One day at the scene of a fire, the cop found the perfect fireman axe. That was the day he became Axe Cop.
— The opening narration of Axe Cop, episode 1
Axe Cop is a webcomic about a Crazy Awesomepolice officer who uses his Weapon of Choice to behead every evil he encounters while building an ever-expanding team of do-gooders. That in itself makes the comic notable enough, but there's another secret behind its success: although Axe Cop's adventures are brought to life by the trained hand of a professional comic book artist, the story and characters are directed completely by the overactive imagination of a 7-year-old boy.The story is this: In December 2009, 29-year-old comic artist Ethan Nicolle returned to his family home for a Christmas visit, and his (then) 5-year-old brother Malachai, always delighted to see Ethan, invited him to play a pretend game of "Axe Cop." Ethan happily obliged, and as the two played, Ethan was consistently surprised with the wild and fantastical stories that his brother came up with. Between flute wielding policemen that get turned into dinosaur-hybrids from dinosaur blood with magical properties, there seemed to be no limit to the younger Nicolle's imagination. Ever the artist, Ethan began to feel that these ideas were too good to go to waste— that maybe, if he just pressed Malachai on a few details, he could get enough material to illustrate a more complete account of this axe-wielding policeman's adventures...Axe Cop made its internet debut in January of 2010. Originally created just for a select group of family and friends, the Axe Cop comics comprised then 5-year-old Malachai's raw ideas, formatted and illustrated by 29-year-old Ethan. The first four episodes chronicled the adventures of the eponymous hero, starting from the moment he discovered the perfect fireman axe and following him as he quickly grew into a larger than life legend. The strips proved insanely popular, and it was not long until tales of a webcomic written by a 6-year-old and illustrated by a 29-year-old began to spill over on to the internet at large. So popular, in fact, that weeks after its debut, he began taking viewer questions for the side series "Ask Axe Cop" which introduced so many more insane concepts and characters that it has become as popular as the main comic, if not more so. Now, Axe Cop is to be published by Dark Horse Comics, with a collection of most of the web material. A three-part miniseries in color, named Bad Guy Earth, was released in March 2011 and features Axe Cop and Dinosaur Soldier fighting the regular police and the army, who are fed up with Axe Cop's extreme methods. And a crossover with (who else?) Dr. McNinja titled "Stolen Pizza, Stolen Lives" ended in August 2010. An Axe Cop-themed Munchkin set was released in late 2011.Since then, Axe Cop has become a veritable phenomenon. In just a matter of months, Axe Cop had accomplished more than this page could possibly recount and a number of the comic's fans-sorry, the comic's number of fans has exploded.It's hilarious. It's badass. It's beautiful. It's awesome. It's Axe Cop.Guaranteed to be the best comic written by a six-year-old that you'll ever read.
This webcomic provides examples of:
Adam Smith Hates Your Guts: Averted. You want enough potion that turns zombies good for the whole town? It's only 1 dollar. Vacuum capable of sucking up an entire planet? It's only 1 dollar. Mind controls to subjugate evil mooks? 2 dollars. The most valuable resources in the series thus far seem to be prefab human servants; Chemist M cost $10. This goes out of the window, however, when Axe Cop mentions that three golden weapons (previously never seen for sale) costing one thousand dollars is considered a good deal.
Played straight in Bad Guy Earth when the chicken-brain robots need an Invincibilator and an Invisibilator, which cost a tyranotillion dollars — the highest number in the universe. Fortunately (for the bad guys) there's a diamond in the museum which is priced at the exact same tyranotillion.
Adipose Rex: King Evilfatsozon. Suffice to say, he's well-named.
Abnormal Ammo: Axe Cop's three least favorite guns use flowers, carnivorous brains and rabbits for ammo.
Absurdly Spacious Sewer: Axe Cop hoovers up a whole planet of poo, then flushes it down the toilet. Since "everyone was happy", it has to be assumed that the sewer was spacious enough not to burst.
An Axe to Grind: Guess who? Dinosaur Soldier/Flute Cop/Avacado Soldier/Viking Cop also gets into the grove on occasion.
And Then What?: Axe Cop is subject to a heroic version of this. He has mused several times in Ask Axe Cop that if he ever did succeed in killing every bad guy, he'd get bored with nothing left to do.
And Your Reward Is Clothes: The Sea Ghost offers the Moon Warriors a choice between peace on Earth or new costumes when they defeat him. Guess which one they choose.
And Zoidberg: The brief, pointless appearances of Mr. Stocker.
Applied Phlebotinum: Getting someone's blood on you gives you their powers (so far, this has happened with dinosaur blood, superhero blood, shark blood, swordfish blood, and crab blood). So does eating fruit. And unicorn horns grant wishes.
