Customer Reviews

Top Ten: Beyond the Farthest Precinct (Top 10)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I was very much looking forward to reading this. I wanted to see how Di Filippo (as far as I know a newbie to the comics genre, and the author of a few quite impressive books) does with the legacy of master Alan Moore.

A lot worse than I thought he would.

SPOILERS: There are several points I just don't get. I. E. How can he revive a character - Girl One - for no obvious reason and then do NOTHING with her. He gave her about two lines of dialogue throughout the book and showed nothing of the impact her reappearance would have on the former colleagues and friends.
Why does he simply ignore important developments laid out by Moore's run, like Smax and Rexa not being able to admit that they are brother and sister, because of the legal problems involved? (There was so much potential in this particular detail.)
Why does he come up with - sigh! - destinies that have to be fulfilled? Is this some "Lord of the rings" for the poor?
Why does he stop all character development or - to the contrary - abandons that which has already been done? The characters are so devoid of any depth it almost made my cry.
Why does he have to take a minor character from an earlier - and very tragic - episode that paraphrases the AIDS-threat in a superhuman society, and make him a super-villain? This turn of events is so absurd that it even belittles the original story.

Enough. I could go on an on. If you really liked Moore's run, avoid this at all costs. If you didn't particularly care about it before, you can try this book. Di Filippo doesn't seem to care too much, too. I wish he would have stayed with writing novels. I really enjoyed his "Steampunk trilogy". Never could get my hands on a copy of "Linear City", though.

I don't expect the person who follows in Alan Moore's shoes to be as good as the master, but to be this bad is truly astonishing.

Too many new (and old) characters with little to do; the personalities of old characters completely changed (King Peacock and Peregrine are the worst offenders); way too much going on--just when you're following one thread, another starts; some truly stupid cosmic blabbery; little or no continuity from the earlier stories to this one (Smax/Rexa and Kemlo/Annette's relationships, which had secret elements to them earlier, are now common knowledge for no apparent reason); standard superhero art with none of the whimsy that Gene Ha provided; an ending that makes ZERO sense.... boy, I could go on for days.

Did Alan Moore really approve this stuff? I knew he was burned out on the US comics industry, but he really must loathe it to let something this bad be associated with his name. I hate having wasted money on this book.

This is definitely a cut below Alan Moore's Top Ten. The fact that some of the relationships are now public didn't bother me as much as it did some of the other reviewers (this takes place five years after the original Top Ten, which is a long time to keep a relationship secret). But the subplots generally aren't very well thought out, a lot of the characters are just sort of taking up space, and most egregiously, the main plot isn't tied up very well. It's not a horrible book, but it really suffers in comparison to Top Ten and Smax.

Have you ever been in a restaraunt and picked up your water glass and took a big drink, only to discover you had picked up your sprite, or your scotch? Reading this comic after reading Alan Moore's work is a lot like that. Well, it would be even more like that if you found out your waiter had spit in it.

In some ways, I feel bad for Mr. Di Philipio. Mr Moore is a tough act to follow. But I bought this, hoping to reconnect with the world of top 10, and found that the world had changed, and not for the better. Characters I had identified with suddenly had new personalities....or more accurately, had their personality removed without replacement. Smax for example, is no longer tormented, loving, complex, yet "like a block of wood". He's just a block of wood, its like he's a butler wandering around. Don't even get me started about how his darkest secrets have suddenly become open and acceptable table conversation.

A new writer on a series is not only permitted to take liberties with a world, its essential that he do so. To make it good, he must make it his. However, the writer in this case made changes that appear to serve no purpose. Some of these changes, like creating a spiritual crisis for one of the religious characters, was simply cruel. This was done to be funny, apparently. Taking a character, and reaming their world view, and providing no resolution, isn't funny.

Also, the plots simply weren't interesting. At no point did I find myself drawn in by the minor subplots, they were just minor distractions to fill a few pages. The attempt to comment on American politics is ham handed, and doesnt really go anywhere. In top ten, I am used to a number of minor plot elements coalescing at the end to form a whole that just jumps out at you, like resolving a magic eye poster for the first time. That did not happen.

