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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Man is A Genius, October 13, 2003
Ah, Alan Moore, where would I be without you? What meaning would my life have without "Watchmen," "Swamp Thing," and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"? Time and time again, you've taken the graphic novel medium to new heights, and now you've brightened my existence with this gorgeous, hilarious, powerful work of storytelling. I think everyone who likes superheroes should be required to read "Top 10" for the insights it offers -- and everyone else should read it just because it's such a bloody good piece of work.At first glance, "Top 10" seems like "Watchmen Lite" -- it imagines an alternative world where a boom of costumed crime-fighters in the 1940s and 50s has left a large glut of out-of-work superpeople, most of whom inhabit the pseudo-futuristic city of Neopolis. It's tough work to police a city where each and every citizen has some kind of superpower, and the job falls upon the shoulders of Precinct Ten (named because this is number ten in the multitude of parallel universes). As the story starts, we meet the latest addition to the precinct team, Robyn "Toybox" Slinger, who carries around a crate full of intelligent supertoys who do her bidding. Her new partner is a hulking, sullen, blue dude named Smax who shoots energy beams out of his chest. Robyn soon learns that at Precinct Ten, lunacy is status quo. Half the fun of "Top 10" comes from the colorful, expansive cast of characters. Robyn's coworkers include Girl One (whose bioengineered skin constantly changes), Jack Phantom (a lesbian who can phase through solid matter, Hyperdog (a sentient Doberman in a cyborg skeleton), Irma Geddon (a middle-aged housewife with a nuclear battlesuit), King Peacock (worships Satan; punches through solid stone), Synaesthesia (listens to smells, feels colors, sees sounds -- believe it or not, this is a real condition), Janus (a switchboard operator with two faces and two personalities), Alexei (a Communist telepath with a chimanzee for a wife), and a number of others. Somehow, Moore takes this massive cast and makes each character into a fully-realized individual with his or her own motives, fears, desires, etc. And somehow, this happens at breakneck speed as the members of precinct Ten get themselves into one bizarre situation after another. The psychopathic, telekinetic Santa Claus; the fat, middle-aged Godzilla clone; the cosmic mice; the porn star from Venus, the Ghostly Goose (name refers to what he does, not what he is)...I simply can't bring myself to give away any of the plot's oddball twists any more than necessary. All is not comeday hijinks, however. I express my admiration that Moore can cause such laughter while at the same time dealing with such serious issues as STDs, drug abuse, teen prostitution and pedophilia, closet homosexuals, bigotry, and interspecies realationships (Hyperdog falls for a human woman, and vice versa). One minute you're laughing uproariously, the next minute you're struck into silence as a character is forced to make a painful personal decision, or another tries to cope with the knowledge of his impending, inevitable doom. It's amazing that Moore can throw all this together and have it come out so well. And it would be unfair of me not to mention the exquisite artwork of Gene Ha, who fills each panel with a glorious swamp of detail. So yeah, that's my rant. "Top 10" is now my favorite Alan Moore comic, and my second-favorite graphic novel of all time (despite everything, I still like "Sandman" best). If you happen to spot this treasure on the shelf of your local bookstore -- by all means, spend the $14.95. Buy Volume Two as well. It's worth it.
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