Lighting yourself on fire gives you fire powers. But only if you're a good guy.
Weapons are invariably more powerful when made of gold. And yes, a Golden Axe has appeared. There's even been a golden ''chainsaw''. Sockarang uses it to cut the head off of the Vampire Man Baby Kid.
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Two items instead of three, but the idea is there. "The snow man came to life and started eating the kids. The tree sang really annoying songs."
Art Evolution: The earlier comics are simpler, scratchier, and unshaded, but when the comic became a hit, Ethan started applying realistic tones. Axe Cop's outfit has also changed after Ethan found reference pictures of actual police uniforms. This is less about Ethan's skills improving than it is about the realization that Axe Cop had gone from "a small joke among family members" to something with a much larger audience than anything in Ethan's "real" comics career. Thus, Ethan "started to put more effort into the art without slowing down."
Art Style Dissonance: A strange case; the dissonance comes from the fact that the author is barely of elementary school age and the illustrator is an old hand at the trade.
"The Moon Warriors Go Camping" was written by Ethan and drawn by Malachai, causing a very divergent art style.
Ascended Extra: Bat Warthog Man was originally a purely theoretical one-off character from Ask Axe Cop. He eventually got his own story arc, "Bat Warthog Man Can't Find His Friend".
Asskicking Equals Authority: Axe Cop tells Lobsterman that he is the leader of his team because he is the best fighter.
However, in Bad Guy Earth, he becomes President of the World, apparently giving him authority over all other presidents.
Author Appeal: Malachai really likes using baby-related concepts. When asked about it, Ethan said he'd actually managed to talk him out of using them even more. There was also a period in which he was obsessed with rogue angels and fighting Satan.
He's also worked zombies into quite a few recent stories, as a result of playing Plants Vs Zombies on his brother's iPhone.
Another one is his fondness for teams consisting of two brothers, probably because Axe Cop started out as him playing with Ethan. Examples include Axe Cop and Flute Cop, the Moon Warriors, the Secret Agent Brothers, and the villainous Psychic Brothers in Bad Guy Earth.
Gone into more detail in Axe Cop #1 - when Malachai tells Ethan what's going to happen, he doesn't say "Axe Cop and Flute Cop (or any other partner) do this," he says "you and me do this." Axe Cop isn't just a webcomic written by a grade school kid; it's a diary of the games he plays with his older brother. By the very way it's set up, brothers and friends are always going to be a central concept to the world.
Weapons that shoot tornadoes seem to come up a lot.
Dinosaurs (specifically, T-Rexes), but Dinosaur Soldier is often transformed into whatever Malachai fancies, having been anything from an Avacado Soldier to a Viking Cop.
For a time, he was obsessed with brains, which feature heavily in the Bat Warthog Man arc and also come up in Jack and John's second adventure.
Author Avatar: Ethan appears as a large man who seems just a little unnerved to be in a comic strip with these kinds of lunatics. Malachai is living the dream.
Chemist M. Three guesses as to what the M stands for, and the first two don't count.
Awesome, but Impractical: Pretty much every weapon and superpower that exists in the series. If it was reality, that is!
Awesome McCoolname: The Moon Brothers are named Vampire Wolfer and Fire Slicer.
Not to mention "Malachai Nicolle".
Axe Crazy: Yes, everybody and everything in the comic is crazy, but the eponymous character is the only one (so far) who, in addition to being crazy, has an ax(e), so...
Even Ethan himself calls Axe Cop "borderline psycho" in the blog.
Mr. Stocker is explicitly described this way, although he never gets to do anything before being bitten by a tiny flying robot.
Badass Print Underwear: Axe Cop wears underwear with a picture of himself chopping the head off of a bad guy. An animated picture, which moves when he does.
Bad Santa: The aptly named villain, Bad Santa, whose abilities include, 'the power of Christmas' and a guitar that hurts peoples' ears. Then Sockarang gets Bad Santa's powers, and becomes "Good Bad Santa."
Batman Gambit: In episode 128, it is revealed that the Siberian Witch Doctor Cats allowed themselves to get anticlimactically killed at the hands of the dogs last episode. They were resurrected as mummies and fatally poisoned Fwinky Dog in the dead of night as he went out on patrol on his own.
Battle Cry: Axe Cop's is "I'M GOING TO CHOP YOUR HEAD OFF!" His fellow team members have their own, as revealed in Ask Axe Cop #30, but they rarely appear.
Berserk Button: If you value your life and the lives of anybody within range, do NOT screw up the candle on Axe Cop's cake.
Someone specifically asked Axe Cop how to tell a good guy from a bad guy. Answers included how high they front-kick (only bad guys kick high) and eye color (good guys have green eyes, bad guys red; if you're part good and part bad, one of each.)
