Thanks to BOOM! Studios and Once & Future, Edgar Wright's Cornetto Trilogy has found its way into comic books via the director's second movie, Hot Fuzz. Starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, Hot Fuzz appoints the former as an ace police sergeant investigating a series of suspicious West Country crimes with his bumbling partner played by the latter. The comedy is a loving parody of classic buddy cop action movies like Bad Boys 2 and Point Break. As part of the Cornetto Trilogy, Hot Fuzz sits comfortably in between Shaun of the Dead and At World's End.
While the Cornetto Trilogy stars zombies, a secret cabal, and aliens as its main antagonists, BOOM! Studios' Once & Future follows a retired monster hunter who steps back into action alongside her naive grandson once King Arthur is resurrected and begins plotting to seize control of the country. This Arthurian tale launches a series of monstrous, mysterious events across the English countryside, where Hot Fuzz also takes place.
Simon Pegg's Nicholas Angel and Nick Frost's Danny Butterman find themselves called into the frame of Kieron Gillen and Dan Mora's Once & Future #10. When the monstrous Grendel is wreaking havoc, the cops are called in, and they are drawn to clearly resemble the cops at the center of Hot Fuzz. Any fans hoping for a full-blown, issue-long crossover may be disappointed to learn that Grendel promptly tears them to shreds in an extremely gruesome death, biting off the upper half of Sergeant Angel's body in one fell swoop.
Audiences who have seen Hot Fuzz will know that this fate for the fan-favorite duo is almost as ironic as it is bittersweet. Angel and Butterman were involved in a bevy of ludicrous scenarios that put their lives in danger in the movie, but even a cop movie marathon could never have prepared them for facing an actual monster. It's clear from Angel's demeanor and the fact he arrives armed to the teeth that this gruesome conflict happens after the movie's events, meaning that fans who want to consider this cameo canon now know what happens when Danny and Nicholas bite off more than they can chew.
This isn't the first time the Cornetto Trilogy has crossed over with comics, as a comic prequel to Shawn of the Dead actually shared the surprisingly creepy origin of the zombie Mary who attacks the heroes at the start of the movie. In-keeping with this grimmer approach, the Hot Fuzz cops are sadly little help in stopping the monstrous Grendel, only buying the comics' actual heroes a few seconds with their grisly end.
While the BOOM! Studios crossover isn't official, it works because Once & Future has a similar comedic sensibility to Edgar Wright's Cornetto Trilogy - sadly, in this case, the heroes of Hot Fuzz find themselves as the disposable side characters whose dramatic deaths serve to raise the stakes and give fans a dark chuckle at the same time.