All Star Batman: The First Ally Review

Finished reading All Star Batman: The First Ally, concluding the DC Rebirth as writer Scott Snyder sees Batman and Alfred heading down to Miami on a mission when a dark secret of Alfred's past comes back to haunt him and Batman. The book opens with Batman and Alfred in Miami in a chase with Hush in hopes to infiltrate the exchange of a device called the Genesis Engine as Bruce goes to meet the sellers by pretending to be a disguised Hush. However the deal goes south when the pirates selling the engine know that they are being played and believing that Batman is Hush they begging to attack him. Batman is only saved by a group of Gotham villains believing that he is undercover as Bruce Wayne who what to destroy the engine and with Batman and Alfred continuing their mission Alfred soon discovers that a person from his past is also interested with getting the Genesis Engine. The second story in the book sees Batman going undercover in the Myasnik Family which sends him to Russia in the hope to stop a weapons shipment to Gotham before they can be used to start a gang war. Overall this was a great book as it makes Alfred the main character of the story which allows for some interesting internal dialogue and narration from Alfred's point of view of how he views Bruce as a son while also diving into Alfred's history within the military and what lead to him become the butler for the Wayne's. The character interactions throughout the book is great with how the relationships between characters come into play while within the books main story the interactions between Batman and Alfred feels like their are having some fun in the mission thanks to the inclusion of modern day pirates and how developed the two's relationship has grown over the years. The second story that sees Batman going to Russia in a great addition to the book with how Batman finds himself out of his comfort zone while undercover in a Russian crime family that does some great development for the heads of the family while also having a surprising connection to the man story. The art throughout the book is amazing as its able to differentiate between the different time periods extremely well while also putting a nice amount of focus into the characters interactions with the way that the characters emote along with a great amount of action set pieces thanks to how well it's pasted. 8/10.