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"One day, at the scene of a fire, the cop found the perfect fireman axe. That was the day he became Axe Cop."
Opening narration, "Episode 1"

Axe Cop is a Webcomic about a police officer who uses his weapon 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 an initially 5-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 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.

An animated TV series starring the voice of Nick Offerman as Axe Cop aired from July 21, 2013 to June 25, 2015.

An Axe Cop RPG developed by Red Triangle Games was released 26 Nov, 2020.


This webcomic provides examples of:

  • 90% of Your Brain: Uni-Man's horn sprouted shortly after his brain "grew all the way."
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Added Alliterative Appeal: The Evil Baby Bobblehead Battle at Big Beach Castle.
  • Adipose Rex: King Evilfatsozon. Suffice to say, he's well-named.
  • All There in the Manual: Ask Axe Cop.
  • Alt Text: Since episode #84, though all such comments up to #177 were lost in a server crash.
  • And That's Terrible: Turned up in a guest strip: "All he did all day was eat planets. It wasn't nice."
  • 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.
  • 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, crab blood, and bald eagle 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 Shift: The entire "Revenge On Rainbow Girl" chapter is drawn in a different style than anything else. This is, however, justified, since "Revenge On Rainbow Girl" features a different artist and two other writers than the earlier chapters. Ethan Nicolle only acted as editor for that chapter.
  • 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. The plot Ethan comes up with is reminiscent of his other series Bearmageddon.
  • 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 Leads to Leadership: Axe Cop tells Lobsterman that he is the leader of his team because he is the best fighter.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever:
    • Eggy Eggy turned from an unassuming Sheldon expy to a city-sized egg monster in the course of two episodes.
    • "Jack and John Zombie Vampire Killers 2: The Secret President" ends with Jack pushing the growth button on his wrist several times (as opposed to just once to return to normal size) and becoming a giant that destroys the world.
  • Atrocious Alias: One-shot villain Stupid Rhino Head (also Exactly What It Says on the Tin).
  • 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, the villainous Psychic Brothers in Bad Guy Earth, and the witch doctor cats.
      • 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.
    • Axe Cop's favorite singer is Johnny Cash, who Malachai learned about in Rock Band.
    • Chickens: Thus far we have had chicken-brain robots, an old man named Dave Chicken, Chicken Head, Hell Chicken, Chicky-Chick, Mr. Chicken-Chicken Slice, and the song "Chicken Chicken Chicken Little". "Let's just say chickens are dumb."
  • 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. Although this doesn't seem to be the case in the cartoon, where he is much older.
    • While Axe Cop is clearly channelling Malachai's crazy imagination, he's identified as being Ethan's avatar somehow. (Apparently that's how they originally played it.) He even got married to the character whose appearance was based on the person Ethan got married to, and this was given as the reason.
  • Authority Equals Asskicking: AXE COP 2012. Although, as he points out, it's probably for the best he doesn't. However, in Bad Guy Earth, he becomes President of All Presidents, apparently giving him authority over all other presidents.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Pretty much every weapon and superpower that exists in the series. If it was reality, that is!
  • Ax-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). Even Ethan himself calls Axe Cop "borderline psycho" in the blog.
  • Christmas Special: Featuring the Snoward family in their first appearance since episode 6.
  • 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.
  • Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: (Green is the color of good guys)
  • Combat Pragmatist: Axe Cop's favorite method of taking down his enemies is by poisoning them in various devious ways and killing them in their sleep.
  • Combination Attack: Fire Slicer and Vampire Wolfer's Carmation attack.
  • 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.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Sun picking up gloves are all you need to safely pick up the sun.
  • Cool and Unusual Punishment: Axe Cop recommends taking unruly children to one of his Learn-Outs.
  • Cool Car: The Axe Cop Monster Truck.
  • 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.
  • Cowboy Cop: In the webcomic, there are no By The Book Cops in the Axe Cop universe. Unless you count Book Cop.
    • The print storyline Bad Guy Earth features Axe Cop's team as renegades on the run from the actual police and the U.S. military.
  • Crack Pairing: In-Universe: Axe Cop and Abraham Lincoln. Seriously, it's canon.
  • Crazy-Prepared: Axe Cop seems to NEED this level of preparation to survive. He winds up with 1,040 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.
    • 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.
    • Each time the Bad Guy can be killed with specific item only, one person on Axe Cop's team will have exactly this item. Or will be buying it in the shop right now.
