Customer Reviews

Top Ten (Book 2)

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4 star:		(3)
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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.

"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.

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.

Having captured Ms. Qualtz, the shape shifting belle dame sans merci, the police officers of Top 10 part One earned themselves some party time, but cop life is back to normal with the heroic rush on the opening panels of Book II. Anyone who made it through the first book is going to want to take a look at the second, though some of the drama (the interpersonal drama between characters) was pretty much played out in the first set, i.e., between Smax and Toybox.

In other news, King Peacock is forced to travel to Ancient Rome (correction, some parallel universe in which Ancient Rome still holds sway) to become a gladiator like Russell Crowe. This part made me think of the old time expression, "jumping the shark" which I'm sure was heard often in the baths of Caracalla. It wasn't a total loss, but Peacock deserves better than that and so does his stalwart black family waiting for him so faithfully to come back from the Colosseum.

In another striking storyline, we discover that one of our own is behind the wave of drug smuggling and attendant evildoing, and the skell in question came as a complete surprise to me! It was an officer seemingly above reproach who turns out to be savage when captured, resulting in the tragic death of one of Top 10's most beloved characters. I don't want to give away any spoilers, let me just say from Chapter Three on, you'll want to bring along your handkerchiefs to mop up some excess tears.

Moore's famous humour and iconoclasm abound, but Top 10 Book Two reveals what we've always suspected, he's a softy at heart.

I was dissappointed with vol. 1, but it all fit into place with this one. The art is amazing, but with maybe too much details. Alan shows again why he's the greatest comic's writer of all time (for me, that is). Great read.

There is always one problem with Moore: He needs someone to paint the pretty pictures. I still haven't read some of the more prominent stuff like From Hell or LoEG, though I must have thumbed through them at least a dozen of times.

This however, is different. While it is difficult to detach from the powerful overall impact of Watchmen, Top Ten might have the best graphics of any Moore work. This may not even be due to the principle artists; I think the color makes the difference.

Top 10 has an end-of-scale premise, but it gets obvious very soon that this is about the characters, not their powers. This is especially true for Joe Pi. Entering the story about halfway, he has a hard time because he is a replacement for a very popular officer who died in the line of duty. How the people react to him and how he manages to connect is among the best stories in comics.

It's only a small story though: This is not about any single person, the team is always the most important thing. You learn to love and hate more than one of them during the two books and will wish for more after you finished this one.

Moore/Cannon/Ha's Top Ten series is one of my top three favorites of all time. The writing is fantastic; I cared about the characters from the beginning and when I finished the series, I wanted more (sequel Smax is awesome, though radically different in style, prequel The Forty-Niners is a masterpiece in itself though there's only one Top Ten character in it, Beyond the Farthest Precinct is an inferior work, though it was so good to revisit this world again).

What makes Top Ten such a great comic is how every issue, no matter how fantastically treated, is a human issue that most of us can relate to, whether it's Smax' despair and inability to reach out to his friends, Kemlo's forbidden (or not) love, or Duane's annoyance at his partner's racism.

Moore especially is at the top of his game with Top Ten, mixing dead-on humor, comic references that span all genres, action, and drama into what would be an insufferable mess in anyone else's hands.

One of the fabulous things about the Top 10 series is the incredible amount of detail that Gene Ha put into the backgrounds. There are all sorts of cool things you can find there, while browsing.

Zatanna and Black Canary pulling in fish nets, for one.

Then as far as the main story goes, Ultra-Mice Crisis is just hilarious.

Connecting more on the human level than any other comic series I have seen, Moore's Top 10 book two shows that even though the future may create new groups of people to stereotype, the stereotypes are no truer in the future than they have been in the past.

The first two volumes of Top Ten are possibly my favorite graphic novels of all time. The art is great, and the story lines are highly enjoyable. It's a master at work.