nazi bowlers? Really? Logan and Doop in a tag-team wrestling match? Doop versus Satan in a guitar-duel? Doop teaching confronting a very unlikely internet troll? This issue is all over the freaking map and it is all 100% gold. It’s just completely and utterly wild. And those things I just listed don’t even scratch the surface as to the sheer number of gags this month. There’s even a very, very unlikely and utterly awesome team-up between Doop and a very special guest-star that will blow your freaking mind with its hilarious awesomeness.
You’ve ultimately really got to love issues like this, because there’s a tremendous sense of freedom. It’s as though Marvel just let Aaron and the Allreds go utterly nuts for a month.
Naturally, the Allreds are a perfect choice for this book. I said that at some points, this feels like a Doop-fueled fever dream and the Allreds are certainly a huge part of that, with the slightly surreal edge to their art being played to full advantage here. There’s also the fact that Allred’s Doop is just adorably cute. You just can’t help but go “awwww” multiple times in this issue and walk away wanting a Doop plushy of some sort. Allred does a great job in particular of illustrating an increasingly beaten down and exhausted Doop. You can’t help but love the little guy…girl…thing.
Conclusion: I can’t go into much more detail without spoiling this issue’s laughs, so I won’t. Suffice it to say, when I finished reading this, I realized that my face was literally sore because I had apparently been smiling the entire time.
Grade: A-
– Alex Evans