Line #17 ComicBook/TopTen


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/toptencover.png]]
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4	A PoliceProcedural ComicBook with a twist, written by Creator/AlanMoore, drawn by Zander Cannon and Gene Ha, and published by Creator/AmericasBestComics. ''Top 10'' follows the lives of the officers of precinct 10, Top Ten, as they patrol the streets of [[CityOfAdventure Neopolis]]. The twist is that every single man, woman, and child in Neopolis is a costumed "[[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Science Hero]]" complete with CodeName. Despite the [[FantasyKitchenSink fantastic]] setting, the PoliceProcedural premise is played [[MundaneFantastic completely straight]]. Transportation accidents, a SerialKiller targeting [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold prostitutes]], and a pervert groping women are all things they deal with. The twist is that instead of car accidents there are [[TeleFrag teleportation accidents]], the SerialKiller is a [[EldritchAbomination grotesque]] space alien [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifting]] [[GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe ex-porn star]] and the prostitutes include Immune Girl whose power is that she can't get AIDS or [[TheCorruption S.T.O.R.M.S.]] (a [[BodyHorror mutagenic]] form of VD), while the pervert groping women is a [[VoluntaryShapeshifting shapeshifter]] who just shifts into the form of a chair.
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6	There was a twelve issue series published in 1999-2000, plus a SpinOff, ''ComicBook/{{Smax}}'', published in 2003, and a prequel, ''The Forty-Niners'', published in 2005, all written by Creator/AlanMoore. Also in 2005, another five-issue series set five years later was published - written by Paul Di Filippo and drawn by Jerry Ordway - which pretty much nobody liked, as well as "Season Two", ''another'' five-issue series written by Zander Cannon with Gene Ha returning on art in 2008, which most people did. While 2005's ''Beyond the Furthest Precinct'' was an {{Anvilicious}} TakeThat towards the Bush administration, ''Season Two'' was much more faithful to the original series and avoided the pitfalls of ''Beyond...'' by [[{{Retcon}} completely ignoring it]].
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8	Not to be confused with TopTenList.
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10	----
11	!!This series provides examples of:
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13	* TheAce: Joe Pi seems to have the perfect answer for everything, which causes a lot of friction with his fellow officers. After all, he's programmed that way...
14	%%* AffectionateParody: Of both {{Superhero}}es and {{Police Procedural}}s.
15	%%* AllMythsAreTrue
16	%%* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: By the bushel.
17	* AlternateUniverse / AnotherDimension: Basically, the basis of this world. Each precinct belongs to a different reality. To travel between dimensions you just need to go to the terminus station and get zapped up.
18	* ArtificialIntelligence: Joe Pi, the new member of Precinct 10 in issue 11. Comes from the cyber-governed parallel Turingville in Precinct Nine.
19	* AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever:
20	** In the case of Gograh, more like the five ''hundred'' foot whatever. And falling-down drunk to boot. He doesn't drink beer from cans, he drinks it from beer-filled truck tankers.
21	** One of King Peacock's foes in the arena is a giant, living statue/temple support beam, complete with part of a column stuck to her head.
22	%%* BadassLongcoat: Smax again.
23	* BadSanta: A powerful, delusional telekinetic dressed up as Santa Claus, stole some reindeer from a zoo, and fought off officers Smax, Slinger, Wornow, and Li until being finally subdued by Lovelace.
24	* BathroomStallGraffiti: In the storyline involving a murder at the Godz bar, the murder suspect hides in the restroom, where there's an entire wall covered in thematically-appropriate graffiti.
25	* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Commissioner Ultima [[spoiler: goes on a rampage because she's in desperate need for another Xenite fix, and had already killed Girl One and M'rrgla Qualtz in the process. Robyn proposes they simply give Ultima what she wants to make her stop, figuring she'll either calm down enough for them to detain her or she'll overdose. While Smax is still fighting Ultima, Robyn has one of her drones inject the Xenite into the back of her head. ''All'' of it. This plays out badly for Ultima ''and'' Robyn. Ultima immediately realizes she's been given too much and foams at the mouth knowing she's about to die. With her last breath she lets out an energy blast that would've killed Robyn had Smax not intervened. It does leave Robyn badly injured and hospitalized for the rest of the first series.]]
26	* BewareTheSuperman: Atoman is a rather blatant CaptainErsatz of Superman, but he appears rather hulking and muscular and is perpetually scowling in his first appearance. [[spoiler:He's also been raping his niece Atomaid and the other sidekicks to the Seven Sentinels for years.]]
27	* BilingualBonus: The big, profanity-sprouting vampire enforcer, who attacks Skywitch and The Maid during the vice raid in ''The Forty-Niners'' is called Miroslav Popov. Popov means "Son of the priest" in Roumanian.
28	* BlindDriving: The blindfolded taxi driver that steers by fate. He and his passengers always arrive where they need to be, but other people in the way... not so much.
29	* BrawnHilda: Irma is a stout, plain woman with violence-centred powers.
30	* BreakingTheGlassCeiling: Joe Pi is the first officer from the Ninth Parallel (an all-robot world) to serve in the Tenth Precinct. Since Neopolis still has... issues with its robot population, he initially faces a lot of hostility with his fellow officers.
