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jeremygoodjob's review
4.0
“Listen, this is what happens when you have a whole city of genetically unstable or alien individuals interacting sexually with each other.”
If Homicide: Life on the Street was a comic book serial, and one of my favorite Alan Moore projects because of it. It’s rare that the panel layout feels this central, but the cells chattering throughout the pages contribute so much to the dynamic and punchy quality of this world that it’s hard picturing this series with a more conventional layout. The character design is irreverent and thoughtful, like everyone looks dumb at first but the more you look at them the more interesting they seem. The serial structure has plot lines (three or four at a time) bleeding into previous and subsequent issues in a way that feels genuinely unique in the medium (and besides the cop element is the thing that feels the most like Homicide). It lacks Moore’s signature austerity and monstrousness, but it reveals the extent of his enthralling playfulness. Basically it’s the kind of comic that makes me wonder why more comics aren’t like it.
If Homicide: Life on the Street was a comic book serial, and one of my favorite Alan Moore projects because of it. It’s rare that the panel layout feels this central, but the cells chattering throughout the pages contribute so much to the dynamic and punchy quality of this world that it’s hard picturing this series with a more conventional layout. The character design is irreverent and thoughtful, like everyone looks dumb at first but the more you look at them the more interesting they seem. The serial structure has plot lines (three or four at a time) bleeding into previous and subsequent issues in a way that feels genuinely unique in the medium (and besides the cop element is the thing that feels the most like Homicide). It lacks Moore’s signature austerity and monstrousness, but it reveals the extent of his enthralling playfulness. Basically it’s the kind of comic that makes me wonder why more comics aren’t like it.
blatanville's review
4.0
I don't know if this series was always planned to end at certain point or not (it would seem weird to cancel an Eisner-winning series at 12 issues if it was making money. It would seem weird that a series written by Alan Moore wouldn't sell. Maybe I answered my own question?)
Anyhow; using the time-honoured traditional "beginning" to a storyline, the series starts with a new character "coming to town" (Toy Box joins Top 10) and gets thrown into the action. Several stories (cases) are underway, new cases develop immediately. The characters Toy Box (and the reader) meets are already moving on their arcs and have history together. This is not unusual. What _is_ unusual is that this new person isn't going to be the POV character. In fact there is no one POV character. And that's a good thing. Moore and Ha have taken the "expanded" stories of a police procedural show, like Hill Street Blues in its day, and applied that to a world where everyone has a "super power."
And it's terrific.
Reading this (again) 20-some years after publication, it doesn't seem quite as remarkable as it might have at the time. The medium has matured, and the kinds and depth of stories writers like Moore were bringing to it starting in the 80s are now as likely to appear as more-traditional "comic-book" stories.
And, back to what I said about the ending before: there "isn't one"? Yes, some of the cases get solved. Yes, characters change and grow. But their stories aren't finished or neatly wrapped up. The series could start publishing again tomorrow, picking up with issue 13 and carrying on the cases still unsolved...This series was like a 12-issue run plucked from somewhere along the line of a much-longer series...and that's neat.
Anyhow; using the time-honoured traditional "beginning" to a storyline, the series starts with a new character "coming to town" (Toy Box joins Top 10) and gets thrown into the action. Several stories (cases) are underway, new cases develop immediately. The characters Toy Box (and the reader) meets are already moving on their arcs and have history together. This is not unusual. What _is_ unusual is that this new person isn't going to be the POV character. In fact there is no one POV character. And that's a good thing. Moore and Ha have taken the "expanded" stories of a police procedural show, like Hill Street Blues in its day, and applied that to a world where everyone has a "super power."
And it's terrific.
Reading this (again) 20-some years after publication, it doesn't seem quite as remarkable as it might have at the time. The medium has matured, and the kinds and depth of stories writers like Moore were bringing to it starting in the 80s are now as likely to appear as more-traditional "comic-book" stories.