Bowties Are Cool: Chemist M wears one. In that episode's comments, Ethan writes that Malachai agrees with this trope to the point that he wears one in his school photo.
Brick Joke: In episode 3, Axe Cop became Axe Cop With Lemon after eating lemons at work. By episode 5, the concept was dropped unceremoniously. It reappeared fourteen episodes later.
Brown Note: Axe Cop's albums are toxic to villainous ears. In fact, many things are dangerously volatile when brought into contact with bad guys, or cause disguised bad guys to inadvertently reveal that they're bad guys, or are otherwise so foreign to bad guys that being a bad guy with some kind of superpower is really the only way for a villain to get ahead. Life for a vanilla bad guy in Axe Cop's world is kind of a raw deal.
Dr. Doo Doo has his own, which works much like the Trope Namer. "Poooooop!"
Busman's Holiday: Axe Cop spends his holidays sleeping, eating cake, and watching hundreds of recordings of him fighting bad guys to improve his fighting style yet further. Watching hundreds of recordings all at once, that is. The current arc has Axe Cop deciding that the whole month of March is his birthday, so he will be eating cake for the whole month.
Call Back: Many elements introduced in Ask Axe Cop are worked into the main story.
Calling Your Attacks: Most of the team's battle cries are just descriptions of what they plan to do to their enemies.
The Cameo: Probably the two most badass cameos you could think off: Chuck Norris and Batman. Axe Cop defeats Chuck Norris, but even he concedes that Batman is actually someone you want to emulate if you want to become a crime fighter.
Chainsaw Good: Sockarang goes to the weapon store and picks one up before departing to the Evil, Evil, Evil Planet Tinko to do battle with the aliens. Instead of, you know, borrowing one from Dinosaur Soldier, who had just acquired "every weapon" via unicorn horn.
The vampire half-man half-baby half-kid can only be defeated by a golden-bladed chainsaw, so they get Dinosaur Soldier to buy one at the weapon store (on the beach).
Clipped Wing Angel: Dr. Stinkyhead turns out to be this. Uni-Man didn't even have to move to defeat him.
Cloudcuckoolander: Even by the comic's standards, Axe Cop is a little off-kilter. His plan to deal with Dr. McNinja, should he be summoned by bad guys, is to cut the Doc's head off so he can heal himself with "doctor powers" after all the bad guys are dead. Dr. McNinja looks a little concerned by this.
Cool Shades: Both Axe Cop and Whatever-he-is-right-now Cop are always depicted wearing sunglasses. As is Axe Cop's pet T-rex, Ralph Wrinkles after he joins the team, Telescope Gun Cop, and everyone who attends an Axe Cop Learn-Out. Heck, we may as well call this trope Everything's Better With Shades.
Combat Pragmatist: Axe Cop's favorite method of taking down his enemies is by poisoning them in various hilariously devious ways.
Contagious Powers: A bit more literally than the usual trope: powers are downright infectious, being transmittable by biting or getting someone/something's blood/juice splashed on you. Axe Cop actually takes deliberate advantage of this effect in Episode #14.
Apparently, being held by ghost hands gives you teleportation powers.
Cosmic Horror: The Night Monsters in the Halloween Special. They're your basic Lovecraftian horrors lying on the void of space. When a Night Monster catches a baby, it turns it into a Baby Night Monster which then digs into a planet's core to grow into a Full Night Monster. They can also sneak up on people and scare them.
Crazy Prepared: Axe Cop knows the moment he takes office, the bad guys will flee to their Bad Guy Planet to avoid getting blown up. That's why he's already replaced the planet's core with bombs.
Axe Cop has a file folder containing maps to the secret hideouts of every villain ever. He keeps the file folder in a filing cabinet at his fruit stand.
This is justified, because Axe Cop seems to NEED this level of preparation to survive. He winds up with 1,050 poisoned candies on Halloween due to tampering from villains, and bad guys manage to sneak into his house to try and kill him during the two minutes he sleeps each night.
Creator Cameo: The security guard who loves stunts so much he will pay to watch them for hours is intended to be Ethan, according to Word Of God in the episode's comments box.
A later story arc in Ask Axe Cop features a crossover with The Chronicles of Narnia. Yes, really.
Cunning Linguist: The Moon Brothers speak every human and alien language.
Curb-Stomp Battle: Axe Cop gives one to Chuck Norris, of all people. Then again, the book states that Malachai didn't know Chuck was such a Memetic Badass and had just heard of him as "some guy who knows karate".
Deader than Dead: Axe Cop knows that decapitation might not kill a monster made of sand. The solution? Decapitate the sand monster, then blow up the body.
Death by Origin Story: Axe Cop and Flute Cop's parents inAxe Cop #0 (which is actually the fifth installment of the series).
