Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This right here, this is the real story., 3 Oct 2006
Here we have it. The prequel to Top 10. Before reading it, my attitude was "well, does Top 10 really need a prequel?". It hadn't set my world on fire. A city populated by man, woman and child superheroes, policed by super-powered police officers whose cases all have strange, quirky, supernatural dimensions. It was Hill Street Blues meets the Justice League. It was well written, and rose a smile. That was the best i could say about it.
So here's the prequel. And i'm willing to go out on a limb and guess that this was the first concept Alan Moore had for the Top 10 universe. The previous volumes were fun, but kind of one-note superhero satire. This... this is just fantastic. In The Forty-Niners, we move from the modern millenial setting of the original books back to 1949, where in the aftermath of WWII all the various allied science heroes and nazi science villains are out of work (no more war to fight or world to conquer/save!), and so end up herded out of the way of the general populace into a giant, futuristic, purpose built city where none of us norms have to run into them again. Top 10 is now a fledgling police force and a bit of a joke; the idea that order could be maintained in a place like Neopolis eliciting bemused disbelief from the general population.
The silly superhero satire is rife and still funny (the parallels with the real-life collapse of the superhero genre post-WWII is clear), but now there's much more heart to the proceedings. The main characters have returned from a war to a world that no longer wants them; they're all trying to figure out how they fit into normal society, and some of them are tragically failing. One of the main protaganists is a young man who's dawning sexual identity makes him as much of an outcast as the mutations and mechanical fetishes of his neighbours, and when I read the beautiful, melancholy line that goes something like "The war was loud and noisy, there was no time to think; what will we do now, when we can hear our hearts again?" it hit me. It's not just about Jetlad's orientation; that's the heart of the book. One way or another, all of the characters are trying to hear their hearts; the entire city is.
People liked Top 10; if there's justice, they'll love this.
Beautiful book. Beautiful.
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
neopolis: the beginning, 22 Mar 2009
Top 10 is a twelve issue comic written by comics legend alan moore. set in the city of neopolis where everyone is a super hero, it's the story of the police of the city and several of their cases. it's available in two volumes Top Ten - Book 01Top 10 Book 2 but if you haven't read those you should still find this volume, a prequel which tells of the early days of the city of neopolis, readily accessible.
a one off graphic novel with a self contained story and complete in roughly 88 pages. it's told in four chapters. the story is set in 1949, and involves two heroes - teenage pilot jetlad and german pilot sthe skywitch - moving to the city of neopolis, a city set up by the US government to house superheroes after world war two.
but there are also supervillains there, and there's a fledgling police force which has been set up to deal with them. the crime rate is such that the military are pushing for martial law. can our two heroes find work and prosper? and can the city survive the threats to it?
the artwork by gene ha is superb and very realistic and contains an incredible amount of detail. as in the original top 10 lots of familiar looking characters from various works of fiction can often be seen in the background, and it's fun picking them out. the two main characters are very well written and very likeable and you can relate to them throughout.
And there's good plotting here too, several plot strands running throughout all of which come together in an exciting action packed finale that wraps it all up nicely.
not a comic labelled for mature readers, but there are some adult scenes and a same sex relationship. none of this is gratutious but it's definitely for the broad minded.
and hopefully you are because this is another excellent work by a master of the field and well worth a look
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by Alan Moore
by Alan Moore
by Alan Moore
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