31	* BrotherSisterIncest:
32	** The core of Smax's embarrassment about his home dimension. Not that it stops him from participating in it (and lying about it to his co-workers)... Well, except to Robyn. In the ''Smax'' miniseries, not only does she know and keep their secret but encourages Smax's sister Rexa to come live with him to Neopolis so they can be happy.
33	** In ''The Forty-Niners'', an incestuous relationship was forced on the superhuman twins Sturm and Drang by Nazi scientists hoping to breed more Aryan superhumans. Drang doesn't like it but knows her brother is [[DumbMuscle too slow]] to understand, so she's been seeing Herr Panzer on the side.
34	* BunnyEarsLawyer: Glushko's alcoholism is overlooked due to the "special talents" he brings to the table.
35	* CaptainErsatz and {{Expy}}: Listing the sheer number of these in Top 10 might cause the wiki to crash... Funnily enough, none of the main characters are obvious Ersatzen of comic book heroes besides Jetman, who is based on WWII boy aviators Airboy and Hop Harrigan.
36	** A number of the characters are Expies of the original regular characters in ''Series/HillStreetBlues'':
37	*** Captain Traynor is Captain Furillo
38	*** Sgt. Kemlo Caesar is Sgt. Esterhaus
39	*** King Peacock is Neal Washington
40	*** Duane Bodine is Mick Belker
41	*** Bill Bailey is Howard Hunter
42	*** Irma Geddon and Girl One are Andy Renko and Bobby Hill after a GenderFlip
43	*** Ernesto Gograh is Jesus Martinez
44	** The Libra killer's name and M.O. are based on the Scorpio killer from ''Film/DirtyHarry'', in turn based on the RealLife Zodiac.
45	** Professor Gunter Gromolko is based on Dr. Thaddeus Sivana from ''ComicBook/{{Shazam}}'', down to a unique EvilLaugh.
46	** Toybox's dad is Colonel/Major Lilliput, based on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Jumbo General Jumbo]] from ''Comicbook/TheBeano''.
47	** M'rglla Qualtz, the Vigilante From Venus, is a {{Gender Flip}}ped [[spoiler:and villainous]] version of the ComicBook/MartianManhunter.
48	** The Seven Sentinels and their {{Kid Sidekick}}s the Young Sentinels are very closely based on the Silver Age ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica and ComicBook/TeenTitans, with a '''very''' disturbing twist.
49	*** Atoman (Craig Wallace): Superman
50	*** The Hound (Lawrence Lomax): Batman
51	*** Sun Woman (Delia Spyros): Wonder Woman
52	*** Kingfisher (Perry Somerville): Hawkman
53	*** Sceptre (James Nile): Green Lantern
54	*** Black Boomerang (Gilbert Marchioness): Green Arrow
55	*** Davy Jones: Aquaman
56	*** Sizzler (Fields): Flash
57	** In ''The Forty-Niners'', the precinct captain is [[ComicBook/{{Superman}} a humanoid alien who came to Earth after his home planet was destroyed, dresses like a Golden Age Kryptonian, and disguises himself for a stake-out in a blue suit and glasses]].
58	* CaptainGeographic: One of the supporting characters in ''The Forty-Niners'' is an unnamed patriotic hero whose costume features white stars on a blue field, eagle motifs, and the year of the Declaration of Independence printed on his cowl.
59	* ChalkOutline: Smax gets Toybox to draw one around the victim in the Godz bar.
60	* ChillyReception: Joe Pi initially gets a cold response from some of the other cops, mostly because he's taking the place of a popular colleague who was killed in the line of duty. He quickly proves himself both on the streets and with his new partner's family.
61	* ChurchMilitant: The Maid, who is essentially a modern, superpowered Joan of Arc.
62	* CodeName: Absolutely everyone. Their drivers' licenses even have a space for one's A.E. (alter ego). Consequently, nobody really has a SecretIdentity.
63	* ColorBlindConfusion: [[UpliftedAnimal Hyperdog]] eventually reveals that he's color blind, which means that he's been able to see through the patterns on the skin of his partner [[ArtificialHuman Girl One]] (who was created by a couple of horny fanboys so she has to be naked all the time but ''does'' have a nudity taboo and uses the patterns to give her some modesty) and when she finds out [[AccidentalPervert he's been effectively seeing her naked this whole time]] she decks him. He tells her he's not attracted to human women as a way to try and defuse the situation, though we later learn he was lying about this when he enters a relationship with one.
64	* ComfortTheDying: One issue sees Peregrine called upon to provide comfort to a pair of aliens who have become fused with each other after a teleportation-related accident. She has the unhappy task of telling them that they will both likely die within a day.
65	* CompellingVoice: Harry "The Word" Lovelace, the hostage negotiator. His occasionally poor phrasing is played for comedy. When he uses his power, his printed dialogue turns red, like Jesse Custer in ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}''.
66	* ContrivedClumsiness: Joe Pi does this occasionally.
67	--> '''Joe Pi''': With typical machine clumsiness, I seem to have disabled my inbuilt audio taping system. This mean that if, for instance, a fellow officer should suggest something illegal, I won't have a record of it.
