Top Ten (Book 2) [Paperback]

Alan Moore (Author), Zander Cannon (Author), Gene Ha (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Continuing his exploration of superhero comics, Moore speculates on what would happen if an expansion in the number of people who are able to develop their desires into super powers led to the creation of Neopolis. His world is populated by superbeings: people (and animals, space aliens, robots, etc.) who have extraordinary abilities and secret identities. Basic human nature leads to an urban society resembling today's, including the need to maintain law and order among the sometimes barely controllable superbeings. Based on that premise, overlapping, intertwined stories create a kind of skewed Hill Street Blues for the cops of Top 10, the police station in Neopolis. Sometimes their cases work out farcically, but sometimes very seriously. After all, Moore asks, if you could do almost anything, what limits would you accept? What kind of responsibility would you take for others? Most comics series are intended to be endless, so nothing changes much from issue to issue. That's not so in this case; Book One is necessary reading before picking up Book Two. The art helps this purpose. Much of today's manga-influenced comics art is designed to convey excitement, using motion at the expense of detail. The artwork here reverts to an older tradition of elaborate pen and ink text illustration (like Joseph Clement Coll's work), slowing readers down just enough to make them alert to the elegant details of the world Moore has created. Anyone interested in comics should be paying attention to Moore and this outstanding example of his recent thinking.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The comic-book series Top 10 has been described as "Hill Street Blues with superheroes." It is set in futuristic Neopolis, where every resident, from the mayor to the garbage man, has super powers. The challenge of maintaining order in such an environment falls to a constabulary that includes desk sergeant Kemlo Caesar, a talking dog in a humanoid exoskeleton; Jack Phantom, who passes through solid objects; the moody, invulnerable giant Officer Smax; and Girl One, with her impervious, bio-engineered skin. Like their normal TV counterparts, these officers deal with everything--traffic accidents to municipal corruption--that occurs within a continuing, soap-operatic storyline. Moore makes them as human as prime-time cop-show characters, only much more imaginative and exciting, and detailed, finely rendered art helps ground the fantastic goings-on. Lightweight compared to Moore's Jack the Ripper reinterpretation, From Hell (2000), or his reinvention of the superhero in Watchmen series, Top 10 finds Moore simply refreshing the superhero concept and proving--witness Sergeant Caesar--that you can teach an old dog new tricks. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: WildStorm (June 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563899663
• ISBN-13: 978-1563899669
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 0.3 x 10.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #263,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely, September 6, 2002

By 

Matthew Asnip "bibliophile" (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Top Ten - Book 2 (Hardcover)

This is probably my favorite comic book series of all time. Alan Moore did it again. While this book is not as overtly profound as V for Vendetta, it makes some points, but in a very light way.
Gene Ha's art is a delight, and the level of detail is insane. Anyone who has had a passing interest in comics will find cameos by their favorite characters somewhere in here.

This book is a sequel and you should have either Book One or the first six books of the series before reading this.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top 10 (Book 2), March 16, 2006

By 

Stephen C. Hill "SCHILL" (Omaha, NE USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Top Ten (Book 2) (Paperback)

"Top 10" (Book 2) is the second graphic novel in this unique and interesting series by Alan Moore. The premise is a fictional city where all the world's super beings live, work and play. Simply put, their super hero identities are who these people really are. Some stand out as truly special, but most of the population have regular jobs, enjoy, abuse, or ignore their families just like the normal residents of our own real world cities.

This series is fun, the characters believeable and the adventures are crafted with a golden age content but manage to incorporate issues of today such as prostitution, drug addiction, alternative lifestyles and child abuse. Most of the stories follow what the Top 10 police force personally experience day to day. Think of the story lines as "Law and Order" for superheroes. It's great fun. Also make sure you review each individual art panel as you read along. You'll discover all kinds of super heroes you know and love from the golden, silver and current ages of comics. They're not really involved in the story, but only function as backdrops. You'll see Batman, Wolverine, the gray Hulk advertising expandable Gamma pants and even Popeye hanging out with other comic sailors in a local bar.

There are two other books in the series, the first "Top 10" (Book One) and an earlier version of the city called the "Fortyniners", which is set in the time just after World War II. Look for your favorite comic stars from the 20's, 30's and 40's. They actually relocated the Yokums from "Lil Abner"and the 1940's Sub Mariner, though he still has amnesia.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The single best comic story I've ever read is in this volume., June 5, 2006

By 

Geoff "Maine Fiction Fan" (Maine, United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Top Ten (Book 2) (Paperback)

I'd read an article in Wizard, the comics magazine, about Top 10 #8 (the first issue in this trade paperback). It said that this issue was one of the best single stories in comic book history. Well, I've read thousands of comics and I couldn't agree more. I thoroughly enjoyed the first Top 10 TPB, which I bought thinking it contained issue #8; I don't regret that purchase at all, by the way, as it made me laugh out loud several times. Anyway, the first story in the second TPB tells of a trio of space-jumping characters who are fused together in a horrible accident and die by the end of the issue. Strange as it sounds, these 25 pages present a deep, moving account of how easily life can end and what living really means. Alan Moore is a genius and any true fiction fan should own this book.