Also Lobster Man's parents in Axe Cop #29.
Death Is Cheap: The unicorn horns can revive anyone no matter how they died, even bringing back 1000 lives with one wish while also creating two billion more
Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: After everyone on Uni-Smart World grew their horns, Uni-Man grew bored of the monotony and went to Earth with Uni-Baby to be superheroes. The end of episode 19 suggests he got what he wanted.
Detect Evil: Lobster Man's antennae do this. Not to be outdone, Axe Cop rubbed a nearby lobster's blood on his forehead and gained its antennae as well as this ability.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Super Uni-Man manages to strike Satan with one of his horns during his Storm of Blades, along with Satan's aircraft and soldiers. So much for God throwing him into the Lake of Fire.
Die Hard on an X: In the book, Ethan describes the Baby Man subplot in the Ultimate Battle arc as "Die Hard in a baby suit".
Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Wexter has the power to fly and breathe fire, despite being a Tyrannosaurus. Axe Cop later enlists the services of a witch to transform his dinosaur into a dragon with rocket wings.
Downer Ending: In an inversion of the already unique premise of the comic, Malachai got an art kit for Christmas and was asked to draw a comic that Ethan wrote. Unfortunately, he doesn't like to draw, so the resulting comic was hastily wrapped up for the worse. Word Of God claims that this ending is canon, so it remains to be seen how it will be undone.
Dramatic Unmask: In episode 16, an Unsound Effect accompanies evil Sockarang as he reveals himself as Dr. Stinky Head. Later, a fake Dr. Stinky Head unmasks to reveal himself as the good Sockarang.
Dream Team: An MTV.com review said it best: "It's the comic every kid wishes they could draw and every adult wishes they could write."
Dumb Is Good: Invoked somewhat literally in the conclusion of Bat Warthog Man Can't Find His Friend: The dinosaurs Axe Cop summoned eat the evil brain cells of the Bad Guy King, which happens to be almost all of them. The King is a drooling, barely functional giant afterward, but at least he's good.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: The Moon Warriors are slain by the God of All Bears in the Malachai-drawn episode.
Earth-Shattering Kaboom: How Axe Cop plans to destroy the bad guys who take refuge on another planet after he takes office.
Eats Babies: When Axe Cop was a baby, he ate babies.
Easy Amnesia: Axe Cop and Flute Cop used to be brothers, but suddenly forgot everything (including their relation) when they walked backwards into each others' heads.
Eleventy Zillion: The number a jillion comes up quite often. All we know is that it is over 4000. There's also "tyranotillion", the so-called highest number in the universe, and "quadzillion", which is even higher.
Everything's Better with Dinosaurs: And dinosaurs are better with guns. Axe Cop has a pet T-Rex with chain guns for arms and for some time Flute Cop becomes Dinosaur Soldier.
Also, Flute Cop, Telescope Cop, Dinosaur Soldier, Viking Cop, Fire Slicer, Vampire Wolfer, Ghost Cop, The Best Fairy Ever, Axe Cop With Lemon, Avocado Soldier, etc.
The Book of Killing Stinky People. Subverted in that its contents don't contain the key to killing stinky people, it has to be literally launched at such a person to kill them.
Gambit Roulette: King Evilfastozon throws Uni-Baby at the Earth, certain that the Earthlings will fight her. Wait, What?
Face Heel Turn: Sockarang in episode 13. In episode 16, he was revealed as Dr. Stinky Head, who Axe Cop knew as Stinko from fighting school in Ask Axe Cop #4. This also happens to the Wrestler in Ask Axe Cop #64.
Face Palm: Baby-Man's reaction when someone goes to answer the telephone that Eggy Eggy pooped out.
Face of a Thug: The good mermaids have evil-looking faces. This oversight costs one of them her head when Axe Cop happens by their gathering. Fortunately, she gets better.
Fan Disillusionment: When Ethan Nicholle tweeted a picture of a wild-eyed terrorist caricture of the Prophet Mohammed on the official Axe Cop twitter account, fan outcry led to him apologizing for using Axe Cop as a soapbox, but not for the picture. On his personal twitter account he said "It's fascinating to see fans of Axe Cop stop reading when they find out I don't walk in lockstep with their way of thinking.".
Gatling Good: Which is why Axe Cop grafted a pair to his pet T-rex's arms.
Gender Bender: After every bad guy on the Earth is killed, Axe Cop says that he will do this to someone to make the lucky man his wife and have children with him. He actually did it twice; the first was to Sockarang after a kajillion years of killing villains, while the second was to Abraham Lincoln after Abe used the powers of God to place a bomb in every bad guy's body.
Genius Bruiser: Super Uni-Man. He even built a secret lab on Earth after destroying Dr. Stinkyhead's lab.
