 Top 10 was based on an incredibly simple concept: take a cop show,
like Hill Street Blues or NYPD Blue, and place it not only in a super-hero universe
but in a city that had only super-heroes for residents. In other words, if Stephen Bochco took
acid and made a super-hero series, this would be something like it. But the series went far
beyond its initial premise, imagining how this city of super-heroes might function socially.
For example, androids face descrimination, sometimes vile and sometimes humorous, as when an
android police officer uses (in #12) the expectation of robotic incompitence to disable his own
taping mechanism which would otherwise record his coworker contemplating illegal action.
Additionally, the backgrounds were full with clever references to the entire history of
super-heroics. The series suggested that sidekicks were pedophilic, previously only done with
any prominence and depth in Rick Veitch's Bratpack. The series had good characterization,
intelligence and imagination, and a good deal of humor. Its twelve-issue run justifiably
received numerous awards that placed it ahead of the other books by
America's Best Comics.
In concluding with the twelfth issue, though not for economic reasons, it became the first
ongoing America's Best series to come to an end.
In 2001, as the series was coming to an end, its world was promised to
return in 2002 in two new projects: Smax the Barbarian, following Smax and the wounded
Robyn as they visit his home for his uncle's funeral with art by Zander Cannon, and
The Forty-Niners, an original graphic novel showing the chief's past with art by Gene Ha.
Smax appeared as a five-issue mini-series in 2003; it was an enjoyable take on the
fantasy genre, though not as enjoyable as Top 10. The Forty-Niners has yet to
appear.
|
| IMAGE | TITLE | DESCRIPTION | STATUS |
 |
1. Top 10
| |
|
| Top 10 #1-12, Smax #1-5: Alan Moore script |
| Top 10 #1-12: Gene Ha and Zander Cannon art |
| Top 10 #1 | 32 pages; contains a 2-page text feature entitled "Powers of Arrest: Precinct Ten and Social Super-Vision"; Alex Ross cover; cover-dated September 1999 | 1 |
| Top 10 #1 [alternate cover], 2-11: Gene Ha and Zander Cannon cover |
| Top 10 #1 [alternate cover] | Gene Ha & Zander Cannon cover | Needed |
| Top 10 #2 | cover-dated October 1999 | 1 |
| Top 10 #3 | cover-dated November 1999 | 1 |
| Top 10 #4 | cover-dated December 1999 | 1 |
| Top 10 #5 | cover-dated January 2000 | 1 |
| Top 10 #6 | cover-dated February 2000 | 1 |
Larger Version Available |
Top 10: Book One | collects Top 10 #1-6
[REVIEW AND PURCHASE THIS BOOK]
| Needed |
Larger Version Available |
Top 10: Book One [hardcover edition] | published months prior to the softcover | Needed |
| Top 10 #7 | cover-dated April 2000 | 1 |
| Top 10 #8 | cover-dated June 2000 | 1 |
| Top 10 #9 | cover-dated October 2000; published on Wednesday, 9 August 2000 | 1 |
| Top 10 #10 | cover-dated January 2001; published on Wednesday, 15 November 2000 | 1 |
| The 8-page Top 10 short story (featuring vampires, written by Alan Moore, and with art by Zander Cannon) from
America's Best Comics Special,
published on 29 December 2000, may occur here |
| Top 10 #11 | cover-dated May 2001; published on Wednesday, 14 March 2001 | 1 |
an unfinished form without titles or indicia
Larger Version Available
| Top 10 #12 | final issue; 32 pages of story plus an ad for a letters page; cover-dated October 2001; published on Wednesday, 29 August 2001 | 1 |
|
2. Smax
| |
|
| Smax #1-5: Zander Cannon and Andrew Currie art; Zander Cannon cover |
| Smax #1 | cover-dated October 2003; published on Wednesday, 20 August 2003 | 1 |
without titles or indicia
Larger Version Available
| Smax #2 | cover-dated November 2003 | 1 |
| Smax #3 | | 0 |
without titles or indicia
Larger Version Available
| Smax #4 | Toybox discovers that her technology doesn't work; cover-dated February 2004 | 1 |
without titles or indicia
Larger Version Available
| Smax #5 | final issue | 0 |