68	* CrisisCrossover: Parodied in a sideplot in which a character has an Ultra-Mouse infestation in his mother's apartment, so the Ex-Verminator releases Atom Cats to deal with them, but with so many super powered creatures in such a confined space, it turned into a "Whole Secret Crisis-War Crossover Thing" which eventually [[CosmicRetcon rewrote the time line]] so the Ultra-Mouse infestation never happened. The Ex-Verminator [[RippleEffectProofMemory remembers it]], and gets very upset about not getting paid for the job. This apparently happens to him a lot.
69	* CryingWolf: Shock-headed Pete takes pity on prostitute Immune Girl, and that same night she's murdered. A disgusted Phantom Jack assumes on his past behavior that Pete was just out for a freebie.
70	* CultureJustifiesAnything: The first defense that M'Rrgla Qualz' lawyer tries amounts basically to this.
71	* DeadPartner: Two officers at Precinct 10 take on new partners after a fellow officer died in the line of duty.
72	** Smax lost Stochastic Fats shortly before the series begins, leaving him to be paired with newcomer Toybox. Smax isn't the friendliest person to begin with, making for a very rough beginning to the partnership.
73	** Irma Geddon's partner [[spoiler: Girl One]] died [[spoiler: during the takedown of Commissioner Maxima]], so she gets paired with Joe Pi, a robotic officer transferred in from another precinct. Irma was very close to her old partner, who was practically an HonoraryAunt to her kids, and treats Joe very coldly for a time.
74	* DifferentWorldDifferentMovies: The existence of superheroes led to superhero comics not being popular, so most of the comics known from our world don't exist. Instead SliceOfLife comics are very popular.
75	* DirtyCop / KillerCop: Commissioner Ultima. Also a sort of FunctionalAddict on the FantasticDrug Xenite. When she goes on a murdering rampage in Precinct 10, they use it against her by giving her a fatal overdose.
76	* DisabilitySuperpower:
77	** Bob "Blindshot" Booker doesn't drive his cab, "the universe does." His "zen senses" let him take you where you ''need'' to be. Subverted slightly; He does cause his share of traffic accidents, but everything he does seems to ultimately help people.
78	** Synaesthesia's altered senses give her [[HyperAwareness intuition bordering on the psychic]] at times-- although ''interpreting'' said intuition can be a challenge.
79	* DoctorVonTurncoat: The US government recruited several Nazi scientists to help them build Neopolis, the first city entirely populated by super-powered individuals. This went sideways when the Nazi scientists tried to use time travel to win WWII for the Nazis.
80	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
81	** Peregrine catches her husband experimenting with "crossover dressing", or dressing up as a different science hero than yourself.
82	** Smax is very embarrassed about his homeland, a medieval fantasy world. Going there is framed like going to a backwater area that's so rural there's no electricity (because electricity literally doesn't work there), no one has any knowledge of basic sciences like physics, and they practice stereotypically hick customs like BrotherSisterIncest. Smax having a past of being a dragonslayer is comparable to him being a bounty hunter, with him having to go through paperwork for authorizationon his quests.
83	* DontAnswerThat: The series includes an anthromorphized shark lawyer who uses this trope as his entire strategy, essentially.
84	* DoubleStandard: Irma's prejudice against Joe Pi as not having real emotions, even considering her lingering grief for Sung Li, given that Girl One is also a robot, [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman but a far more human looking one]], whose own creator denounces not having real emotions.
85	* DreamingOfThingsToCome: Smax's dream in issue #6.
86	* EarlyBirdCameo: Harry "The Word" Lovelace appears in the background of a lunchroom scene a few issues before he's properly introduced.
87	* EasilyDetachableRobotParts: Joe Pi casually detaches his head and tucks it under his arm to amuse Irma's children.
88	* EasterEgg: Tons of superhero-related graffiti in the backgrounds.
89	* EveryoneIsASuper: Kind of the point...
90	* ExtraordinaryWorldOrdinaryProblems: Takes place in a city filled to the brim with people with superpowers, but most of the crimes that Precinct Ten has to deal with are mundane crimes like prostitution, domestic abuse, and public intoxication.
91	* {{Fanservice}}:
92	** Girl One and Girl Fifty-Four are both completely naked, although they can change their skin to appear as if they're wearing skintight clothing. Justified in that that's just what her creators, a couple of horny {{Fanboy}}s with too much time and money on their hands, designed them for.
93	** Jack Phantom wears a very flattering leotard-like outfit similar to that worn by a magician's assistant.
94	* FakeUltimateHero: The Seven Sentinels, a superhero team who have fought many monsters and defeated many alien invasions -- always in space, or in alternate universes, or in other conveniently-uncheckable locations.
95	* FantasticFantasyIsMundane: Because superheroes are real in this world, superhero comics never took off. Look carefully and you can see billboards advertising "Businessman (You'll Believe a Man Can't Fly!)"
96	* FantasticRacism:
97	** Mainly against robots (who prefer to be called Ferro-Americans, and don't like being called "[[FantasticSlurs clickers]]"). In ''The Forty-Niners'', there's a [[FantasticGhetto robot ghetto]] neighborhood, and [[spoiler:one of the characters is a robot passing as human by telling people his exoskeleton is PoweredArmor]].
98	** Precognitives have very stringent restrictions on where they can work, so Irma's husband Ron spends most of his appearances job-hunting.