    • 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.
  • 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.
    • Ethan Nicole played Vampire Man Baby Kid in the Motion Comics.
  • Crossover: Dr. McNinja joins Axe Cop's team in "Stolen Pizza, Stolen Lives."
    • A later story arc in Ask Axe Cop features a crossover with The Chronicles of Narnia. Yes, really.
    • And more recently he has teamed up with the Lolbat from PvP.
  • 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".
  • Cyber Cyclops: Psydrozon.
  • Da Chief: Parodied in a guest episode with Axe Chief.
  • Dada Comic: The Ask Axe Cop segments vary wildly in scale and sometimes contradict the main continuity.
  • Dance Battler: Axe Cop can do fighting dance moves, but only to his own music.
  • Darker and Edgier: The first two comics to be written after Malachai turned 6 fall into this. Coincidence?
  • 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 in Axe 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.
  • Defeating the Undefeatable: Axe Cop sets Chuck Norris on fire and chops his head off.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Play a song Axe Cop really hates, he beans you with the speakers.
  • Doesn't Like Guns: Ask Axe Cop #37 might explain why he rarely uses them.
  • Double Agent: Dr. Stinky Head and Sockarang.
  • 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. Later averted here
    • Played for Laughs in "Jack and John Zombie Vampire Killers 2: The Secret President", where Jack goes crazy and presses the "grow" button on his wrist one time too many and destroys the Earth.
  • 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.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: The Moon Warriors are slain by the God of All Bears in the Malachai-drawn episode.
  • 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.
  • Earth-Shattering Kaboom: How Axe Cop plans to destroy the bad guys who take refuge on another planet after he takes office.
  • 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.
  • Eats Babies: When Axe Cop was a baby, he ate babies.
  • Eldritch Abomination: 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.
  • 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.
  • Every Car Is a Pinto: The ones spawned by Candy Candy explode when started. Those who try don't seem to care that they came from the sphincter of a candy monster, because hey, free car!
  • Evil Redhead: The Big Bad of Bad Guy Earth.
  • Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Axe Cop is a cop. With an axe.
    • 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.
    • In Episode 10, a truck full of ninjas shows up. It is labeled TRUCK OF NINJAS.
    • 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.
  • 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 . Subverted when it is revealed a few episodes later that Dr. Stinky Head merely impersonated Socharang - the real deal eventually came to rescue the gang, pulling exact same stunt on Dr. Stinky Head's team by disguising himself as Dr. Stinky Head.
    • This also happens to the Wrestler in Ask Axe Cop #64.
  • Face of a Thug: The good mermaids have evil-looking faces, constantly locked in a malevolent scowl. The mermaids mistakenly believe this expression to be a friendly one, and smiles to be expressions of hate. This oversight costs one of them her head when Axe Cop happens by their gathering. Fortunately, she gets better.
  • Face Palm: Baby-Man's reaction when someone goes to answer the telephone that Eggy Eggy pooped out.
  • Fantastically Indifferent: The reaction of just about every character when bizarre things happen to them.
  • Fartillery: Baby-Man's main power is flight by flatulence.
  • Fastball Special: The Wrestler throws Uni-Man at the Evil Flying Book which is actually a robot. Earlier, Axe Cop throws Uni-Baby at Psydrozon.
  • Felony Misdemeanor: Stealing groceries on Axe Cop's watch is punishable by death by shotgun/fire sword.
  • Final Boss: In spite of this not being a video game, some opponents are conceptualized as bosses as if it were, such as the giant zombie robot in "The Ultimate Battle".
  • Five-Man Band Concert: In the Ask Axe Cop 36th issue, Axe Cop reveals he is part of a band predictably called "The Axe". Ralph Wrinkles on the drums because All Drummers Are Animals, The Big Guy (on account of being a dinosaur) Wexter on the violin, a Chinese wrestler on the flute, a wrestler on a bear on the bass, Sockarang on the lead guitar, and Axe Cop on the... axe. As it turns out, if you flip his axe it turns into a string-less guitar. Oh, and Baby Man as the dancer. They have released two albums with Double, Double Titles: "Axe Axe Axe" and "Boom Booom Wexter's Fiyah Powah".
  • Flaming Sword: A variation; Fire Slicer's sword changes from a magic sword to a burning stick and back while slicing bad guys in half.
  • Food Fight: A magic food fight!
