Working Class Heroes: Top 10
Alan Moore is a legend in the world of comics. Watchmen, V for Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The dude himself is I guess kind of a creepy old hermit, but his writing shaped the landscape of comics as it is today. Forget the movies based on the above mentioned works (which range from noble attempts to unwatchable train wrecks) – Moore wrote the book on deconstructing the medium, and reassembling it into something entirely new.
For my money, though, the best thing he ever wrote was Top Ten
The setup involves something about the proliferation of costumed heroes and villains after World War II, and the government hiring Nazi super scientists to build a futuristic mega city where they could sort of lock them all up together, but that isn’t the point. The book itself takes the shape of a Law & Order style police procedural. Although the plots feature all of the gritty, heinous stuff you’d expect from Alan Moore, none of it builds up to any big earth-shattering conclusion. Top 10 isn’t about that. It’s about a bunch of cops who are usually in over their heads, and just trying to get through the day.
What really sets it apart from most of Moore’s other work, though, is its sense of humor. I don’t know if he just thought up this comic on a good day, or if it’s the influence of artists Zander Cannon and Gene Ha, but Top 10 is a hoot. And although the book is packed with inside jokes and comic book satire, the characters feel more human than anything I’ve seen in Alan Moore’s collected works. They have their secret crushes and petty arguments, their flaws and moments of nobility, and normal lives when they clock off for the day. At the center of this big, over-the-top super powered premise, Moore is freed up to tell stories about regular folks.
You know, regular folks with electric blasts and nuclear powered battle suits. God, I love this comic.
The core Top 10 is collected in two paperback volumes (or one big hardcover), with a few spin offs of various quality (Smax is delightful and The Forty-Niners is definitely worth a read, but avoid Beyond the Farthest Precinct as if your life depends on it). I’ve also been told that Cannon and Ha are continuing the series as Top Ten: Season 2 with Moore’s blessing.
I haven’t seen those yet, but they have a tough act to follow. Those first two volumes are like my favorite thing ever.
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