Similar to the webcomic, the series features the eponymous police officer, his partner Flute Cop, and their allies Sockarang, Gray Diamond, Liborg, Bat Warthog Man, and Wexter as they fight various "bad guys" and avoid getting into conflict with the Normal Police.
Development
Axe Cop is a popular webcomic that was created by Ethan Nicolle and his young brother Malachai (five years old at the time of its creation). In playing with Malachai, Ethan found that his brother had a vivid and disjointed imagination, and developed the comic by taking the stories that Malachai told, refining the story to some point without losing Malachai's inventiveness, and drawing the comic around it. The webcomic became very popular, leading to publishing deals with Dark Horse Comics for larger comic-book-sized stories.
The development of the Axe Cop series started from a conversation that Nick Offerman had with the ADHD producer Nick Weidenfeld some years before the program's debut. Offerman talked with Weidenfeld about the Axe Cop comic and stated that if a show was to be made from it, Offerman wanted to participate. Weidenfeld took the idea to Phil Lord and Chris Miller, also fans of the webcomic, and they asked Weidenfeld to lead the project, stating that it "has to be emotional", in Weidenfeld's words.[5] As Lord and Miller were working on 21 Jump Street at the time, they suggested Weidenfeld turn to Judah Miller for directional help. Weidenfeld and Miller arranged for a retreat along with writers and creators of Drawn TogetherDave Jeser and Matt Silverstein, voice actors Ken Marino, Patton Oswalt, and Offerman, and the comic creator Ethan Nicolle, where the group discussed their favorite parts of the comic and how to translate it into a show, keeping all the moments that are "100-percent pure Malachai".[5] As they started to write some of the show's plots, they found themselves with narrative dead ends; Ethan used these moments to contact Malachai, explain the story so far and have Malachai provide the missing narrative.[5] Malachai also provided additional advice during the animation process for the shorts when he visited the studios, such as insisting that Zombie Island be set in space, a tangent that the writers and animators quickly agreed with for its illogical humorous value and included in the short.[5]
The initial episode order for the series was six. On August 1, 2013, Fox ordered six additional episodes, bringing the season to a total of 12 episodes.[6]
The King of Bad Guys has stolen all of Bat Warthog Man's friends. Axe Cop leads a night mission to Invisible Bad Guy Planet #2 to get them back where he and Bat Warthog Man meet Grey Diamond, Army Chihuahua, and Liborg while learning about their history along the way. Axe Cop's plan to rescue the captive friends involves poisoned soda on the King of Bad Guy's minions and a Dinosaur Horn rented from the Dinosaur Horn Planet that summons dinosaurs from Dinosaur Planet.
During World War II, Adolf Hitler and his soldiers kidnap an English chemist named Chemist M. where Adolf Hitler forces him to create an army of unstoppable zombies on Zombie Island in Space for the safety of his daughter Isabella M. In the present, Isabella M. enlists Axe Cop, Flute Cop, and Wexter to rescue her father from Zombie Island in Space. Upon arrival, they find Chemist M as a zombie following his search for a formula that turns zombies good and also uncover a plan by Chemist M.'s sentient poop named Dr. Doodoo who plans to marry the Queen of England and make everyone poop themselves.
At the Independence Day picnic, Axe Cop tells Flute Cop, Sockarang, Bat Warthog Man, and the people present at the picnic the story of how his ancestor Book Cop did battle with the King of London England to retrieve the stolen Secret Attack Almanac during the American Revolutionary War.
Flute Cop and his wife Anita are on vacation in Hawaii and Axe Cop is looking after Uni-Baby (whose unicorn horn possesses great magical power) while they're away. Upon creating robot duplicates of themselves to watch over Uni-Baby, Axe Cop and Sockarang take a quick trip to Magic Planet (a planet of magicians) and find themselves having to fight off the Magic Cops while meeting Chubby Doll. Afterwards, Axe Cop, Sockarang, and Chubby Doll end up fighting the Axe Cop Robot and Sockarang Robot when they turn evil.
Axe Cop's birthday (which he's celebrating all month) starts off badly when he inadvertently kills some good mermen (whose smiles he mistook for evil smiles) while at the beach. But it improves when he has the chance to kill the man who killed Axe Cop's parents.... Bad Santa (the evil brother of Good Santa). Upon arriving at South Pole Planet, Axe Cop must fight Bad Santa before he can raid Heaven and overthrow God.
