By Alan Moore, Gene Ha & Zander Cannon (America’s Best Comics)
ISBN 1-56389-876-4
Collecting issues #8-12 of the comic-book series, this volume carries ongoing threads and storylines, so readers would be advised to read volume 1 first. Like that previous volume (ISBN: 1-84576-1491-6) this seductive blend of police procedural drama and the whacky world of full-on superhero universes isn’t really about the narrative though; its joys are to be found in the incidentals, the sidebars and the shared in-jokes.
Top 10, based in Neopolis, is a precinct of a pan-dimensional police force, in a city populated entirely by paranormal and super-powered beings. Like any good cop story, cases run in parallel, at different rates and often in opposition, and the large cast all have their own lives which are impossible to completely divorce from “The Jobâ€.
The “one-day-at-a-time†storytelling commences with ‘The Overview’, as a major traffic accident draws most of the day-shift’s resources. A couple of teleporting dimensional travellers have catastrophically intersected, but by the end of the clear-up it’s clear the tragedy wasn’t a simple accident. Meanwhile, influential friends are trying to quash the case against the monstrous serial killer known as Libra, and Voodoo officer King Peacock is sent to Grand Central, the head office of the police force…
‘Rules of Engagement’ finds Peacock being given a particularly deadly form of the old run-around whilst the war between the Utramice and the Atomcats in Duane’s mother’s apartment has escalated to cosmic levels, in a brilliant swipe at comicbook mega-crossovers. And a long-running investigation is starting to look like a case for Internal Affairs…
‘Music for the Dead’ sees the death of one of the major cast members as the corruption suspicions are horrible confirmed in a brutal incident that also closes the Libra killer case for good.
‘His First Day on the New Job’ sees Joe Pi, the new (robotic) rookie experiencing some rather unsettling prejudice from his fellow officers and the funeral of the beloved colleague he’s replacing: And the volume – in fact, the original series – concludes with ‘Court on the Street’, with an atypical clear win for the Good Guys when they go after the influential cronies of the deceased Libra Killer.
This cross-genre mix is immensely entertaining reading and the subtle shades of the writing are matched in full by Gene Ha’s beautiful, complex, detail-studded art. This is a must-read series for jaded fans and newcomers with an open, imaginative mind. Although the series finished here there were a number of follow-up miniseries.
© 2005 America’s Best Comics LLC. All Rights Reserved.