The Ghost: The Secret Agent Brothers' first mission is to kill Dr. Amino, who conspired to destroy the earth with a giant cannon mounted in space. However, he is killed off-screen in mission two by the brothers' clones, along with the many other bosses who were planning to do the same.
Halfway Plot Switch: Partway into Axe Cop Babysits Uni-Baby, Axe Cop and Dinosaur Soldier lock her in the closet and head to Magic World to become magicians.
Hand Wave: Ethan noted that he keeps forgetting to draw Axe Cop's lobster antennae. According to Axe Cop, they're retractable. Also a Sure, Why Not?, as fans had suggested that solution.
Heart Is an Awesome Power: You'd think having boomerang-socks instead of arms would be a detriment to any crime-fighting you'd want to do, but Sockarang makes lethal use of them. He occasionally supplements them with a chainsaw, however.
Heel Face Turn: One episode after Sockarang's Face Heel Turn is revealed, he immediately goes back to the good guys.
Heroic BSOD: In Ask Axe Cop #15, when our hero chops the head off a mermaid who looked evil, but was in fact making what was (for a mermaid) a happy face.
Axe Cop: I... I killed a good guy... (cue Manly Tears)
Heroic Sociopath: Axe Cop and his friends are completely insane, but they're definitely the good guys.
Hero Killer: The God of All Bears, and arguably Chicken Head.
Horny Vikings: One episode has Axe Cop and Dinosaur Soldier prank a bunch of vikings by chopping their heads off. Naturally, Dinosaur Soldier gets some of their blood on him and becomes Viking Cop, complete with pointy helmet.
How The Character Stole Christmas: In the Christmas Special, Axe Cop goes up against an entire alien race of Grinch expies. Needless to say, he has an... unconventional way of dealing with them.
Hyperactive Metabolism: Axe Cop eats nothing but cake and wish food, but he's always incredibly fit and ready to fight crime. Then again, it might be subverted: he only sleeps two minutes a day, and spends the other 23 hours and 58 minutes fighting crime. He must burn calories like Guy Montag burns books.
Idiot Ball: When Uni-Man demands Dr. Stinky Head to return his horn, Axe Cop saws the three horns off Dr. Stinky Head's forehead with the gold-bladed chainsaw instead of doing what he does best.
Ethan suggests that cutting someone's head off disables any unicorn horns on it.
I Got a Rock: At once point the team visits Uni-Man for new weapons. Ghost Cop gets a gun that shoots tornadoes and unicorns. Sockarang gets a gun that shoots anything you want, such as armour, onto you. Axe Cop gets a plunger. Later subverted; the plunger was Chekhov's Gun.
I Know Mortal Kombat: Axe Cop endorses crimefighting as the ideal profession. He suggests studying Batman films to this end, but also suggests that you could go one further and study Batman's techniques firsthand.
Impossibly Cool Weapon: Possession of one is apparently a requirement to join his team. Fire Slicer has his fire sword/stick, and now Ghost Cop has a unicorn/bullet tornado gun.
In Working Order: Psydrozon becomes the property of Axe Cop and Dinosaur Soldier after they decapitate it and kill its pilot.
After defeating King Evilfatsozon, he exploded into Ludicrous Gibs. One of those gibs was his skeleton, which was a stick. Which Axe Cop sharpened into a spear. Now he can stab people.
Incendiary Exponent: Axe Cop becomes Axe Cop Fire when set ablaze by Wexter's fire breath. So does everyone else on his team.
Involuntary Transformation: So far, Flute Cop has been transformed into Dinosaur Soldier, Avocado Soldier, Uni-Avocado Soldier, Dinosaur Soldier (again), back to Flute Cop, then Ghost Cop. As of the current storyline, he is now Drag-Tri-Ghostacops Rex He actually takes it rather well, as each form has its own special powers.
This all makes a lot more sense when you learn that Malachai is a big fan of Ben 10.
Jedi Mind Trick: Evil Sockarang used his third unicorn horn to fool the Uni-Family into believing he is good.
Jerkass: Axe Cop is mean to many people, even his own brother.
Lethal Joke Item: Don't try using them all at once. Stupid Rhino Head found this out the hard way.
Also: his plunger.
Jumped at the Call: The Cop became Axe Cop when he passed by "the perfect fireman axe." Until episode 0 (written after episode 4), this was the full extent of his backstory.
Kamehamehadoken: Fire Slicer can throw fireballs in this fashion.
Kill It With Fire: Chuck Norris in Ask Axe Cop #12, and Fire Slicer's magic move Fire Dumptruck, which involves scooping bad guys into a truck full of fire.
LEGO Genetics: Taken to the point that it's more like Scratch 'n' Sniff Genetics. All you need to turn into a different creature is to be exposed to their blood or something.