To raise money for his headquarters, Axe Cop becomes a foster father for a mysterious young boy. While Axe Cop, Flute Cop, Gray Diamond, Sockarang, Liborg, and Wexter run a camp for young children and dinosaurs, Axe Cop is unaware that the boy is possessed by the ghost of Axe Cop's first kill.... an unconventional rabbit who broke the rabbit rules by walking on its hind legs and eating coconuts.
Axe Cop has killed all the bad guys on Earth following his fight with evil dinosaurs and Psydrozon. This means only one thing: Axe Cop and his team of crime fighters need to find new jobs. At the same time, Baby Man gets a hold of Uni-Baby's horn following Axe Cop's fight with Psydrozon and wishes that he was a bad guy so that he can get even with Axe Cop for rejecting him at the tryouts for his group. Flute Cop also has to deal with shapeshifting forms against his will.
While on vacation, Axe Cop must convince his old college buddy Super Axe to go on one last adventure to save the world by traveling back in time to stop the Red-Headed Woman (whose sons were killed by Axe Cop) from making all life on Earth evil at the beginning of time.
Axe Cop, Gray Diamond, and Wexter must track down the Sun Thieves Ben and Scoot before the world is torn apart by Night Creatures that are abducting babies. Meanwhile, Flute Cop and Anita rescue Uni-Baby from the Night Creatures.
It's Thanksgiving and Axe Cop hasn't been seen since Halloween following their fight with Turkey Turkey (who had stolen all the Halloween candy) as his usual Thanksgiving duties haven't been performed. While wondering where Axe Cop is, Flute Cop tells Sockarang, Gray Diamond, Liborg, Bat Warthog Man, Baby Man, and The Wrestler about his and Axe Cop's fight with Turkey Turkey on Thanksgiving Planet.
Young Axe Cop and Flute Cop grow up to run a taxi company, just falling short of their childhood dreams of becoming crime fighters. They become cops where they save Uni-Man from some robbers. Axe Cop and Flute Cop then come to the aid of Uni-Man when Fatsozon plans to detonate the bombs within Earth from his location on Uni-Planet.
Following the slaying of Evil Rhino Man (whose horn can metamorphose anything into gold), Axe Cop is forced to let a girl join the team (even though he has put all girls on the "Dumb List") following some bad press upon beating up a group of cheerleaders called the Beautiful Girly Bobs (who Axe Cop rejected their memberships for his team). He ends up enlisting a fairy named Best Fairy Ever from "Fairy Wars" who comes in handy at the time when the leader of the Beautiful Girly Bobs plans her revenge on Axe Cop.
Axe Cop takes Flute Cop on his first Night Mission where they encounter the Vampire Man Baby Kid. Upon befriending the Vampire Man Baby Kid, Axe Cop, Flute Cop, and Wexter head to the Moon to confront his vampire father that bit him where they come across a plot by his Moon Person mother to get the Moon to the Super Moon phase so that the Moon People can metamorphose into Super Werewolves and attack Earth.
14
2
"Heads Will Roll"
Aldin Baroza, Chase Conley, and Douglas Einar Olsen
M.E. Willis
April 23, 2015 (2015-04-23)
202
N/A
Following the fight against Goo-rilla with the help of some Ice Vikings from the year 1066, Axe Cop is arrested for breaking the laws and is incarcerated in the local prison. Once there, the creepy warden allows Axe Cop to chop the heads off of the inmates. Flute Cop later discovers that the warden is using the heads to grow his own henchmen so that he can sell them to every supervillain that needs loyal henchmen.
15
3
"Bald Cop"
Aldin Baroza, Chase Conley, Mike McCraw, and Douglas Einar Olsen
Nick Rutherford
April 30, 2015 (2015-04-30)
203
N/A
Axe Cop goes into hiding upon receiving a letter from Hell Chicken stating that he knows his secret of wearing his hat to cover his baldness and flees to Secret Town. With Axe Cop out of commission, Hell Chicken begins his plan to cause the Hell Chicken Zombie Apocalypse. With help from a dream involving his childhood hero Uncle Axe, Axe Cop must return to action to free Flute Cop, Sockarang, Gray Diamond, Liborg, and Wexter from the effects of the Hell Chicken Zombie Apocalypse.
