2 out of 5

” ‘Axe Cop’ is comics taken straight back to their source – to a child’s unharnessed imagination.” – so says Patton Oswalt, quoted on the front of this issue.  Also note the “Now a Major Fox TV Show!” banner.  I know, I generally like to give comics at least a couple of issues before making up my mind, but such is the ‘unharnessed imagination’ of latter day Axe Cop (at least when applied to feature-length stories) that I’m afraid I don’t need that buffer.  It’s just more of the same.  And unfortunately, this is no longer the same as AC from Malachai / Ethan ages 5 and 28… inevitably, Malachai has gotten a bit more aware of the vibe, and a certain tone has been established, so it’s got a forced feeling of randomness to it now.  This is no direct fault of either creator, and I fully, fully believe that the kid is still having fun with his brother, creating of his own free will, but even at age 10 (according to the credits), Malachai’s going to be somewhat in on the joke now, and you start to find less “cool” joy in machine gun dinosaurs as you do finding stupid joy in poop jokes… which, focus, Malachai, focus, and ‘create’ bad guys named Banana-banana and Turkey-turkey and the like.  Is their still longevity here?  For sure – the TV team thankfully passed the writing chores onto adults to drum up the Fox show’s Aqua Teen vibe even more, and by ditching the strip’s required latching onto Malachai, the creatives can pursue a more nuanced balance of nonsense that, like so many ‘innocent’ qualities we have as children, is a skill that must be relearned.

If you dug the previous Axe Cop mini, this is right in line, no surprises.  AC forms a team of like-minded choppers, and now there’s a Big Bad to fight.  If, though, like me, you found the last series to feel slightly like a knock-off of itself, then, like me, you’ll probably feel the same about this mini.  Or at least the first issue.

On a more positive note, Ethan’s sense of framing and pacing and composition for the 8.5 ” x 11″ comic page has notably improved, and Dirk Erik Schulz’s colors make this officially look like this was intended for the racks and not a website.  The Axe Cop world looks richer than ever before.  I hope to see Ethan return (a la ‘Chumble Spuzz’) to traditional comics at some point.