Let's Meet The Meat: Every Thanksgiving, Uni-Man wishes for a magical forest filled with animals that allow themselves to be killed for food.
Light Is Not Good: Ask Axe Cop #20 shows Axe Cop requesting The King of All Time for help in fighting an evil angel, though such a battle has yet to occur.
Literal-Minded: Axe Cop's "axe" (in a rock band he fronts) is , well, his axe.
Literal Genie: Sockarang uses a unicorn horn to wish for every weapon—and then asks Axe Cop to fetch a chainsaw. This only works once you remember that chainsaws are meant as tools.
Magical Database: Axe Cop has a file cabinet that contains "maps to bad guy labs." They used it only once, in chapter 3 to track down Telescope Gun Cop who was experimenting on apples, and then on every other bad guy to retrieve the fruit that was stolen in the meantime.
According to this strip, Axe Cop is the smartest man in the world. So he's the smartest Earthling.
There's also the case of the Snoward Family, for whom Avocado Soldier crafts a Snow Planet to house their 2,000,001,001 children.
Mega Manning: Sockarang gains "the power of Christmas" after getting Bad Santa blood on him.
Heck, acquiring the special abilities and/or form of something after being bitten/splashed by its blood or juice is one of the major reoccurring themes.
Monster Clown: After pranking (read: killing in humourous ways) everybody, Axe Cop throws a party at his house and invites over all the clowns...then poisons them, because they're all robbers.
Moral Dissonance: Axe Cop makes a living out of fighting bad guys, but has no issues with breaking into and robbing candy shops on Halloween, or murdering tons of people when he doesn't have a VERY specific candle on his cakes.
Multiple Choice Past: Since Axe Cop is written by a 6-year old, there will obviously be some inconsistencies in Axe Cop's backstory. In Episode 0, Axe Cop apparently became a cop to avenge his parents' death from overeating candy canes... (or so he thought.) However, Ask Axe Cop #21 says that Axe Cop was inspired to be a police officer after he killed a bad guy with a poisonous apple and realized he could kill bad guys all day and night, and yet another origin story involves chopping the head off a rabbit "who had been breaking all the rabbit rules". All the other rabbits hailed young Axey as a hero, inspiring him to give up his heretofore-unmentioned dream of being a fireman to take up a career as a police officer instead.
My Brain Is Big: A variation, where instead of intelligence making your head bigger, enough of it makes you spontaneously grow a unicorn horn. Somehow, this applies to entire planets.
Becoming sufficiently smart above and beyond the level of "unicorn horn" apparently causes you to sprout more horns, unless you consciously scale it back with the horns' wishing power.
Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly: Axe Cop's band features the traditional rock and roll rig with, among other things, a flute and violin.
New Powers as the Plot Demands: Well, not so much "demand" as "politely suggest", but new powers come and go to match the current threat regardless, and, more often than not, they're explained in-universe.
Most powers are explained by some means, such as transformations brought on by blood. Those that appear from nowhere are usually followed by Axe Cop saying 'That was a secret attack', and don't appear again.
90% of Your Brain : Uni-Man's horn sprouted shortly after his brain "grew all the way."
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The amalgamations of cool/crazy stuff in this comic have to be seen to be believed.
Episode 2 introduced Vampire Wizard Ninja Brothers on the Moon. One of which is a werewolf. On the moon.
As of episode 14, they are now Shark/Swordfish/Crab Vampire Wizard Ninjas from the Moon.
As of chapter 3, the villainess Hasta Mia is a Zombie Dog Woman.
And the man once known as Flute Cop tops them all by becoming Drag-Tri-Ghostacops Rex.
Jack and John hunt jetpack-wielding zombie vampires.
Axe Cop goes out for Halloween dressed as a wolvye, half vampire and half werewolf.
No Name Given: Book Cop's wife. Since she was mute, even she didn't know her own name.
No Ontological Inertia: The machine on Zombie World causes every human on it to turn into a zombie. When Axe Cop destroys the Big Red Button on it, everyone on Zombie World is instantly freed of their shackles and changed back into the superheroes they used to be.
Nobody Poops: Literally. Nobody on Poop Get Rid Of World has bowel movements. In fact, they can only eat Poopnevermaker food.
Noodle Implements: "Right now, we need to get some helicopters, dinosaurs... and a chemist."
Not Quite Dead: Dr. Stinky Head is revealed to have had a force field that was destroyed in the battle with Uni-Man. He returns slightly stronger (but no more intelligent) in Stolen Pizza, Stolen Lives.
Or rather, a Many-Horned Something Or Other: Uni-Man in Episode 19.
