Top 10 Is so Good

Hardtarget

Couldn't find a topic on this yet so lets discuss!

So on a whim I picked up Top 10 trades 1 and 2 last week. They are fucking fantastic.

Book 1


Book 2


Sometimes I think Alan Moore hates Superheroes, other times I think he LOVES them.

Today I managed to pick up Smax which apparently takes place right after Book 2, I'm quite excited to read it in a few minutes.



I have not yet been able to find The Forty-Niners or Beyond the Farthest Precinct, how are they? They look awesome.




I guess that wraps it up really, I just wanted to tell anybody who hasn't yet read Top 10 to go do so immediately, I don't know what the hell took me so long to do it.

Target Practice

Forty-Niners is great. It's a prequel, it's about the founding of Neopolis, beginning with Jetman's arrival.

Beyond the Farthest Precinct is dogshit. Don't even bother with it.

Hardtarget

ya.. I was wondering about that since it wasn't written by Moore..

That's too bad it was bad, You'd think he would of cleared it first.

Target Practice

Hardtarget wrote:

ya.. I was wondering about that since it wasn't written by Moore..

That's too bad it was bad, You'd think he would of cleared it first.

Uh

I don't think you understand how these things work. For one thing, Alan Moore left Wildstorm in protest of its being sold to DC. For another, the publisher owns the property, not the creator.

Furu

Target Practice wrote:

Hardtarget wrote:

ya.. I was wondering about that since it wasn't written by Moore..

That's too bad it was bad, You'd think he would of cleared it first.

Uh

I don't think you understand how these things work. For one thing, Alan Moore left Wildstorm in protest of its being sold to DC. For another, the publisher owns the property, not the creator.

You have to wonder why writers would bother making new concepts under non-creator owned imprints.

Sumaleth

I read the four Moore books in the last couple of months.

The first two books make a great pair. There's not much out there that would be more creative. And Smax was hilarious. I wasn't as keen on 49ers as I know some people are -- it had its moments, but I found it just a little bit dull over all. Though that's only comparitively.

Red or Alive

Target Practice wrote:

Hardtarget wrote:

ya.. I was wondering about that since it wasn't written by Moore..

That's too bad it was bad, You'd think he would of cleared it first.

Uh

I don't think you understand how these things work. For one thing, Alan Moore left Wildstorm in protest of its being sold to DC. For another, the publisher owns the property, not the creator.

Eh?

Moore owns all of his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen work. He's taking it to another publisher after the Black Dossier is released. I see no reason why the rest of America's Best Comics wouldn't be creator-owned either. And quite a few other writers - Rick Veitch springs to mind - have written for ABC properties. Certainly, Moore would have had to have given permission for "Beyond the Farthest Precinct".

Also, Moore didn't leave due to DC buying up Wildstorm. This happened before production began on a single ABC comic, but after commitments had been made to various artists, so Moore felt obliged to continue on with Wildstorm. He actually left due to a series of, well, incidents culminating with Joel Silver lying about Moore's reaction to the V for Vendetta script.

Sorry to bitch, but this is all pretty well documented.

Hardtarget

Target Practice wrote:

Hardtarget wrote:

ya.. I was wondering about that since it wasn't written by Moore..

That's too bad it was bad, You'd think he would of cleared it first.

Uh

I don't think you understand how these things work. For one thing, Alan Moore left Wildstorm in protest of its being sold to DC. For another, the publisher owns the property, not the creator.

you have no damned idea what you are talking about do you? Red or Alive is right on the mark with what he said and I'm sure Moore had some sort of relationship with that new top 10 story, unfortunately he probably didn't have enough of one.

lostwords

Ehh, Beyond the Farthest Precint wasn't awful, worht a look to catch up on some of the awesome characters in Top Ten. Its just missing that extra piece of magic that made the other books so awesome.

My favorite characters would have to be King Peacock and Joe Pi (especially his handling of the hostage standoff with the Superman knock-off). Really love the characterization, and the Ghostly Goose. Using your powers to touch women's behinds? Best use of superpowers ever.

DMAC

There was a Top 10 handbook single issue that came out a little while back. Not too much to it but the double page spread of the city by Gene Ha was mind boggling. I think he may be some sort of alien... or maybe a robot.

Grifter

What I love the most is all of the little background characters that you see running around who are obviously based on well known characters from DC and Marvel. Trying to spot those and figure out who they are supposed to be is a lot of fun.

Red or Alive

The transporter issue is kind of legendary in my house. Everybody in my family's read it and not a one of them - including myself - hasn't teared up at the story's end.

It's actually one of the better books to give to people as a kind of introduction to comic books in general, because - while it's great for long-time fans in that every panel is filled with innumerable cute homages - it works almost perfectly as a police procedural. Which, with the popularity of CSI et al creates a kind of comfort factor for the masses.

Also, while we're touching on ABC as a whole, Promethea is quite superb. Not everyone's cup of tea, I admit, but it's really quite different from anything else published by the Big Two, and - examined as a sort of lecture on (the idea of) magic, it's utterly fascinating. Though it does, I think, show up Moore's weakness when it comes to writing naturalistic dialogue, especially in the first trade. Still, pick it up if you're looking for something different; though be aware that things don't really get rolling until at least the latter half of the second trade.

Fellhand

Smax is just an amazing book. So many fantastic elements in it.

[spoiler:f5de4ac901] like iron [/spoiler:f5de4ac901]

Hardtarget

Finished Smax last night and I must say it was absolutely fantastic, and not at all what I had imagined it would be.

As was mentioned the background elements are quite amazing in these books, and almost always hilarious.

Mai-Kero

Smax is pretty much the best thing ever.

[spoiler:6b1e8a001e]How. Many. Dwarves![/spoiler:6b1e8a001e]

Herr Caesar

I bought the first TPB at Comic-Con but haven't read it yet.