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| Top 10: The Forty-Niners | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Cover to graphic novel. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | America's Best Comics |
| Publication date | 2005 |
| No. of issues | 1 |
| Main character(s) | Steve "Jetlad" Traynor |
| Creative team | |
| Written by | Alan Moore |
| Artist(s) | Gene Ha |
| Letterer(s) | Todd Klein |
| Colorist(s) | Art Lyon |
Top 10: The Forty-Niners is a graphic novel published by America's Best Comics in 2005. It is a prequel to the ABC series Top 10, a police procedural set in the city of Neopolis, where superpowers, robots, monsters, and other comic fodder are the norm for all citizens. It was written by Alan Moore, drawn by Gene Ha, and colored by Art Lyon, with lettering, logos, and design by Todd Klein. Unlike the original series and its spin-off Smax, it was released in one 112 page edition instead of being released in separate issues and collected later. It won the 2006 Eisner Award in the "Best Graphic Album: New" category.
The Forty-Niners is set in 1949, in the founding days of Neopolis. After World War II, realizing that average citizens do not want to live next door to the science heroes, mutants, and robots largely responsible for the Allied victory, the U.S. government built Neopolis, where all of these exceptional people can live together. The story primarily follows a young Steve Traynor, a.k.a. Jetlad, the boy fighter ace who will later become Captain of Neopolis Police Precinct 10, from which the series derives its name. The primary story lines follow Jetlad's meeting with the great love of his life (seen at the end of Top 10: Book 2) and the formative days of the Neopolis Police, as they try to prove that they can bring order to the chaos of Neopolis in the face of vampire gangsters and bigotry against robots.
The story features several characters who either appear in the original Top 10 or else who are alluded to in conversation or background picture.