And, back to what I said about the ending before: there "isn't one"? Yes, some of the cases get solved. Yes, characters change and grow. But their stories aren't finished or neatly wrapped up. The series could start publishing again tomorrow, picking up with issue 13 and carrying on the cases still unsolved...This series was like a 12-issue run plucked from somewhere along the line of a much-longer series...and that's neat.
saidtheraina's review
4.0
This is a huge mishmash of a tonne of different speculative fiction and superhero elements. I really enjoy the contemporary feel to the stories - romances, interlocking cases, fascinating characters, and the little things Ha includes in the illustration - I particularly enjoyed a Spock sighting while reading this series. I don't always like the police-procedural-mixed-with-superheroes concept ([b:Powers|1667760|Mary Within Us A Jungian Contemplation of Her Titles and Powers|David Richo|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347430104s/1667760.jpg|446515] comes to mind). But Alan Moore does some brilliant writing (there should be a "duh" here, but I'm not always a fan - I know, I'm a bad comic reader) and Gene Ha's creativity with the world these characters work in is really stunning.
Love it.
Love it.
mattycakesbooks's review
4.0
It's Alan Moore. Enough said.
The one thing I did notice is that a pretty standard, awesome line from Top 10 - the "light is winning" bit as recited by the Gamer - was turned into the final line from the first season of True Detective. So Alan Moore's everyday quality of writing is the best other writers can hope to plagiarize.
The one thing I did notice is that a pretty standard, awesome line from Top 10 - the "light is winning" bit as recited by the Gamer - was turned into the final line from the first season of True Detective. So Alan Moore's everyday quality of writing is the best other writers can hope to plagiarize.
ostrava's review
5.0
Done with half of the issues, I'll write my thoughts later on when I'm done with it but so far I'm enjoying it!
manadabomb's review
4.0
Alan Moore is kind of a scary looking guy. And I'm just thinking of the Simpson's episode that he was in. Scary as he may look, he's pretty damn talented. Watchmen was my first foray into the world of Moore and then I was lent both books of Top Ten.
Top Ten (book 1) was illustrated by Gene Ha and Zander Cannon. It introduces us to the cops of the Tenth Precinct in the city of Neopolis. Everyone in Neopolis, it seems, has a superpower. Even the children and, I think, pets. You would think this would put the cops at a disadvantage. Hmm.
Robyn Slinger is just starting out on the force. Her power is the ability to control toys which is why her nickname is Toy Box. (That's just a bad nickname for a chick). She's teamed with Smax, who is big and blue and indestructible with a mean disposition. They are off to help track down the killer of someone named Saddles who was dealing drugs. The Libra serial killer is also at large, severer of the heads of prostitutes.
Enter also a deranged, pyschokentic Santa Claus, ultra powerful mice and some chick with big...boots and you have a pretty entertaining story.
Top Ten (book 1) was illustrated by Gene Ha and Zander Cannon. It introduces us to the cops of the Tenth Precinct in the city of Neopolis. Everyone in Neopolis, it seems, has a superpower. Even the children and, I think, pets. You would think this would put the cops at a disadvantage. Hmm.
Robyn Slinger is just starting out on the force. Her power is the ability to control toys which is why her nickname is Toy Box. (That's just a bad nickname for a chick). She's teamed with Smax, who is big and blue and indestructible with a mean disposition. They are off to help track down the killer of someone named Saddles who was dealing drugs. The Libra serial killer is also at large, severer of the heads of prostitutes.
Enter also a deranged, pyschokentic Santa Claus, ultra powerful mice and some chick with big...boots and you have a pretty entertaining story.
bluenicorn's review
4.0
This was pretty good. The concept was sound, the execution was good- I can't believe this isn't more popular.
bpol's review
2.0
I really liked the concept behind this series, the artwork is great, and there are a lot of aspects of the book I really liked, but for some reason it just didn't connect with me. Whenever I put it down I wasn't excited to pick it up again like I have been with other Moore books. I was curious as to what would happen next, but I never got that "I have to know" feeling that we all get from books we love. I guess it just didn't capture me the way I hoped it would. I'm still going to give book 2 a read though. Hopefully it will resonate with me more.
cmcrockford's review
5.0
Just a fucking blast, from the sheer dizzying creativity of the alternate superhero-verse pop songs and flyers ("See Invisible Girls Live On The Big Stage" to the hilarious issue where a Norse god appears to have been murdered...until someone points out that they're immortal, so they just get up eventually. Easy to trace a line from Neopolis to the Citadel in Rick & Morty, or from the Silver Age and 90's punk to Top 10. Either way I had a great time with Moore in fun, pervy, absurdist mode.
jeremyhornik's review
3.0
Solid police procedural in a city inhabited by superheroes. Funny, humane, but can't quite get beyond the superheroes, no matter how hard it tries.