99	** There doesn't seem to be a very high public opinion of vampires, either. They would like you to think that this is unreasoning prejudice against your average innocent "Hungarian American with an inherited medical condition", but if there is such a thing as an innocent vampire he or she hasn't appeared yet.
100	** On Grand Central, an alternate Earth where the Roman Empire never fell, King Peacock is looked down upon for his skin color, since there "nubians" are mostly slaves.
101	* FantasyKitchenSink: The world of ''Top Ten'' features a little bit of every fictional genre imagined filtered through the superhero lens. The police chief was a member of a squadron of pilots who fought in World War II, the commissioner's from a world where the Roman Empire survived into the present day, and some of the officers include a modern day cowboy, a talking robot, and a half-breed ogre from a magical kingdom.
102	* ForeseeingMyDeath: M'rrgla Qualtz gets a vision of her upcoming death. In the event she forces the issue by attacking her killer-to-be on sight and getting slain in self-defense, but it's not clear if it's a SelfFulfillingProphecy because the killer then proceeds to lay waste to the surroundings, so she might well have died in any case.
103	* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampires: Averted; vampires are the equivalent of TheMafia, complete with the traditional [[VampireVords Old Country accent]].
104	* FunTShirt:
105	** Sgt Caesar's dress sense goes in for dog-inflected versions of fashionable or humorous t-shirts, such as the one with the slogan ''What part of "ARF" don't you understand?''.
106	** When King Peacock visits an alternate parallel where the Roman Empire never fell, there's a tourist in the background wearing a T-shirt that says, "I came, I saw, I bought this lousy T-shirt".
107	* GodivaHair: Jennifer from ''Beyond the Farthest Precinct''. Goes well with the 6' tall mermaid look.
108	* HappilyMarried:
109	** Irma Geddon and her [[PsychicPowers psychic]] husband Ron.
110	** Peregrine and her hubby.
111	** Captain Jetman [[spoiler:and Wulf]].
112	* HarmfulToMinors: The Seven Sentinels. [[spoiler:Their so-called battles in outer space and other dimensions are really a cover to hide they're a child molestation operation, and have been sexually abusing their children/sidekicks for years.]]
113	* HeelFaceTurn: In ''The Forty-Niners'', Leni "Skywitch" Muller was originally a German science hero, but defected to the Allies in 1943, apparently because she disapproved of the policies of the Nazis.
114	* HollywoodSatanism: Averted. King Peacock subscribes to the indigenous beliefs of the Yazidis, a real life group from the Middle East. Yazidi religion was historically accused of being devil worship because of doctrinal peculiarities, but it's hardly a human-sacrificing ReligionOfEvil and isn't portrayed as such here.
115	* HolyWater: The Maid, being a superpowered JeanneDArchetype, has various religious powers. In the climax of ''The Forty-Niners'', as Neopolis faces a mass attack by vampires, she turns the tide by blessing the city's reservoir, causing every hydrant in the city to give out holy water.
116	* HotSkittyOnWailordAction: With very grim realism in the story of Jeff's conception.
117	* {{Hypocrite}}: PlayedForDrama: After busting a pedophile ring of supers preying on their sidekicks, Traynor starts drawing some uncomfortable parallels to his own relationship with Wulf. He was Wulf's sidekick, they started dating when Traynor was sixteen and thus still underage, and they have been HappilyMarried for decades now. He starts wondering if he has been living in AMatchMadeInStockholm all this time, or, worse, that he has denied a large group of people the same kind of loving relationship he is in by labeling his as alright, but theirs as wrong, illegal and sick.
118	* HypocriticalHumor:
119	** Shock-Headed Peter is strongly bigoted against robots and is eventually kicked off the force for an unsolicited assault on Joe Pi; he starts dating the android Girl Two shortly thereafter.
120	** In ''The Forty-Niners'', a gangster shaking down Scowling Joe's Bar responds to the arrival of the newly-formed police force with the question "Who the [[SymbolSwearing £$%&]] are you?", and Steelgauntlet admonishes him for cussing when there are ladies present. "Yeah, you tell 'em! You tell 'em they don't [[SymbolSwearing £$%&]] with Joe!" says one of the ladies in question.
121	* InnocentFanserviceGirl / ShamelessFanserviceGirl:
122	** Subverted with Girl One, who is naked at all times with the excuse that her shifting skin pigments mean she doesn't technically have to wear clothes -- but she subverts the trope by being quite aware of the nudity taboo, but [[HypnoFool engineered by her creators to have an aversion to wearing clothing]]. When she finds out Hyperdog doesn't see color and can see through her "clothes", she decks him for not warning her.
123	** Jennifer from ''Beyond'' also counts, as (quite literal) green skinned mermaid, she wears nothing more than GodivaHair (and, technically, a fishbowl installed on a segway).
124	** Later versions of [[spoiler:the Girl series]] have [[spoiler:the same genetically enforced nudity compulsion, but better or worse luck hiding it, gaining acceptance, etc. Girl 54 is readily accepted back in the force and retains the same quirks; Girl Two's nudity was quickly picked up on by the public at large -- she was [[NearRapeExperience harassed by criminals]] until she quit the force; an unnamed Girl was running around with the villains during one arc, her skin solid black except for a star pattern -- hiding nothing.]]
