Axe Cop is a cop with an axe. In this book he’s President of the World. And that’s all the summary I’m going to attempt with this comic. The main thing you need to know is that it’s written by Malachai Nicolle, an 8 year old, and drawn by Ethan Nicolle, his 32 year old brother (those were their ages at the time of this volume’s publication).
It’s novel having an 8 year old write a comic, then professionally illustrate it with Dark Horse publishing it. I like the idea of Axe Cop. Reading it though? Not so much. Here’s why I didn’t try to summarise the story - this is basically what happens in the first few pages alone:
Axe Cop becomes President of the World and he makes Axeville the capital city of the world and then he builds a gold house to live in and then his giant pencil that draws things that comes to life draws some things that come to life and then Axe Cop fights a goo monster and then they become friends and then they flew into space to the gorilla planet where they fought a war and one gorilla had guns for knuckles and they became friends and the gorilla’s robot tail pooped out a volcano.
Yeah, THAT old chestnut. How many times are we gonna see this same storyline play out?!
I’m gonna sound like a grumpy gus but this kinda thing is cute for a little while and then extremely annoying for a very long while. It feels redundant to critique this because of his age but I'll do it anyway. Boo me, I know (twirls moustache, adjusts black cape and top hat).
Too much happens too quickly for no reason. There’s nothing to care about in this comic because nothing matters. Someone dies - they’re back in the next panel. The planet’s invaded by a million bad guys and then it’s not. It’s exactly the kind of thing an 8 year old would write and it’s why most 8 year olds are not published authors.
Ethan Nicolle’s art is great and I agree that it’s important to retain and celebrate a vivid imagination and love of wonder but reading something as random and bizarre as Axe Cop was just too exhausting for me. It's easily the longest 80 page comic I've read. It’s too whacky and zany for its own good and it needs to go play outside while I lie down for just a minute.
On the plus side, Malachai Nicolle’s already a more sophisticated writer than half the guys writing at Marvel and DC!
Axe Cop, Volume 4: President of the World
The first volume is fabulous, but something changes in volume 2. It's hard to put your finger on why the first volume is successful and the other's aren't, but I think it's because the first volume is a sincere attempt by the author (who was then six years old) to make a "good" story. I think after that he seems to be just going through the motions, or perhaps even starts to realize the silliness of it and therefore tries to be silly instead of genuine. If you haven't read the first volume, it's worth it.
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