Writer: Alan Moore
Artists: Gene Ha, Arthur Lyon(c), Todd Klein(letters, logos, designs)
Publisher: DC
The Forty-Niners is a prequel to the critically-acclaimed and fan-applauded Top Ten. The story opens in a rather smashing joke on Futurama. We have the fresh-faced red headed Steve Traynor a.k.a. Jetlad (Fry) who will grow up to become the head of the Top Ten focus precinct, a super-woman Leni Muller the Skywitch (Leela) and a robot (Bender) that quickly loses the spotlight.
You can even argue that Skyshark is the Zap Brannigan of the tale; although Zap was more or less based upon the super macho white male hotshot pilot so prevalent in the fifties. Kind of reminds me of Hal Jordan. These of course are not the only allusions one can find in The Forty-Niners, and Jess Nevins of course has already begun his observant list of annotations, so I'll not go into a detailed commentary about the many sight and dialogue gags that abound unless pertinent to the review. Mind you, Gene Ha must have encased his hand in ice after beautifully drawing all of these echoes to the past.
Alan Moore has lost none of his skill. He foreshadows the main story on page one with the introduction of vampires sharing a compartment with our heroes on a train. He also sets the time. The Allies were victorious against the Nazis, of course, and in a large part because of the heroes. The abundance of heroes has catalyzed the creation of Neopolis a sort of super-powered depot for those displaced after the war.
We learn the rules as we read the story. There are no super-heroes and super-villains in the tale because that's the norm. Vigilante tactics are forbidden, and criminal matters will be handled by the police who also possess powers and/or skills that make them formidable enough to stand against the super-powered lawbreakers.
Moore exhibits these rules for his tale through examples. For instance, an icon's revenge against a former super-criminal is unacceptable, and the icon is carted off to jail. The super-criminal did his time. He’s a citizen with equal rights. As in the real world, the government had a Project Paperclip which transported Nazi scientists to the free world and without their having to make reparations for their crimes. Moore's Nazi madmen however are comic book Nazi madmen, and they just do not sit idle. Instead, they enact a typical screwball plan to reinvigorate the Third Reich. This detour in the main narrative however is handled heroically by Officer Muller.
The main narrative involves the vampires who are logically the first massive threat to the Neopolis police. They meet their end in a clever way beautifully orchestrated by the force's first Captain-Dr. Omega, who is a thinly-disguised version of the Golden Age Jor-El. If you think I'm giving anything away here, trust me. I'm really only scratching the surface to this gorgeously constructed hardback-that even has a ribbon as a bookmark.
There's as well a personal side to Forty-Niners. Moore creates in the prequel a coming of age story for Jetlad. Top Ten readers know this character, but new readers will appreciate the subtle thread worked into a big-budget plot. Moore furthermore flawlessly creates distinctive voices for each character of each gender, and there is such a massive cast that everybody who reads this is bound to find a favorite.
A classy production with superb artwork and writing, Forty-Niners is a fine art graphic novel that really should rest on every super-hero reader's bookshelf.
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