  • Formula-Breaking Episode: Guest episode 6, described by Ethan as "opposite anything an Axe Cop comic would ever, or should ever be."
  • Fourth-Wall Mail Slot: The Ask Axe Cop segments.
  • Friendly Fireproof: An Invoked Trope
  • Funny Foreground Event: In Axe Cop #6, when the animals get their horns. Ouch. Poor bird.
  • Fusion Dance: During the climactic battle of "Axe Cop Gets Married", Hypno-Monkey Boy and Super Bat Boy discover they have "Ultro Power", the ability to combine with family members into one stronger superhero by touching hands.
  • Gambit Roulette: King Evilfastozon throws Uni-Baby at the Earth, certain that the Earthlings will fight her. Wait, what?
  • Gang of Hats: The comic books often make a point of gathering themed gangs or armies from a Planet of Hats to set upon each other. In The American Choppers, Axe Cop is encouraged to form a team of all ax fighters after a new hero helps him defeat a gang of food-themed bandits.
  • 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.
  • Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The giant robot zombie who appears simply because he's "the boss."
  • GIS Syndrome: Jack & John episode 2 uses a photo of the U.S. Capitol instead of a drawing of one.
  • God: If He's not granting someone superpowers, He's fighting Satan.
  • Good Counterpart: Bad Santa and Good Bad Santa.
  • Go-Karting with Bowser: Right after the evil aliens kill a member of Axe Cop's team in President of the World and Axe Cop swears revenge, the good guys and bad guys alike enter a bouncing contest just to win a golden mustache.
  • Good Is Dumb: Justified in the Bad Guy King's case. He turned good when all his bad brain cells got eaten. Unfortunately for him, his brain was almost all evil brain cells.
  • Gory Discretion Chop
  • 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.
  • He-Man Woman Hater: Both Axe Cop and Sockarang. Axe Cop does not allow girls on his team and Sockarang doesn't like girls. An exception is the Best Fairy Ever. This probably has to do with Malachi being six.
  • 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 Comedic 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.
  • Highly-Visible Ninja: Who show up in a truck reading TRUCK OF NINJAS. It turns into a mutant bug.
    • Also Mr. Mutani Esu, a ninja who fights children at Fighting School during recess in a snazzy dress suit, no less.
  • Historical Hero Upgrade: In-Universe: ABRAHAM LINCOLN: EXPLOSION GOD.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: In episode 47, Candy Candy is blown up in one of the cars it spawned.
  • Homoerotic Subtext: In one episode of Ask Axe Cop, Axe Cop gets asked if he'd ever had a kid. He answered that, since he's his best friend, he'd turn Sockarang into a chick and have kids with him/her. This is either absolutely hilarious or the stuff nightmares are made of. He does the same to Abraham Lincoln.
  • 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.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Exaggerated: Sockarang and The Best Fairy Ever. He's working to fix that.
  • Humans Are Warriors: More like all things are warriors, actually. Even music classes seem to involve using your instrument as a weapon.
    • "Hey, look, an alien! LET'S FIGHT IT!"
  • Humble Beginnings: Axe Cop is written by a six year old.
  • 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 armor, 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.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: Axe Cop and his Mom as kids ate babies.
  • 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.
  • Improbable Weapon User:
    • You'd never really expect Flute Copnote  to be able to perform badass moves using his flute, but according to Ask Axe Cop #55, that's exactly what he's trained to do.
    • Axe Cop's ancestor Book Cop, true to his name, fights using weaponized books.
  • Incendiary Exponent: Axe Cop becomes Axe Cop Fire when set ablaze by Wexter's fire breath. So does everyone else on his team.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Axe Cop was born with an immunity to bad guy blood, ensuring that a phlebotinum-induced Face–Heel Turn is impossible for him.
  • Insane Troll Logic: Every. Single. Strip.
  • Inversion: For one comic, Malachai illustrated and Ethan wrote.
  • Involuntary Shapeshifting: Bat Warthog Man only assumes his bat warthog form at night, because that's when bats are awake. In the day, he's normal. As a result, he can only fight crime during the night. That is the law of the Bat and Warthog.
  • 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.
  • 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.
    • In the Axecop/Lolbat crossover, by the second strip, Axey has mistaken Lolbat for a villain, knocked him out, called his superpowers stupid, and come up with a cooler concept for a bat/internet themed hero. Lolbat did not want.
  • Joke Item: Ask Axe Cop #37 shows three guns Axe Cop hated.
    • 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.
