Review: All Star Batman Vol. 3- The First Ally

Quick Summary

Pros: The main storyline is filled with action and excitement. The past and present explorations of Alfred’s character are thoughtful and touching. The focus on parenting as a theme is unique and interesting. Every page looks beautiful, as the artwork is great.

Cons: The backup story has a few problems and ends up just being average.

Overall: This collection continues the series’ trend of putting out high-quality stories that offer atypical looks at pieces of the Dark Knight’s life. In this volume, readers dive into the life of Alfred Pennyworth and learn more about his history, his family, and the role he plays in the development of Bruce Wayne. This is paired with an incredibly exciting main storyline filled with plenty of entertaining twists and turns. Any comic fan looking for a great book that is more about Alfred than Batman should pick this one up.

Story

Once again, the All-Star Batman series proves itself to be a unique and entertaining deviation from the standard Batman story. In Vol. 3: The First Ally, writer Scott Snyder shifts the focus from Batman to Alfred, blending stories from the butler’s past and present. This rare glimpse through the eyes of an often underappreciated character is fun on its own, but is made even more so by the action-packed escapades of the heroes. The only significant negative here is that the backup story is only average at best. Overall though, this is a great collection for anyone looking to read more about Alfred or anyone tired of more traditional Batman stories.

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The book starts out with one of the most over-the-top and ridiculous action sequences ever, which is by no means a negative. Batman and Alfred drive the batmobile through a football stadium, where Batman launches himself at a helicopter while “The Star Spangled Banner” plays in the background. This crazy burst of action is amazing and sets the high-energy tone that will carry through the rest of the collection.

This introductory sequence is also a fantastic prelude to the book’s main storyline. Scott Snyder tells readers a story from the past, showing a headstrong youth running from the police. He convinces readers this is Bruce Wayne, before revealing the perpetrator to be a young Alfred Pennyworth instead. It is a great way to break readers’ perception of the elderly butler and give them a taste for how cool he can actually be.

From here, the story follows Batman and Alfred’s attempts to uncover a plot to steal the fabled “Genesis Engine.” Along the way, Batman faces off against an array of enemies, primarily a newcomer named Nemesis. This leads to him fighting modern-day pirates, being trapped on a drowning submarine, and even jumping from a falling building. Action is also derived from the past, where Alfred’s adventures in a secret British soldier program are equally filled with action. All of these moments are great and add tons of excitement and thrills to every page.

This excitement is also accompanied by thoughtful narration by Alfred, which adds some great depth and meaning to the story. His struggle as a young man is contrasted with his struggle as a surrogate father, both of which he finds challenging. The story suggests that he is constantly unsure of what to do as a parent, yet only wants the best for his son. It is a struggle that is easy to relate to and also gives Alfred a great level of character development. Parenting is not a theme often explored in comic books, so seeing it here was both unique and appreciated.

The collection concludes with an independent story about Batman’s battle against a criminal family in Russia, written by Rafael Albuquerque and Rafael Scavone. It starts off with Bruce Wayne infiltrating them through a stolen identity but this concept is soon lost in favor of a more traditional Batman narrative. Though the story is still fun and has plenty of great moments, it is paced too rapidly for readers to really connect with the newly introduced characters and does not resonate as well as the book’s main storyline. Ultimately, this portion of the book comes across as average, which isn’t bad but isn’t that great either.

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Art

One of the most impressive aspects of this collection is Rafael Albuquerque’s artwork. Albuquerque’s gritty and rough take on the heroes is perfect to match a story with roots in pirate tales and betrayal. This makes fight sequences and the fallout from fight sequences feel more realistic and places emphasis on how difficult this mission actually is. It also helps that his artwork is beautiful in terms of detail and structure, giving the entire collection an additional level of quality.

The collection’s backup story, with art by Sebastian Fiumara, is also impressive. Fiumara’s work here is similar to Albuquerque’s, in that it presents people and locations in a rough and gritty light. In addition, his character designs heavily compliment the story; Vik seems to be every bit the rogue element that the plot makes her out to be.

Continuity

Though All-Star Batman Vol. 3: The First Ally takes place after the events of All-Star Batman Vol. 2: Ends of the Earth (Review), it has almost nothing to do with the events of that volume. Readers can enter The First Ally with little to no knowledge of anything else going on in Batman’s life.

The All-Star Batman series ends with this volume.

This volume also makes a reference to another comic book, detailed below:

• The Genesis Engine is a major plot point in this volume. This is a concept originating back in Detective Comics #27, which is collected in both Detective Comics Vol. 5: Gothtopia and Batman Vol. 9: Bloom (Review)