125	* InterspeciesRomance: Human [[HookerWithAHeartOfGold prostitute]] Annette "Neural 'Nette" Duvalle and Police Sergeant Kemlo "Hyperdog" Caesar, a [[UpliftedAnimal dog with human intelligence]] and a metallic exo-frame that allows him to move like an human.
126	* InTheFutureWeStillHaveRoombas: Which Robyn uses to fight crime.
127	* IsItAlwaysLikeThis: NaiveNewcomer Toybox asks this in the first issue. Jackie Phantom replies, "No, Mondays are usually quiet, but it picks up later in the week."
128	* ItWillNeverCatchOn: ''The Forty-Niners'' ends with Wulf saying "I give it six months", speaking both of his new romantic relationship and of Neopolis itself. Because it's a prequel, we know already that both will endure and thrive for decades to come.
129	* JeanneDArchetype: The Maid, who is even named [[PunnyName Joanna Dark]].
130	* JediMindTrick: M'rrgla Qualtz's telepathic seductions, which she uses on both Monsoon and Jack Phantom.
131	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Smax is a gruff and caustic asshole at first. But later, he gives Robyn a ride home, [[spoiler:starts caring for her dad, and even visits her in the hospital after she's injured by Ultima.]]
132	* KarmicSTD: Andy "Airbag" Soames' years of infidelity comes back to bite him in the ass when he contracts S.T.O.R.M.S., which is essentially AIDS for superheroes.
133	* KissOfTheVampire: Vampire prostitution. Even the prostitutes themselves are creeped out by the guys who just want them to lay there...
134	* LawOfConservationOfNormality: Even for a city full of superbeings, life's still got the same old problems.
135	* LivingStatue: Detective Corbeau fights one in a [[GladiatorGames gladiatorial]] match in issue 9: Gina "The Caryatid" Marconi of Precinct One is literally a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caryatid caryatid]], a huge marble column with female form, complete with capital. Corbeau defeats her in a moment by breaking off her left foot.
136	* LogicBomb: Jokingly invoked by Joe Pi.
137	-->'''Irma Geddon''': You know, you AIs are almost too cute. How do I unplug you when you take over the world?\
138	'''Joe Pi''': Ask me the purpose of existence, and I explode.
139	* LoverAndBeloved: Steve Traynor's and Wulf's relationship began this way, since Traynor was Wulf's sidekick. By the time of ''Top 10'', they've been a HappilyMarried (in a sense) couple for about 50 years.
140	* MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight: One storyline involves a Nazi mad scientist creating a time machine to change the outcome of UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
141	* MeaningfulEcho: Toybox's first call-out after being assigned to the tenth precinct is a domestic assault, the most recent of many for the couple in question. Joe Pi's first call-out after being assigned to the tenth precinct is a death, which turns out to be the result of the same couple's deteriorating relationship finally going too far.
142	* MisterBig: The Vampire mafia is led by Grigori "Little Greg" Irinescu, who has to stand on his desk so people can kiss his ring without getting on all fours.
143	* ModernMayincatecEmpire: The crowd at the Transworld Transport Terminus in issue 8 includes a group in {{Mayincatec}} outfits - representatives of the same transdimensional invaders seen in an early issue of ''ComicBook/TomStrong''.
144	* MonochromePast: ''The Forty-Niners'' is not full monochrome, but has a muted color palette compared to the stories set in the present.
145	* MortonsFork: Irma tears into Joe Pi for "not caring enough" to attend Irma's previous partner's funeral. Joe apologizes, but points out that doing so would probably leave people upset that a robot was "faking emotions". Irma apologizes to Joe for being a jerk, and recognizes that there was no way for him to win that one.
146	* MostCommonSuperPower: Both used and averted; some science-heroines fit the trope, yet (in keeping with the "average Joes with capes" theme of the series) most just look like ordinary women in bright colors and masks.
147	* MsFanservice: Girl One. Literally so, as her creators created her with fanservice tropes in mind, and programmed [[InnocentFanserviceGirl some of them]] into her genetics. However, she [[MegatonPunch dislikes]] being viewed this way.
148	* MultipleHeadCase: Dispatcher Linda "Janus" Burnett, like the Roman god, has a face on the back of her head. "Front-Jan" and "Back-Jan" are distinct individuals (even with their own boyfriends) and spend a decent amount of the first series bickering and competing with each other. The events in ''Beyond'' get her to ResignInProtest and go back to her parents (who are two-faced like her) and she's replaced with a ''three''-faced woman named Tara.
149	* TheMultiverse: There is communication with, and travel to, other timelines, each with its own Precinct. Precinct One is in an alternate timeline where Rome never fell (or, as they prefer to think of it, all the other Precincts are in weird alternate timelines where Rome didn't last as long).
150	* MundaneFantastic: A PoliceProcedural in a city where everyone from bums to schoolkids, tycoons to hookers has a superpower, or is an alien, a god, a cyborg, an enhanced animal or some other kind of superhero/villain, and they're all just getting on with their lives.
151	* MyHorseIsAMotorbike: In ''The Forty-Niners'', the Black Rider is a Zorro-inspired hero who "cuts a dashing figure" atop his motorcycle Midnight.
152	* NaiveNewcomer:
153	** The main series begins with Robyn "Toybox" Slinger arriving for her first day at work.
