Top 10: The Forty-Niners HC
Jan. 13th, 2007 11:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catalyst2Finished reading this last night and loved every panel of it. I haven't read any other Top 10 book so I really have started at the beginning since this is the story of the founding of Neopolis in 1949, a couple of years after World War 2 finishes (well, finishes in this existence, any way!)
The story starts with the arrival of Jetlad (Steve Traynor) and the Skywitch (Leni Muller) into the ghetto that is Neopolis - a place for all the slightly embarrassing and no-longer-needed superheroes (sorry, science-heroes) to go to now that they are an anachronism. The story is of their struggle to adapt to this strange existence where the bizarre is the everyday - witness Puzzleman being assaulted and calling out for help in the form of crossword clues like "Bantam popsicles 4,7" ("Cock suckers", if you can't do cryptic crosswords).
The other array of creatures and people that Leni and Steve run into are characterized well and, like all of Moore's work that I have read so far, set in a plot that is just fantastical enough to be enthralling without being so far-fetched as to disrupt my suspension of disbelief. In particular, the question of how you police a city populated by science-heroes and other creatures is just fascinating. Equally, there are enough people wrestling with personal demons that there is also enough tension and angst to keep the story flying along at a great pace. I also love the way Moore uses tiny details that were slipped into very early pages of the story as major plot points later on - witness Steel Gauntlet's confession near the end of the story.
The whole package is impressive - script, art and colours although, as a HC, this has absolutely no extras, not an introduction or even rough sketches!
The story starts with the arrival of Jetlad (Steve Traynor) and the Skywitch (Leni Muller) into the ghetto that is Neopolis - a place for all the slightly embarrassing and no-longer-needed superheroes (sorry, science-heroes) to go to now that they are an anachronism. The story is of their struggle to adapt to this strange existence where the bizarre is the everyday - witness Puzzleman being assaulted and calling out for help in the form of crossword clues like "Bantam popsicles 4,7" ("Cock suckers", if you can't do cryptic crosswords).
The other array of creatures and people that Leni and Steve run into are characterized well and, like all of Moore's work that I have read so far, set in a plot that is just fantastical enough to be enthralling without being so far-fetched as to disrupt my suspension of disbelief. In particular, the question of how you police a city populated by science-heroes and other creatures is just fascinating. Equally, there are enough people wrestling with personal demons that there is also enough tension and angst to keep the story flying along at a great pace. I also love the way Moore uses tiny details that were slipped into very early pages of the story as major plot points later on - witness Steel Gauntlet's confession near the end of the story.
The whole package is impressive - script, art and colours although, as a HC, this has absolutely no extras, not an introduction or even rough sketches!