  • Kirby Dots: Emitted by the Sun Picking-Up Gloves.
  • Lampshade Hanging
    • When King Evilfatsozon reveals his plan his alien's only response is "Wait, what?".
    • In episode 22, it's revealed that the Moon Warriors always had the potion to turn their parents back to humans. The parents ask them why they didn't just use the potion immediately before seeking vengeance.
    • In episode 53, Good Bad Santa/Sockarang asks Axe Cop where his antennae went. It is Hand Waved as being retractable. Axe Cop was last seen with antennae on episode 45.
  • Lantern Jaw of Justice
  • Large Ham: Axe Cop himself, when delivering his Catchphrase in animated versions. "I WILL CHOP YOUR HEADS OFF!!!!!"
  • Lawyer-Friendly Cameo:
  • 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 Genie: Dinosaur Soldier uses a unicorn horn to wish for every weapon—and then Sockarang has to run to the store to fetch a chainsaw. This only works once you remember that chainsaws are meant as tools (or if Dinosaur Soldier refuses to share).
  • Literal-Minded: Axe Cop's "axe" (in a rock band he fronts) is, well, his axe.
  • Loud of War: Flute Cop's modus operandi according to Ask Axe Cop #30.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Axe Cop and Flute Cop are brothers, but they forgot about it.
  • Made from Real Girl Scouts: The Baby Cheese that Baby Man picks up at Wall Mart in episode 34 is made with real babies.
  • Mana Meter: Axe Cop's Ninja Meter fills when Dr. McNinja transfers some of his ninja powers to him.
  • The Man Behind the Man: In Bad Guy Earth, the Evil Magician Woman.
  • Manly Tears: In Ask Axe Cop #15, Axe Cop grieves after killing a mermaid, who he didn't know are all good guys. A Downer Ending to be sure, written by a child, no less.
    • In a hypothetical scenario, Axe Cop would not be happy to have to kill Uni-Baby if she turned into an evil monster.
  • Master Poisoner: Axe Cop is a rare heroic example.
  • Meaningful Name: Axey and Flutey Smartist grow up to be Axe Cop and Flute Cop, respectively. Also a Non-Indicative Name, however, in that neither of the Smartist children is the smartest character in the comic. That'd be Uni-Man.
    • 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.
  • Meanwhile, Back at the…:
  • Merging Machine: In Bad Guy Earth, Uni-Man provides a "squish machine" to Axe Cop's team so that they can become a many-headed monster to match their rivals.
    • Similarly, in President of the World, the aliens combine a goo kid with a gorilla to create a Goo-rilla, so Axe Cop gets a "combine machine" in order to make one in response.
  • Midair Motion Shot: Axe Cop does this in this Ask Axe Cop strip.
  • Mirror Morality Machine: The Good Guy Machine/Bad Guy Machine. As a Good Guy Machine, it may also invent a new superhero persona for the former bad guy. At least we know the Bad Guy Machine was specifically programmed to add vampire teeth, horns, and bat wings.
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: Drag-Tri-Ghostacops Rex.
    • Bat Warthog Man was shown riding a Bat Warthog T. rex in his grand debut.
  • The Mole: In Bad Guy Earth, Sockarang's mom, who is really the Evil Magician Woman in disguise.
  • 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.
  • Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Dr. Stinky Head and Dr. Doo Doo.
  • More Dakka: "I wish to be Dinosaur Soldier again... and for every weapon!"
  • Most Writers Are Adults: This comic inverts it, as it was written by a child and the adult characters act immature.
  • Mr. Imagination: Malachai, and it shows. To quote the Chop! podcast, "this kid's got so much creativity it hurts."
  • 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.
    • Ask Axe Cop #43 has young Axey chopping the head off a rabbit "who had been breaking all the rabbit rules". All the other rabbits hailed him 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.
    • Ask Axe Cop #74 has him inspired to be an axe fighter by his childhood hero "Uncle Axe", a fictional character on a TV show.
    • Ask Axe Cop #79 has him recruited by police officers after he ran over a bad guy while working as a cab driver, and he later struck out on his own due to finding fighting bad guys with a gun to be boring.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: First grade vocabulary has never been more so.
  • 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.
  • My Death Is Just the Beginning: 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.
  • My Friends... and Zoidberg: The brief, pointless appearances of Mr. Stocker.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Ask Axe Cop'' #15 and #19.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Pretty much everyone who isn't Fluffy the Terrible. Special mention to The King of All Time.