154	** ''The Forty-Niners'' begins with Steve Traynor and Leni Muller arriving in Neopolis for the first time.
155	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: When not in costume, Peregrine's appearance is based on 90s fitness guru Susan Powter. {{Lampshaded}}; at one point she's seen on a stakeout wearing a "[[Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls Powterpuff Girls]]" t-shirt.
156	* NonHumanHead: Officer Pete Luhan has a TV set for a head, which allows him to beam hypnotic images at other people. He uses this talent to get information out of uncooperative suspects.
157	* OhCrap: Plenty, but perhaps the biggest example of this happens when [[spoiler: Synasthesia is humming "Ode to Joy" again when Commissioner Ultima is nearby, just as she'd been humming it when investigating Stefan Gracyzk's dead body, and asks Ultima the name of the perfume she's wearing Ultima's answer is "Joy." ''She killed Gracyzk.'']]
158	* OneManArmy: The [[PoweredArmor Power-Armored]] Bill "Wolfspider" Bailey is the [=SWAT=] team. The ''entire'' [=SWAT=] team.
159	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: While going through video evidence, Colby chides her partner for taking the Lord's name in vain. We don't find out the contents of the next video they watch until later, but the horror of it is underlined by Colby's reaction.
160	-->'''Colby''': Oh. Oh Jesus.
161	* OutsideInsideSlur: A robot derides Joe Pi as being too human by calling him "Spambo" (metal on the outside, meat on the inside).
162	* PaintedOnPants: Parodied and Lampshaded with Girl One. She's given several full body profile shots (including one in chapter one where her nipples are clearly visible) and several lingering shots of her backside with the impression suggested that this trope is in play. Then, after it was too late to change it, the comic's authors reveal that she's actually naked with a form of natural, mobile, BodyPaint built in.
163	* PaintingTheMedium: In ''The Forty-Niners'', there is a sequence involving a hole through time; the view through the hole is always of something happening earlier or later in the same book, in the position on the page corresponding to the position of the hole.
164	* PercussiveMaintenance: Private Iron is on the unfortunate end of this treatment when he's brought into Top Ten as a suspect; the bigoted officer questioning him says that when his neighbor's new-fangled television set doesn't work she hits it and attempts to see if the same principle can be applied to robots.
165	* PhysicalGod: They even have their own bar. Peregrine in particular gets rather upset when she finds her Lord and Savior there after he's had a few.
166	* PinealWeirdness: The alien who eats brains for their pineal secretions.
167	* PolicePsychic: One story had the title police station call in a mind reader to help with a particularly troublesome suspect during interrogation. Justified because this was a universe where super powers were an objective part of reality.
168	* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Oh so ''very'' averted in "The Forty-Niners."
169	* PortalToThePast: In ''The Forty-Niners'', a Nazi scientist develops one in an attempt to MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight.
170	* PsychoSerum: The recreational drugs of Neopolis are all some kind of PsychoSerum:
171	** Amazo Pills grant various temporary superpowers.
172	** Darkshots are a drug for robots which allows them to become "one with the multiverse".
173	** Goose Juice (mongoose blood) grants temporary {{Superspeed}}. The name is a ShoutOut to the Whizzer, a [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] speedster with a [[AudienceAlienatingEra decidedly silly origin story]].
174	** Hyperdrene causes hallucinations of imps and pixies so vivid they can be seen by others and can survive for awhile even after the user is dead.
175	* PunnyName: There is an anthropomorphic shark lawyer called Fischmann. Many of the alter egos are this too, since they are super heroes and villains. Sometimes crosses with ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
176	* QueerColors: Jackie "Phantom" Kowalski's costume is black, purple, and white, and has a upside-down triangle emblem that makes it vaguely reminiscent of the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesbian_flag#/media/File:Labrys_Lesbian_Flag.svg labrys flag]]" used by lesbians in the late nineties, when the series was written.
177	* RazorWire: The Libra Killer had atom-slicing monomolecular strands coming out of her body, described by one would-be victim as "Purple candyfloss... coming out of the drain". Even though Jackie remains unharmed so long as she's intangible she can still feel it ''slicing through her photons''.
178	* ReluctantFanserviceGirl: Girl One. It's revealed in chapter 2 that she's actually been naked the whole time, which she hides with her color-shifting skin. She even defends this (in private, to her ''female'' partner) by saying she's more comfortable in the nude rather than wearing clothes. Then it's revealed that her compulsive nudity was an engineered compulsion her creators forced on her, leaving her stuck using her skin trick to hide this fact, and when she realizes her ''male'' boss was color blind, she [[MegatonPunch freaked out,]] revealing she was not really ok with people knowing about it.
179	* RobotHair: Sung "Girl One" Li. She can control its color and project patterns on her hair (and on her body).
180	* RoboticReveal: In ''The Forty-Niners'', [[spoiler:the faceplate of Steelgauntlet's powered armor is ripped off in the climactic battle, revealing only printed circuits, glowing lights and a speaker grille underneath]].
181	* RocketRide: Skywitch, in ''The Forty-Niners'', rides a rocket-powered flying "broomstick".
182	* SceneryPorn: Gene Ha's work is astonishingly lush and detailed.