I won't talk about the art here much, because I think there are other reviewers better qualified to do so. I will say that while there were differences in the art work from previous top 10 works, none of the changes offended or overjoyed me. The art was appropriate, was well done by my simplistic tastes, so I have no complaints there.

So, is this absolutely terrible? No, for a comic is probably above average. Its not *good*, though, and going from Moore to this leaves a bitter taste in your mouth. I'm glad I purchased this, because I needed to know. If there's another book in the series however, and Moore isn't doing the writing, I'm not doing the buying.

Until this point I had really enjoyed "Precinct Ten," but this author trashed the characters, slaughtered the style, and eliminated the appealing magic-realism edge that made the previous installations so interesting. There is no dialogue so much as there are long, pointless speeches interspersed randomly among floating strings of cliche conversation. Plots are opened and left to fizzle for no apparent reason. Character interactions are clunky and stock. Previously dynamic characters, like Girl One (now Girl 54) and Smax are left undeveloped despite their interesting situations. (Girl 54 is a replacement of Girl One, how does that make her feel? Does she retain Girl One's memories, friendships? We don't know because we barely even see her! The same goes for the sargeant, the force's robot members, Smax and Rexa - all occupy interesting plot niches with potentially interesting problems, but nothing happens!) Even the transitions between story arcs are confusing. I got the distinct impression that the writer DiFilippo was trying to imitate Moore - what a mistake! If there's one thing I've learned by editing short fiction it's that imitation is a sure recipie for disaster. And this, my friends, is a disaster.

I was thrilled when I found out that there was another Top 10 book. It wasn't Alan Moore, which is unfortunate, but I figured that anyone who would pick up the series would be well versed in the characters and do them justice. I was wrong.

The best I can do to describe this story, other than what has already been said by previous negative reviews, is that it seems like Di Filippo quickly skimmed a description of the characters, saw a few sketches, and made up the rest. The characters have almost none of their former personality. There's no development. The dialogue is awful and campy -- which would be fine if it was a parody or a completely different comic. But it isn't. The extra characters add NOTHING to the story, and in fact just further detract from any possible development. The climax of the story falls completely flat. So many things are done to this story that make no sense at all and are distracting rather than informative or interesting.
The writing lacks finesse. The intention to wrap up the story neatly, as Moore is known to do, is clear. The ability to do so is lacking, unfortunately.

I strongly recommend NOT buying this book. I regret having bought it and read it, and that is rare for me. Reading it actually made me angry.
If you liked the Top 10 stories and if you have any respect for Alan Moore's writing, don't read this. In fact, if you are in a comic book store and see someone pick it up, please tell them to put it back down.

As usual the Top 10 characters were great and the art was a lot of fun with all it's special "guest appearances" although they may have been a bit overdone. Unfortunately the story on this one was just ok it had a kind of deus ex machina ending and the pacing seemed off, like he ran out of the room and skipped to the end.

I'm not sure they needed to add new heroes to the mix either but at least they were fun.

Don't waste your time. Story makes no sense, and the art is dreadful.

I was really looking forward to reading this book, as I had enjoyed the two Top Ten books so much! This was enjoyable in that it further explored the city and environment of Top Ten, but some parts I choose to ignore, and pretend they never happened. I didn't like what they did to the Captain, (although, personally, the near absence of gay behavior was welcome). Pergrine losing her faith in God was disturbing to me. In the original stories one felt that nothing could surprise, yet in this book, silly cartoon characters often manifest in the background, such as Heckle and Jeckle, etc. Superheroes, even mouse super-infestations I can swallow, but famous cartoon characters??! Please! I enjoyed the idea of various sectors of the city, such as a section for the gods, the robots, etc; but for INSECTS??! I'm sorry. I just can't swallow it. Many parts were fun, and I'm glad I had a chance to read it, being such a fan of the originals, but, sad to say, after reading about half of it, I didn't pick it up again for about a week.

I loved Alan Moore's Top Ten and Smax stories. This collection is very nearly as good. Di Filippo was a great choice to continue the characters, and the art is as complex and giggle-provoking as the first volumes (we think we got most of the comix references but we're still working on a few). Take note that this collection takes up after the standalone Smax story, so there has been total respect for the entirety of Moore's story arcs and continuity.