In Stolen Pizza, Stolen Lives, Dr. Stinkyhead becomes stronger and Axe Cop and Dr. McNinja struggle to defeat his second form.
Only the Pure of Heart: Bad guys who attempt to ride Wexter are impaled by his hidden spikes. And bad guys who listen to the songs made by Axe Cop's band die.
Our Mermaids Are Different: Ask Axe Cop #15: All of them are good guys, but their reversed emotional cues end up leading to tragedy.
In Ask Axe Cop #20, The King of All Time is the king of the mermaids. He grows legs when he walks on land and has invisible weapons capable of stabbing a jillion mooks at once.
Our Unicorns Are Different: And they don't get much more different than Uni-Man and Uni-Baby. Or Uni-Avocado Soldier.
Overly Narrow Superlative: The Moon Warriors are described as the best fighters on the moon, despite being the only fighters on the moon.
Parental Abandonment: A recurring theme, justified because frankly, isn't that the biggest fear any 5-year-old has, no matter how stable their family is?
Perfect Poison: Many of Axe Cop's secret attacks seen in Ask Axe Cop involve poison.
Planet of Hats: Uni-Smart World, Zombie World (which later becomes a planet of superheroes), Poop World, and Poop Get Rid Of World.
Playing with Fire: Axe Cop and his team gain the power to breathe fire if they're set on fire themselves.
Power Creep, Power Seep: When Axe Cop started out, his only ally was a cop with a flute. Now that he's teamed up with vampire ninja wizards and characters who can grant wishes, the only reason he manages to remain relevant is his superior analytical skills.
Power Incontinence: One of the Ask Axe Cop strips show a superhero named Electric Man, who can create lightning and earthquakes but ends up firing off whenever he trips, which happens a lot because his face mask makes it hard to see.
The Power of Friendship: Perhaps owing to five-year-old ideals, no one, not even Axe Cop, fights alone.
Many of the Ask Axe Cop strips show that Axe Cop is much more interested in seeking out partners than bettering his own powers. About half of them show him looking for particularly powerful individuals to join his team. Whenever he chooses to take out enemies on his own, it's always through a passive method, such as offing the enemy in their sleep or using poison.
Power-Up Food: Fruits seem to work this way in the Axe Cop universe, although it isn't consistent: when Dinosaur Soldier eats an avocado, he becomes "Avocado Soldier" and transforms into a giant avocado that can shoot explosive avocados; Axe Cop eats a lemon and turns into "Axe Cop With Lemon" — basically himself with a lemon wedge on his axe and the power to throw lemon grendades; and when Telescope Gun Cop and Uni-Baby eat apples, their hands turn into apples that can shoot apples. Yeah.
Real Men Love Jesus: Axe Cop, badass as he is, prays to God every night. Ask Axe Cop #17 shows his pleas to God to make sharks good so he can recruit them. And to throw Satan into the Lake of Fire.
Jack and John are hardened vampire zombie hunters, but they're not afraid to telephone God for help frequently. God, in turn, asks for their help as well.
Repetitive Name: Lots of characters, especially in the "Ultimate Battle" arc: Candy Candy, Eggy Eggy, Fishy Fish, and so on.
Retcon: Ask Axe Cop #5 explains that Axe Cop simply walked into a police station with his axe and filled out a form to become the cop. This contradicts episode 1, where he found the axe after becoming a policeman. This leaves us with a question: Was his first axe merely average?
Robotic Reveal: Turns out the Evil Flying Book is a robot!
Book Cop accidentally roasted his parents as a baby with his fire powers.
Sequel Escalation: The Beginning consisted of four random incidents before Axe Cop became a proper webcomic series. Together with the evil, Evil, EVIL Planet Tinko! story, most of the main characters were established over 9 episodes. Chapter three, the Moon Warriors saga, ran for 14 episodes. The fourth chapter, appropriately named The Ultimate Battle, integrated many Ask Axe Cop characters into the main story and lasted a whopping 48 episodes. The current saga, Bat Warthog Man Can't Find His Friend, is currently 27 episodes long with no signs of slowing down.
Severely Specialized Store: A recurring gag. Need an awesome ramp to drive to the moon? Go to the awesome ramp store. Unicorn horn? Can be found at the unicorn horn store.
Shaggy Dog Story: Ask Axe Cop #19 has Axe Cop taking a visit to the Fighting Zoo to test what kind of robot is best suited for fighting elephants, only to discover that he visited the wrong zoo.
Shaped Like Itself: Everyone in Baby Man's family wears a baby suit. Even the actual baby.
Shapeshifter Default Form: Interestingly, for the character that started out as Flute Cop, his default form seems to be not Flute Cop himself but his first transformation, Dinosaur Soldier. This is pretty much always the form he appears in when he features in "Ask Axe Cop", no matter what form the character now has in the main narrative.