  • 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.
  • 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.
    • Wolver Man is half Wolverine and half Superman.
    • Liborg is a cyborg with a man/lion/cheetah brain.
    • ZOMBIE INDIANS ON SEGWAYS
  • Nobody Poops: Literally. Nobody on Poop Get Rid Of World has bowel movements. In fact, they can only eat Poopnevermaker food.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: Bat Warthog Man's original form greatly resembles Rod Serling.
    • Army Chihuahua's squad partner who was killed by Chicken Head was named Sergeant T. Ethan chose to draw and write him as Mr. T.
  • No Name Given: Book Cop's wife. Since she was mute, even she didn't know her own name.
  • Non-Indicative Name: Flute Cop plays a recorder. Technically, it's a type of flute, but most people only think of the modern transverse flute when hearing the term.
    • The "Funny Episode," where Axe Cop and Dinosaur Soldier are exceptionally cruel.
  • Noodle Implements: "Right now, we need to get some helicopters, dinosaurs... and a chemist."
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Offhand Backhand: An advised awesome move to present to Axe Cop if you wish to join his team.
  • Off with His Head!: "I'M GOING TO CHOP YOUR HEAD OFF!!" True to his Catchphrase, Axe Cop does indeed decapitate innumerable bad guys. Also inverted: In one guest comic, he remarks that sometimes he chops off the whole body, leaving the head.
  • Omniglot: The moon warriors know every human and alien language
  • Omniscient 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.
  • One-Man Army: Book Cop won the Revolutionary War all by himself, in contrast to Axe Cop's ideals of The Power of Friendship.
  • One-Winged Angel
    • 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.
    • Incidentally, reversed emotional cues are actually a traditional trait of mermaids and sea fairies. Accidentally-Correct Writing or a grade-schooler having Shown Their Work? You decide!
    • 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.
  • Our Vampires Are Different: The vampire that changed the Ninja Brothers is a "sun vampire."
  • Our Werewolves Are Different: Wolfer. Have you ever heard of a werewolf who lives on the moon?
  • Our Zombies Are Different: Humans can turn into zombies either through infection or just by being rotten to the core. Some of them can talk.
  • Out of Focus: Bat Warthog Man Can't Find His Friend features none of the major characters in previous storylines save for Axe Cop himself.
    • The first half of The Dogs barely features Axe Cop at all, as he is celebrating his birthday for a month by eating cake and sleeping while the dogs have their own adventure.
  • Outrun the Fireball: Done at least once every other page.
  • Overly Narrow Superlative: The Moon Warriors are described as the best fighters on the moon, despite being the only fighters on the moon.
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: One Ask Axe Cop has his him talk about his secret identities. One of them being disguising himself as a baby, yes a six foot tall axe-wielding baby.
  • 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.
  • Perspective Flip: Zombie Fishy Fish's favorite video game is Zombies vs. Plants, as rendered by the author of the original game himself.
  • Physical God: Abraham Lincoln.
  • 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.
  • Poison Is Evil: Inverted, as using poison to take out bad guys is a favourite tactic of Axe Cop, who calls it his "secret attack." Axe Cop seems to have a poison for every villain he comes across, with some bizarre method to get it into them. The artist notes this trope in his commentary, saying that most people associate poison with treachery and villains, but the author, his six-year old brother, thinks poison is simply a quick, easy, and pragmatic way to take out bad guys.
  • Power Copying: 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.
  • 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.
  • Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: "Happy Die Day, redcoats!"
  • Precision-Guided Boomerang: Sockarang has socks instead of arms which can be detached and used in this manner.
  • Product Placement: The Nintendo DS and LEGO Star Wars in Ask Axe Cop #29.
    • If Axe Cop ever manages to kill every bad guy and retires, he wants to spend his time playing everyone in the world (and winning) on the Nintendo Wii.
    • In "Stolen Pizza, Stolen Lives" Axe Cop fires Axe Cop The Book at Dr. Stinky Head. It's right on spec with Malachai's plans for it.
    • Jack and John depend on Google for the logistics of their zombie-hunting mission.
    • Dr. Googleman and Dr. Yahoo fight each other using search engine dwarves.
    • Was eventually subverted:
      Axe Cop is not endorsed by Red Bull. Malachai is just convinced that Red Bull is an actual potion that makes you run super fast.
  • Projectile Platforms: The awesome blade gun depicted here.
