Review: Top 10: Beyond the Farthest Precinct by Paul Di Filippo and Jerry Ordway

Comic trade paperback, 122 pages
Published 2006 (contents: 2005-06) 
Acquired and read September 2016

Top 10: Beyond the Farthest Precinct

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Writer: Paul Di Filippo

Artist: Jerry Ordway
Colors: Wendy Broome, Jeromy Cox, Jonny Rench with Randy Mayor
Letters: Todd Klein

The third Top 10 book picks up five years after the previous one, with a set of new recruits joining the Neopolis Police Department at the same time the mayor puts a new commissioner in charge. New writer Paul Di Filippo tries to do like Alan Moore did, and balance a number of ongoing plots, but with more characters and fewer issues, it seems like nothing gets the time it deserves. Interesting ideas are raised and then never come back, or have almost no impact on the story. How was Joe Pi affected by his undercover mission? Did Smax ever find an apartment that would suit the residency requirement? What happened to the new precinct captain and the new mayor's war on terror? Where did Toy Box's boyfriend come from anyway?

Yeah,why not introduce magic powers from a magic box to resolve the corner you've written yourself into?
from Top 10: Beyond the Farthest Precinct #5

The death of a key character's family member warrants a mere page; the resurrection of another key character doesn't even get that. (Why bring someone back to life and give them one line of dialogue in over a hundred pages?) The overarching plotline is tied up when some guy just turns up and tells someone she has a power she didn't know about. That power works, the end. It's nice to see these characters and concepts again, but Di Filippo doesn't do them justice: this book has neither the laughs nor the drama of the first two. I hope that when Zander Cannon takes over as writer, it's better than this.

Clear and communicative and unassuming: the best of comic art.
from Top 10: Beyond the Farthest Precinct #3

Who does do Top 10 justice is Jerry Ordway. Ordway is one of those guys who should always be drawing more comics, and his traditional heroic style is different than that of Gene Ha and Zander Cannon, but just as suited to Neopolis and its inhabitants. He has a mastery of facial expressions, and the storytelling is always clean and clear. The book looks great even when nothing great is happening.