Shout Out: The Evil Flying Book, when revealed to be a robot, shows the well-known half-ripped Terminator face.
Sniper Pistol: Axe Cop overcomes the limited range of his shotgun by giving it an extending barrel, so he can shoot bad guys point blank in the head with a 12 gauge shotgun from sniping range.
Spiritual Successor: The Axe Cop Presents episodes, side stories of sorts formed of ideas from Malachai when he didn't want to play Axe Cop. They have no relation to the main comic, but they share some of the same themes and are no less crazy. Also notable in that they're being developed parallel to the series they succeed, rather than after.
Splash Of Colour: The Night Monster arc includes some orange in addition to the usual black-and-white to illustrate it being the Halloween Episode. The Christmas Episode uses red and green, and gold weapons are always coloured appropriately.
Stable Time Loop: The cause of Axe Cop and Flute Cop's start towards the cops we all know and love today.
Story Breaker Power: Uni-Baby's horn generally resolves any story it is used in instantly, usually in one panel. Played with since unicorn horns are transferable, and are used by multiple characters, not all heroes.
Stuff Blowing Up: Axe Cop and Ghost Cop are fond of using explosives for their secret attacks.
Summon Everyman Hero: Uni-Man attempts this and gets Mr. Stocker, a superhero without any powers.
Sunglasses at Night: Everyone with the word "Cop" in their name, as well as Ralph Wrinkles and Wexter.
Superpower Lottery: Powers that appear in the story include possession of an axe, boomerang socks, being an avocado that can shoot avocados out of its hands... and Uni-Baby's horn, which can grant any wish, travel through time, or bring 1000 people back to life in an instant. Plus 2000 million more. And create a planet for them to live on.
Sure, Why Not?: Ask Axe Cop is all about taking any suggestion-veiled-as-a-question from fans and running wild with it.
They Fight Crime: He's a cop with an axe. He's a cop with a flute/a dinosaur soldier/an avocado soldier with a magic unicorn horn/a ghost/a dragontriceratopstyrannosaurusrexghost. They fight crime.
Tonight Someone Dies: Young Malachai was encouraged to include a death on the good guys' side early on in the comic. The result? One of the heroes wishes for more help, and gets a guy named Mr. Stocker, "a hero with no powers" who immediately gets attacked by a tiny robot and turned into one himself, thus removing him from the comic permanently as soon as he appeared.
Took a Level in Badass: Ralph Winkles goes from singing nursery rhymes to high-kicking bad guys in the face thanks to Uni-Man's magic.
Uni-Man himself turned from a mousy superhero wannabe into a hulking Genius Bruiser using his own magic.
Touched by Vorlons: Bat Warthog Man gained his powers when he was attacked by the bat warthog. He later keeps it in his home and touches it to gain energy to fight crime.
Trademark Favourite Food: On vacation, Axe Cop loves birthday cake with a candle shaped like him on top.
His late parents ate only candy canes and food babies.
Triple Shifter: Axe Cop's job isn't day shift or night shift. It's always shift.
Unsettling Gender Reveal: Axe Cop was completely unaware that Abraham Lincoln was a man. Later subverted: He uses a unicorn horn to change Lincoln's gender.
Unusual Euphemism: Flatulence is always described as "gassing" (for example, Baby Man's Fartillery power is described as being able to "fly when he gasses"). The reason being is that Ethan and Malachai's father grew up in a time where the word "fart" was considered offensive, and raised his children accordingly.
Viewer-Friendly Interface: When Jack and John searches the internet for where the zombies are hiding, the answer is "ZOMBIES ARE IN THE SECRET STATE" over a map of the United States.
The Virus: Basically everything acts as The Virus if its blood gets on someone. The tiny robots are a more specific example: if they bite you, you turn into a tiny robot. But if you bite them, they turn good.
Leaf Man's leaf powers are another example (though they probably helped a lot in getting a job at the circus).
Also, Sleep Man, by implication. Though his powers are unknown, how good could they possibly be when they seem to lead directly to him having to shoot himself to avoid his suit turning evil?
Also when he and Uni-Avocado Soldier torture and kill an elephant just to try out their Psydrozon suit.
Wide-Eyed Idealist: Despite what the comic's content suggests, Malachai is the best example the comic has.
Ethan: He's such a bright-eyed, happy and friendly and warm kid. He wants to make people happy. He wants to be a friend. It's just the kind of guy he is. He's been loved a lot. We all love him. He's the kid, like when you go to a softball game, he's the one kid in the outfield spinning on his head and doing little flips. He's got super energy and he's always trying to make people laugh and he's hilarious.
Word of Dante: The entire comic can be considered this, as the artwork is Ethan's interpretation of Malachai's universe.
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