183	* {{Scienceville}}: the city of Neopolis was originally founded as a home for all the science heroes left over from World War II. To this day, radical scientific research is a major attraction of the city.
184	* SecretSecretKeeper: When Zaran Orval assigns Steelgauntlet to lead a major Morgia arrest, it's clear he knows [[spoiler:Steelgauntlet is actually a robot]]. It's just as clear Steelgauntlet didn't know he'd been figured out until that moment.
185	* ShameIfSomethingHappened: The Morgia (vampire mafia) are seen running this racket in ''The Forty-Niners''.
186	* ShapeshiftingSquick: M'rgalla Qualtz/Vigilante from Venus, a seeming GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe porn star and former prostitute whose true form would give an EldritchAbomination nightmares.
187	* ShockAndAwe: "Shock-Headed Peter" Cheney has electrical zappy powers.
188	* ShoutOut: Far too many to mention here. Top Ten has {{shout out}}s, [[TheCameo cameo appearances]], and other references to comics classic and modern, television, and many other media at a seeming minimum rate of one per panel, often far far more. There's even cameo appearances of ''word balloons'' from ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'' and ''ComicBook/{{Preacher}}''.
189	** The most intricate, and certainly funniest, is the CrisisCrossover featuring cat and mouse versions of many Marvel and DC characters re-enacting the first appearance of Galactapuss in ''ComicBook/FantasticFour #50'', shown in issues 6 and 9.
190	** In issue 8, the whole scene at the Transport Terminus is full of background cameos for the sharp-eyed fan. For example, ''Franchise/StarTrek'' mirror-universe's Kirk, Spock and Uhura; Marvel's ComicBook/{{Rogue}}, ComicBook/{{Sabretooth}}, Wild Child, Comicbook/{{Loki}} and Nightmare plus the ''Series/StargateSG1'' 's team are also passing through as King Peacock is leaving.
191	** The cameo's aren't limited to American comic books either. In issue 9, [[ComicBook/{{Asterix}} Astérix, Obelix and his dog Idefix]] are among the spectators of King Peacock's gladiatorial fight.
192	** Bill "Wolfspider" Bailey is either named for [[Music/BillBailey the comedian]] or the cabaret tune.
193	** Alexei "Spaceman" Glushko, the ex-cosmonaut, is a ShoutOut to the leading Soviet rocket scientist [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentin_Glushko Valentin Petrovich Glushko]] (1908-89).
194	* SiblingYinYang: Dispatcher Janus has two faces who see each other as sisters and argue constantly.
195	* SpaceRomans: Precinct One, where UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire never ended.
196	* SpecialPersonNormalName: In Smax's home dimension, the personification of death for epically ''spectacular'' deaths is named...Dennis.
197	* SpeechBubbles:
198	** Glushko's telepathic speech is depicted with white writing in a wobbly-edged black bubble.
199	** Jackie Phantom's speech bubble gets fainter when she phases out.
200	** If Micro Maid speaks while changing size, the lettering in her speech bubble also changes size.
201	** All the PhysicalGods in the Godz bar have special lettering in their speech bubbles.
202	** In ''The Forty-Niners'', ThePaladin Joanne Dark has a golden glow effect on her speech bubbles.
203	* SpitefulSuicide: Atoman, a RetiredBadass, Superman {{Expy}}, and [[spoiler:leader of a pedophile ring]], is tricked into one when the arresting officer mentions they're going to depower him before throwing him in jail. He kills himself so the cops can't arrest him... which was the plan, because they didn't have the ability to arrest him without tremendous collateral damage.
204	* StayInTheKitchen: Yezidi traditionalist King Peacock has his wife walk three steps behind him. Neither he nor she see anything wrong with it.
205	* StrawmanPolitical: In ''Top Ten: Beyond the Farthest Precinct'', Mayor Famaile and Commander Cindercott are unsubtle embodiments of the most {{Anvilicious}} aspects of the Bush Administration and its cronies.
206	* StupidJetpackHitler: In ''The Forty-Niners''. Well, what do you ''expect'' when you rewind the setting back to the 1940s?
207	* SuperCivilServices: Since EveryoneIsASuper, the jobs of police officers have gotten a lot more complicated. Between investigating teleportation accidents, intergalactic murderers, and the deaths of gods, there's plenty for its DysfunctionJunction of superpowered officers to handle.
208	* SuperheroCapitalOfTheWorld: Neopolis was constructed as a home for every science-powered individual in the United States, in the hopes of keeping all the insanity that comes with superheroes (time travel, giant monsters, doomsday plots, etc.) from infecting other cities.
209	* SuperpowerLottery: S.T.O.R.M.S. is an STD given the same seriousness as AIDS, because it permanently mutates whoever contracts it. It's discussed that one may get lucky and end up with incredible superpowers, but are more likely to be given a deforming, debilitating mutation for life.
210	* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: [[spoiler:After her death]] Girl One is replaced by Girl Fifty-Four, who is identical. She even gets ''called'' Girl One on occasion, and takes it in stride.
211	* SymbolicBlood: After King Peacock is forced to kill a robot in self-defense, he's left with machine oil on his hands that looks like blood, and which he reacts to as if it were.
