"What it was, back in the forties you could say there was a lot of social pressure on the individual to put a costume on and fight for decency - I mean, some kid who lives on your block gets hit by some weird meteorite, next thing you know he's flying, he shoots death rays out of his ass, whatever."
The name Alan Moore carries a great deal of weight in the world of comics, for he is the man behind Watchmen, which, almost fifteen years after its release, is still heralded as the single book that redefined the superhero. It was also the book in which Moore ostensibly bade farewell to the superhero as well; stating that he had pretty much laid out everything he had to say on the subject, Moore moved back into work-for-hire obscurity, hammering out a number of above average comics which fans agreed came nowhere near to approaching the greatness of Watchmen. With the resurgence of superheroes in the 90's (thanks mainly to a plethora of early Image titles), it was only a matter of time before Moore felt the need to once again provide a response to the current state of comics.
Top 10 is that response. Set at some unspecified future date in the burgeoning city of Neopolis, the story follows a disparate group of super-powered homicide detectives and beat cops as they regularly patrol back alleys and by-ways -- see, Neopolis is a city entirely populated by super-beings. While the scope of Watchmen dealt with the consequences paid by a world in which superheroes truly existed, Top 10 takes the concept to the extreme: in a world where everyone has some sort of superpower, what sort of police force would be necessary? It's part superhero saga, part ensemble cop show and part slapstick humor, and at the outset there seems to be no way in hell that it should work as well as it does. But Moore knows his source material -- he deftly mixes classic hero elements with gritty police procedure and emerges with an entirely new genre of comic.
Moore's greatest strength has always been in characterization, and he's no slouch here. The cast ranges from an indestructible blue-skinned detective to a city-smashing Godzilla clone with a drinking problem -- my two personal favorites are Kemlo Ceasar, a hyperintelligent, talking hound encased inside a humanoid, bipedal skeleton, and Bob "Blindshot" Booker, a blind cabby who navigates by using "zen senses." The main ensemble, in fact, consists of no less than fifteen major players, all intermingling in seemingly separate stories that all inimitably tie together brilliantly. Moore's work here is as fastidious as the other titles he authors for DC's ABC imprint (after writing five titles a month, he has just got to be tired), but it's imbued with a sense of both immediacy and fun.
Penciller Gene Ha's contribution is the perfect accompaniment for Moore's scripting -- Ha's pencils are loose and dirty, capturing the workaday lives of haggard characters populating a nearly uncontrollable city. The people who make up Top 10 seem perpetually tired, have frown marks and worry wrinkles, and don't always have good hair days. The city itself is Metropolis gone bad, nicely showing the wear and tear regularly meted out by its citizens. Zander Cannon's assured inks bring out the best in Ha's line work, adding rough edges and shadows which nicely contrast the moods of characters and setting of the city.
This is Moore's first real attempt at superheroes in the post Watchmen era, and it's a treat for both seasoned comics fans and newcomers. Superbly mixing genres and playing with established conventions of comics, it not only heralds the return of Moore as a seminal talent (and I'd say he's one of the best writers out there, period), but also serves to redefine what was once considered a tired subject. Quite simply, Top 10 is required reading.
-- David Rosiak
Top 10, published by DC Comics, is currently available only through comic retailers.
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