  • Properly Paranoid: Axe Cop. Even when he only sleeps for two minutes, he wakes up to find bad guys breaking into his house.
  • Pstandard Psychic Pstance: Axe Cop uses his mind attacks with this stance.
  • The Psycho Rangers: The Bad Guy Axe Cop Team from Bad Guy Earth.
  • Pure Is Not Good: The Psychic Brothers in Bad Guy Earth. They're so evil that they have to go through the Good Guy Machine twice to become good guys.
  • Rabid Cop: Strictly Played for Laughs of course, but Axe Cop and his team have no compunction about outright killing everybody who's known to be a Bad Guy.
  • Reality Warper: Anybody with a Unicorn Horn essentially is one. The more unicorn horns you have, the more powerful you are. You can wish for more unicorn horns.
  • Real Life Writes the Plot: Well, it's his editor, at least.
  • 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.
  • Real Trailer, Fake Movie: One can dream.
  • 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!
    • If he had three wishes, Axe Cop would make this one of his wishes.
  • Rule 63: Happens in canon with the introduction of Axe Girl in ep. 160.
  • Scifi Writers Have No Sense Of Scale: Unintentionally exaggerated; not only is every planet within easy flying distance, but Axe Cop can fill a whole planet with bombs or visit everyone in the world during one night. Oh, and the sun can be moved with sun-picking gloves. Basically, a "jillion" or five of whatever thing or unit, it doesn't make much difference in this universe.
  • Self-Made Orphan: 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.
  • 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.
    • The entire Moon Warriors arc is this. After the Moon Warriors find their family turned into bats, they travel to Earth, team up with Axe Cop, achieve a bunch of random superpowers, fight the villain and save Earth, one of the Moon Warriors reveals that he had a potion that could turn their family back to normal. The family lampshades this by asking why they couldn't just use the potion on them before going out for vengeance, instead of letting them wait 20 years!
  • 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.
    • He has been sighted as Flute Cop more and more lately however, as if to coincide with the birth of the animated series where his default form is Flute Cop.
  • Shout-Out: The Evil Flying Book, when revealed to be a robot, shows the well-known half-ripped Terminator face.
  • Significant Reference Date: Episode 121 gives Axe Cop the birthdate March 6th, the same as Malachai's, although in Ask Axe Cop #38 his birth certificate appears to say December 23, the date of the creation of the comic. Ethan sneaked his own birthdate into Ask Axe Cop #91.
  • Single-Biome Planet: The Snow Planet.
  • Single-Target Sexuality: Possibly Sockarang, since he's in love with the Best Fairy Ever despite hating girls.
  • 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.
  • Spinoff Babies: The concept is mocked, along with the Executive Meddling that would birth it and subsequently ruin it, in guest episode #30.
  • 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 Color: 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.
  • Steven Ulysses Perhero: Axe Cop and Flute Cop were born Axey and Flutey Smartist.
  • Storm of Blades: With unicorn horns.
  • 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.
    • Baby Man can produce explosive eggs, cars, and telephones. And during his family's hunt in which he gains such powers, it's explosion after explosion, chasing around the city.
  • 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.
  • Superdickery: The Night Monster uses an Axe Cop costume to kidnap babies.
  • 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.
  • Surreal Humor
  • Talking Poo: Dr. Doo Doo, who wears a monocle for some reason (presumably Rule of Cool).
  • Terraforming
  • There Can Be Only One: Enforced for some reason.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Ask Axe Cop #18 shows Axe Cop's Axe & Gun technique:
    1. Chop head off.
    2. Kick it.
    3. Shoot it.
  • Time Travel: Used to cause the Death by Origin Story above.
  • Title Drop: "It's time to have The Ultimate Battle!", so says Axe Cop in the Episode's climax.
  • Title Theme Tune: Official videos from the early years of the comic would feature a song by the band Stepdad that ends with a choral repetition of "Axe Cop!"
  • To Be a Master: Axe Cop went to Jumping School over and over until he took the world record for jump height, displacing his own teacher for the title.
  • Toilet Humour: It's written by a six-year-old, so it's only natural that poop factors into the plot at times.
  • 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 as soon as he appeared (though not permanently).
  • 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.
  • Too Many Babies: The Beautiful Girly Bobs, identical decaplet superheroes that are all denied service in Axe Cop's team.
  • 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 Favorite 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.
  • Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Malachai's writing, if you think about it. There's an awful lot of head-chopping going on in this story written by a five-year-old, with occasional baby-eating and hypnosis-induced slavery. Subverted in that the cause is clearly because he's just too young to realize that such things are inappropriate, and as he gets older his writing clearly indicates an improving grip on morality.
  • 20 Minutes into the Future: Axe Cop was born in 2004. It could be assumed that he could be 6 right now, which would match Malachai's age, but Axe Cop was 10 at some point.
  • Two Lines, No Waiting: Chapter 3 alternates between Axe Cop and his buddies trying to defeat some zombies, and Babyman taking his family hunting.
  • Ultimate Job Security: Axe Cop has no sense of jurisdiction nor any concept of excessive force, yet he still has his badge and handgun.
  • Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Axe Cop (with lobster mental powers), Drag-Tri-Ghostacops Rex, Sockarang(a bum-Santa Claus man with socks for arms that he can shoot as boomerangs), Wexter the Dragon T. rex with Machine Gun Arms and Rocket Wings, Presty the Teleporting Pug, Ralph Wrinkles the Talking Dog that Knows Karate, the Moon Warriors, the Baby Family, Zombie Lobster Man, Zombie Hasta Mia, Zombie Fishy Fish, the Zombie Cop army and an entire army of superheroes vs. Doctor Doo Doo and his fecal army. It's as awesome as it sounds.
    • The first issue of President of the World sets up such a showdown between all the superheroes ever seen and all the evil aliens that could be found. But then the bad guys show up a day late, and almost everyone gives up in disappointment.
  • Underground City: At some point Axe Cop created Secret Town to serve as a safe haven for heroes, with their above-ground homes converted into death traps for their enemies. Ethan recalls Malachai came up with this unexpected addition when the TV writing team was just trying to get basic facts about Axe Cop's hometown.
  • Underwear of Power: Many of the generic heroes that were once zombies. As a superhero himself, Sockarang also seems to sport these.
  • The Unfettered: Hasta Mia can do whatever she wants.
  • Unflinching Walk: The end of episode 21.
  • 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.
  • Unsound Effect
  • Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: 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.
  • 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.
  • Upgrade Artifact: "The perfect fireman axe." How Axe Cop ever got by without it is anyone's guess (discounting the Ask Axe Cop segments).
  • Victory Is Boring: Discussed by Axe Cop himself.
  • 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.
  • Villain by Default: Bad Guys.
  • Villain World: Earth becomes one in Bad Guy Earth.
  • 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.
  • The Voiceless: Baby Man and the entire Baby Family, who seem to communicate purely through writing and gestures. The one exception is when he yells his Battle Cry "Shake what your baby gave ya!"
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Hasta Mia can change forms between German Shepard, human and zombie.
  • Was Once a Man: Army Chihuahua.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Surprises cause Axe Cop to melt. It makes sense given that previous Ask Axe Cops suggest he's Seen It All.
    • His second weakness is even weaker sauce: Cherry Rainbow flavors.
  • Weapons That Suck: He destroys an entire planet with one.
  • We Used to Be Friends: In Tom Martin's comics, Magma Girl and Lightning Boy were Evil Former Friends of Axe Cop.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Actually happens less often than you would expect with a child's attention span.
    • Possibly due to Ethan asking Malachai such questions as he edits the plot.
    • In the Cold Open of episode 2 of the animated series, Adolf Hitler abducts Chemist M and his daughter to force the former to build an army of zombies in a flashback. What happens to Hitler is left unexplained.
  • What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: People who punch themselves in the face and jabbers have no place in Axe Cop's ranks. Ask Axe Cop 85 shows that jabbers are a hazard to those around them; they often accidentally punch passersby in the face just by walking past them.
    • 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?
    • Then there's Mr. Stocker, whose special ability is described as "a superhero without any powers." He gets dispatched within two frames.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Axe Cop killing a mermaid. Followed by a What Have I Done moment and (Manly) Tears of Remorse. (Well, a tear.)
    • Also when he and Uni-Avocado Soldier torture and kill an elephant just to try out their Psydrozon suit.
  • Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: In his comments Ethan notes the notable aversion of this with the Invisible Bad Guy King who actually eats all superheroes as soon as they arrive. It doesn't kill them, though...
  • 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.
  • The Wonderland: The many strange characters and frequent new rules of the series tend to be treated as perfectly normal aspects of the world for comic effect. Some situations threaten to turn things into a full-blown World of Chaos, however.



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