I just finished reading Alan Moore's Top 10 and I strongly recommend it.

http://comicvine.gamespot.com/articles/why-you-should-read-top-10/1100-146820/

There are a few things that Top 10 does really well.

- A diverse cast of main characters who care for each other like family.

- A great blend of believable characters and fantastical situations.

- The problems of prejudice, bigotry and racism shown and dealt with in very realistic ways.

The police procedural with superpowers setting lends itself very well to bringing out these elements.

Would you be interested in reading an alternate reality version of the X-Men as a police procedural with superpowers ala Top 10, where mutants are integrated into society?

I keep telling that the second the X-office will realize that mutant metaphor is suffocated by a strictly forced minority metaphor, the X-men will have an opportunity to be great again. Not that they ever were just that, but for some people it's the only one that matters, which is pretty sad when it can be so much more.

So yeas, a creative paradigm shift that can give X-men a fresh drive and still understands what the core of the franchise should be, I'd be very intrigued to check out. The idea that in a "post millennial" Marvel Universe there are no police units to deal with superhuman (not just even mutant) affairs just shows you how poor and lazy the world-building is right now.

Oh, Top 10 is my favorite Alan Moore comic.

Wasn't there a mutant police force in the House of M reality? They also kind of did it with Bishop and Sage in that District X series.

@sprior93: Are you referring to the Red Guard? They were an elite S.H.I.E.L.D. unit that operated a bit like police.

District X is okay, but I want to see a whole squad of X-Men police.

@tristanheron: But there isn't much to police anymore. There aren't that many mutants, and they're scattered across the planet. If Morrison hadn't destroyed Genosha, it would have been the perfect set up for something like Top 10.

Honestly though, I have trouble seeing the X-Men as authority figures. It's antithetical to the property. They're supposed to be outcasts sticking it to the man, as it were.

@adamtrmm: Politics + Mutants in the Marvel Universe is where the future lies. I take your idea and raise you a prolonged story arc or two focusing on the formation and reaction of both sides of the convo to the creation of a full fledged superhuman police force in every town/city/state.

Meh. The "mutant metaphor" has always been the least interesting aspect of the X-Men franchise to me. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense in a lot of ways and "racism and bigotry" are words that were made up a couple of decades ago and are relative terms really.

The whole liberal "equality" outlook the X-men promote is largely a western (North America and Western Europe) value. I have been fortuitous enough to travel around the world and the rest of the planet doesn't have the same outlook on everything we do. In fact, oddly, Anime a lot of the time promotes more traditional, western values than the current west does.

I don't know. I just think the whole "be nice to everybody" ideology is dopey and fantastical. Can you imagine if during the oppression of Europe from the likes of the Mongols, Moors, Huns or Zhars Europeans were like "I don't know dude, I saw this comedian last night say that not all these people are the same as the murderous ones and if we oppose them we will be considered bigots and Cracked.com says bigots are duuuummb!!" Like lolwtf.

Top 10 was a good book though. Alan Moore is a pretty talented guy.

@koays:

Politics + Mutants in the Marvel Universe is where the future lies

Depends. I mean, without politics no world building can really happen, quite frankly, but with what you Americans went through recently, the only acceptable path would only involve a satire, or I dunno, caricature of sorts because that mess was epic. And I'm not talking about the guy that was elected, I'm talking about pretty much everything :p

But seriously, while I agree with its importance, X-mythos never shied away from dealing with these topics I think. Maybe not on the same level today's media make us feel involved, but for its time and its purpose I guess it was good enough. I will be interested to hear what you suggest because I also have couple of ideas.

I take your idea and raise you a prolonged story arc or two focusing on the formation and reaction of both sides of the convo to the creation of a full fledged superhuman police force in every town/city/state.'

You know I always considered it a flaw of the X-mythos these overwhelmingly pushy narratives that went out of its ways to portray mutants as universally hated and rejected formation, whether societal or individual. I mean, is so hard to imagine a clear-sighted authoritative cabinet that will understand the benefits of a well functioning group of mutants that can contribute to *insert any country right here* interests? Military? Resources? Data? There are mutants that are one men WMDs, there are mutants who are unlimited power supply, there are telepaths/technopaths that can gather almost any kind of information without even moving a finger, all of these can even be replicated by a single mutant! And of course no one would ever consider of utilizing this unlimited potential because "Muties! Hate! Minority struggles! Similar nonsense!". I don't even pitch for altruistic or noble motives, I'm talking about control, ideological brainwashing, exploitation, this is also a human nature just as much as unacceptance of the different. There's place for all of it and so much more!

Well, in MU I think a mixed superhuman response unit will make sense. Of course in the hoods mostly inhabited by mutants, a more mutant dominant one will, demographics mirroring our world you know, because metaphors! :p

@sprior93: But I could see them still receiving underlying fear and hostility from regular cops, plus some sections of the mutant population would see them as traitors to their kind.

They would still be striving for the dream of peaceful coexistence but not receiving the honour of being saviours and martyrs for their species. I find that more admirable.

Nice ideas here.

A mutant police force is an idea that could work and to me was the natural progression of what Storms X.S.E should have been. In fact I've been saying for a while that this is one of my premises for what the xbooks should address.

1.A mutant police force

2.A revolutionary team

3.A proactive handle threats before they escalate team.

4.A search and rescue for mutants in danger.

@adamtrmm: I was thinking of an alternate universe with only mutants and no other superhumans. A clean slate reboot that actually is an alternative, not just more of the same like the Ultimate line.

@tristanheron:

Yeah, a resident alt universe ongoing is a must. With the more recent ones I was mostly dissatisfied, like X-92 or whatever Ultimate-X-verse was turned into - didn't do it for me. Ironically enough, the Ultimate verse as a whole was killed, in and out of universe, by the events. I'm thinking a completely tie in free comic right here. And like you suggested, a universe without any other superhumans would be something lots of X-heads wanted for very long and I agree. But I can't possible take yet another iteration of "hated and feared to the death and beyond reason". As long as it's something more, I'm on board with any idea. The fact that governments will let mutantkind form its own a by design dangerously resourceful microsociety within an already tamed and functioning global society unchecked because "ewww freaks, muties, genejokes" is in itself pretty ridiculous. So yeah, encouraging "our mutants" to work for a certain government would be the most logical development, ones that report and are supervised by relevant groups that are especially tasked to tame and direct mutant issues into the boundaries they choose. With "patriotic" mutants supervising all other kinds of mutants, it's an all win scenario for the government. Dysfunctional and divided, collaboration, and superpowerful expendables, all at ones.

Love the idea of a separate universe for the X-men and mutants as a whole.

Anyway, I guess now Top 10 is on my to-read list. Plenty of Moore's work is actually, and not without reason.

I remember after Watchmen I've read so many absolutely surprised reviews with people who could never believe they can like anything comic book related and now they called it a piece of art. When you can change opinions of biased people so drastically with your story, then well yeah, I agree, you're clearly pretty damn talented lol