While basically every comic fan knows Alan Moore (and usually have their own strong opinions about the man and his work), I do wish his series Top 10 were better-known. Like his other titles in the ABC (America’s Best Comics) line like Tom Strong and Tomorrow Stories, Top 10 was a wonderful look at Alan Moore rediscovering the fun and joy of comics right before DC broke his heart for the last time.
The premise was that it was a police dramadey in the style of Hill Street Blues (a major influence on Babylon 5), but with a twist: in this world, every single person and even the animals themselves are costumed superheroes. The cops are superheroes, the civilians are superheroes, and even cats and dogs are superheroes.
One of my favorite subplots was the one involving the mother of one of the cops, who discovers a strange hole in her apartment.
So if you’ve got an infestation of superhero mice, you’ve got to call a superhero exterminator to bring in some superhero cats!
Unfortunately, the mice prove more formidable than expected, and because it’s a huge superhero battle, it eventually draws the attention of higher beings.
The subplot ends when the cops return to the apartment, only to reveal that they have no memory of the mice nor cats ever existing. The cosmic battle led to a Crisis reboot, wiping them all out of existence and rewriting the universe! So they have no idea why this exterminator is harassing an old lady, demanding to be paid.