212	* SymbolSwearing:
213	** This is one of the few times where this trope works better than actually cursing. The otherwise calm and peaceful Jetman telling Smax to "Break her %$#@ing neck, son" after [[spoiler:Ultima kills Girl One]].
214	** Issue #8 features a conversation between two characters who are dying following a traffic accident (which was neither of their faults). Kapela is a phlegmatic alien who believes that everything that happens forms part of the Great Game; Mr Nebula is an ordinary joe who is taking the whole thing much less calmly. At one point, Mr Nebula bursts out into a spate of symbol swearing, the actual meaning of which is immediately lampshaded:
215	--->'''Mr Nebula:''' It's not a game! It's not a £$%&ing game! It was our £$%&ing lives, man!\
216	'''Kapela:''' Yes. Yes, indeed, it was. And £$%&ing is a glorious and noble thing, for thence all higher life commences... and you and I, my friend, I fear will not be £$%&ing any more.
217	** In the sequence set in the Godz bar, the foul-mouthed Thunor swears with symbols from archaic alphabets.
218	** In ''The Forty-Niners'', there's a gangster who's very fond of the word "£$%&".
219	* TalkingWeapon: Smax has a singing sword stashed in his wardrobe.
220	* TeleFrag: A traffic accident attended by Peregrine involves several sets of teleporters, one of whom wasn't obeying the traffic rules, resulting in a fatal overlap.
221	* ThreeLawsCompliant: Joe Pi mentions "Asimov's Laws" at one point, but in context these appear to be statutory laws rather than inherent restraints; after confirming that Neopolis, unlike his home town of Turingville, has no such laws on its books, Joe demonstrates that he's quite capable of harming humans if he judges it necessary in the line of duty.
222	* UpliftedAnimal: Most prominent is Sgt. Kemlo Caesar, also known as Hyperdog, who is a Doberman with standard human intelligence and one of the main characters. Notably, he is not anthropomorphized; he wears a rig to appear humanoid (and get the advantage of hands), but he's physically a normal dog outside of it. A few other uplifted animals appear through the series; one criminal defense attorney is an uplifted shark.
223	* VirginPower: Briefly mentioned in ''The Forty-Niners'' as something female superheroes and Atlantean women lie about to brush off guys' attention.
224	* VisualPun: The rubber-neckers around a traffic accident include a few who literally have rubber necks.
225	* VomitingCop: In ''The Forty-Niners'', there's one outside Scowling Joe's Bar after the vampire mafia make an example of Joe for not signing on to their protection racket.
226	* WalkingShirtlessScene: Smax rarely wears a shirt over his ludicrously broad, muscular chest. Justified in that he shoots force beams from his chest.
227	* WelcomeEpisode: The story starts with Robyn "Toybox" Slinger's first day at the 10th Precinct.
228	* WelcomeToCorneria: Private Iron, a robot G.I. who shares a train box with a young Jetlad in ''The Forty-Niners'', can apparently only say the same few sentences over and over. He's later seen at the station, unable to speak in his own defense while questioned about a burglary.
229	* WesternZodiac: Rather than being named for taunting messages sent to the police as in the real Zodiac, or Dirty Harry's Scorpio, the Libra Killer's moniker comes from the timing of the murders always occurring in the middle of fall, when Libra signs are born.
230	* WhatMeasureIsANonSuper: Dealt with in the prequel book ''"The Forty-Niners"'', having won UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, the government relocates all supers to Neopolis. Top Ten officers seem non-plussed by this trope, none of the super powered cops nor their non-powered colleagues feel that they're at all incapable of dealing with their duty (though Duane does relish the chance to get a [[RuleOfCool rocket powered flying saddle]].)
231	* WickedToymaker: Averted. Robyn Slinger uses some fairly creepy toys as weapons/footsoldiers, but is far from wicked. Ditto with her father, as seen in ''The Forty-Niners''.
232	* WriterOnBoard: In Season 2, when Zander Cannon took over as the writer, he contrived of a pretense to get rid of Irma Geddon and Wolfspider's suits, because he and Gene Ha had gotten sick of drawing them. He also moved King Peacock far into the background, again because Peacock's costume was such a pain to draw.
233	* XRaySparks: When Shock-Headed Peter uses his ShockAndAwe powers to their fullest extent, his skeleton becomes visible.
234	* YouAreACreditToYourRace:
235	** In the Precinct One world, black people are called Nubians, or "Nubies", and are second-class citizens, as King Peacock finds out. After [[spoiler:Commisioner Ultima]] gets him thrown into a series of Gladiator battles, he is often introduced with this description.
236	** Hilariously, the description used to introduce his robotic opponent is "a credit to his manufacturers".
237	* YouAreWhatYouHate: In ''The Forty-Niners'', [[spoiler:Steelgauntlet exhibits prejudice against robots, but turns out to be a robot himself, passing as human to avoid trouble with prejudiced humans]].
238	* YourVampiresSuck: Hungarian vampires are analogous to Sicilian mobsters. The younger vampires laugh at the older "[[ClassicalMovieVampire widow's peak Vlads]]" for their horror-movie behavior and dress style, much as the Real Life "Mustache Petes" were derided and ousted by younger and less honor-bound mobsters. It's then subverted when all the vampires turn out to have the usual weaknesses of the pop-culture versions.

Context ComicBook / TopTen