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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/598638.Top_Ten?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Top Ten (Book 1)" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1176154070m/598638.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/598638.Top_Ten?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Top Ten</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3961.Alan_Moore">Alan Moore</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/16906895?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars This isn't so much a review as it is a list of reasons why I loved this book in the event I ever get retrograde amnesia and forget. With Top Ten, Alan Moore once again reminds us why he is quite possibly the greatest comic book writer, living or dead. 
 
 The multiple plots are engrossing, entertaining, and masterfully woven together. The writing is funny, sincere, and dramatic but never labored or hokey. Moore does a great job lampooning the convenions of typical comic book stories, such as the rebirth/cloning/resurrection of a dead hero and the multi-issue secret/crisis/infinity/cosmic war which results in the resetting of an entire universe and/or timeline. Great stuff. Where the book really shined for me were the characters. There are a dozen or so main-ish characters whom we get to know well during the course of the novel. They all have rich personalities and powers, and Moore fleshes them out well, while at the same time leaving the reader wanting to know more about their backstories and sidestories. In the space of a few hundred pages Moore has created some of the most memorable comic book characters in recent memory. It's a shame this book only ran for 12 issues and that we'll (probably) never get to know them better.
 
 The art is incredibly detailed and, like the streets of Neopolis, packed with coloful costumed heroes. It's filled with visual Easter Eggs for comic book fans, like Professor X in his yellow hoverchair at a rally for handicapped rights, the trapezoidal tombstones from "Days of Future Past", and a Black Bolt-ish mime street performer. I sometimes found myself scouring the panels like a "Where's Waldo?" book, looking for these hidden little gems. 
 
 I had originally given "Book 1" four stars, but after finishing "Book 2" I bumped them up to five. The final few issues really sealed Top Ten up with a bow and hammered home the point that Alan Moore had created an outstanding series in these dozen issues. In lesser hands Top Ten could have ended up a cheezy amalgam of "Law & Order" and "Superfriends", but Moore's work is greater than the sum of its parts. 
 
 Speaking of crappy superhero/cop hack jobs, for the life of me, I wish I could have back the 45 minutes I wasted reading Powers. Brian Michael Bendis and whoever he got to do his crappy cut-and-paste computer artwork have nothing on this book. 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/214862?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Jace's review
rating:
bookshelves: comics
recommended for: fans of comics, cops

This isn't so much a review as it is a list of reasons why I loved this book in the event I ever get retrograde amnesia and forget. With Top Ten, Alan Moore once again reminds us why he is quite possibly the greatest comic book writer, living or dead.

The multiple plots are engrossing, entertaining, and masterfully woven together. The writing is funny, sincere, and dramatic but never labored or hokey. Moore does a great job lampooning the convenions of typical comic book stories, such as the rebirth/cloning/resurrection of a dead hero and the multi-issue secret/crisis/infinity/cosmic war which results in the resetting of an entire universe and/or timeline. Great stuff. Where the book really shined for me were the characters. There are a dozen or so main-ish characters whom we get to know well during the course of the novel. They all have rich personalities and powers, and Moore fleshes them out well, while at the same time leaving the reader wanting to know more about ...more This isn't so much a review as it is a list of reasons why I loved this book in the event I ever get retrograde amnesia and forget. With Top Ten, Alan Moore once again reminds us why he is quite possibly the greatest comic book writer, living or dead.

The multiple plots are engrossing, entertaining, and masterfully woven together. The writing is funny, sincere, and dramatic but never labored or hokey. Moore does a great job lampooning the convenions of typical comic book stories, such as the rebirth/cloning/resurrection of a dead hero and the multi-issue secret/crisis/infinity/cosmic war which results in the resetting of an entire universe and/or timeline. Great stuff. Where the book really shined for me were the characters. There are a dozen or so main-ish characters whom we get to know well during the course of the novel. They all have rich personalities and powers, and Moore fleshes them out well, while at the same time leaving the reader wanting to know more about their backstories and sidestories. In the space of a few hundred pages Moore has created some of the most memorable comic book characters in recent memory. It's a shame this book only ran for 12 issues and that we'll (probably) never get to know them better.

The art is incredibly detailed and, like the streets of Neopolis, packed with coloful costumed heroes. It's filled with visual Easter Eggs for comic book fans, like Professor X in his yellow hoverchair at a rally for handicapped rights, the trapezoidal tombstones from "Days of Future Past", and a Black Bolt-ish mime street performer. I sometimes found myself scouring the panels like a "Where's Waldo?" book, looking for these hidden little gems.

I had originally given "Book 1" four stars, but after finishing "Book 2" I bumped them up to five. The final few issues really sealed Top Ten up with a bow and hammered home the point that Alan Moore had created an outstanding series in these dozen issues. In lesser hands Top Ten could have ended up a cheezy amalgam of "Law & Order" and "Superfriends", but Moore's work is greater than the sum of its parts.

Speaking of crappy superhero/cop hack jobs, for the life of me, I wish I could have back the 45 minutes I wasted reading Powers. Brian Michael Bendis and whoever he got to do his crappy cut-and-paste computer artwork have nothing on this book. ...less

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