16
4
"The Center of the Ocean"
Douglas Einar Olsen, Chase Conley, and Mike McCraw
A merman known as the King of All Time has invited Axe Cop to his party at the center of the ocean where there will be water-made food served. When aliens infiltrate the party and capture the King of All Time's daughter Water Queen, Axe Cop must work with the King of All Time's adoptive son Lobster Man to thwart the aliens' plan to drown the Sand People of Sand Planet and take out their leader who is someone from Lobster Man's past. With the lack of the ocean on Earth, Flute Cop and Gray Diamond must prevent a war between the sharks and the tigers.
17
5
"Mark Frankenstein"
Chase Conley
Greg Lloyd Brown
May 14, 2015 (2015-05-14)
205
N/A
In Ancient Alabama, the priests work to keep the Gray Diamond from falling into the hands of Lord Diamond, which ends with the pyramid self-destructing. Upon not having a catchphrase or any powers, Gray Diamond leaves Axe Cop's team and pawns the Gray Diamond. Taking advantage of this, the mummy of Lord Diamond from the Museum's Ancient Alabama exhibit claims the Gray Diamond and starts using its powers to drain the souls out of everyone in the city. Now it's up to Gray Diamond to save Axe Cop and defeat Lord Diamond.
18
6
"President Cop"
Aldin Baroza
Mike McMahan
May 21, 2015 (2015-05-21)
206
N/A
Axe Cop has become the President of the World and receives gifts from various people during the 1,000,000 years of peace. The Brilliant Evil Scientist manipulates Junior Cobbb into bringing Axe Cop to Talking Gorilla Planet so that the Brilliant Evil Scientist can kill Axe Cop with his Robot Axe Cop and have it take over Earth. Once that was done, the Evil Brilliant Scientist is left unaware of Axe Cop's backup plan.
Following the bad guy massacre with his latest victim being Dr. Maracas, Axe Cop joins Flute Cop, Sockarang, and Gray Diamond at the restaurant. Upon trying ham when the restaurant was out of birthday cake, Axe Cop sets up a ham restaurant. Some days later, Axe Cop, Flute Cop, Sockarang, and Gray Diamon meet villain-turned-hero Mr. Chicken Chickenslice who enlists their help to keep Satan from invading Heaven. While helping out in the defense against Heaven, Axe Cop meets God and the angel form of Axe Cop's real father.
20
8
"The Ultimate Mate"
Chase Conley and Douglas Einar Olsen
Martin Garner and Nick Offerman
June 11, 2015 (2015-06-11)
208
N/A
In order to win the Ultimate Space Trampoline in the Couple's Skating Rink competition, Axe Cop goes to Axe Planet where he forms a tentative partnership with Axe Girl for the Couple's Skating Rink competition. Afterwards, they go through couple's therapy where the elderly couple that orchestrated their pairing wanted them to help dispose of an evil Moon Head (which was the result of horse measles) that is ravaging their planet Tutukaka.
21
9
"Night Mission: The Extincter"
Chase Conley and Douglas Einar Olsen
Martin Garner and Nick Offerman
June 19, 2015 (2015-06-19)
209
N/A
While on a Night Mission with Flute Cop, Axe Cop defeats some bad hunters with his owl army that were targeting the last raccoon and finds out that they are helping Extincter in wiping out every animal so that Extincter can inherit their powers. Axe Cop discovers that Extincter's next target is Bigfoot as Axe Cop works with Bigfoot and the Mysterious Beast Force (consisting of the Chupacabra, the Jackalope, and the Loch Ness Monster) to defeat Extincter and restore every animal that became extinct.
There is an uprising of baboons which led to the death of President Towzerd as Axe Cop enlists the Almighty Bear and his bear army of Bearopolis to help fight the baboon army. When the baboon army plans to target Secret President Larry, Axe Cop, Flute Cop, and the Almighty Bear must enter Secret President Larry's bloodstream in order to confront the baboons' leader the Almighty Baboon.
Note: Before finding out that Axe Cop has rallied the Bears to help fight the Baboons, Flute Cop thought the Bears were also attacking where he called it "Bearmageddon". Bearmageddon was the name of Ethan Nicolle's other comic series.
Peter Serafinowicz[2][12] – Uni-Man, Dr. Doo Doo (ep. 2), Adolf Hitler (ep. 2),[3] Chemist M. (ep. 2), Redcoat (ep. 3), Boy (ep. 6), Rabbit Ghost (ep. 6), King of All Time (ep. 16), Wizard Artist Rabbit (ep. 18)