I really enjoyed the artwork in this but the story is what struggled a bit. The only problem I had was that it was a bit hard to follow at times. That being said, I still enjoyed the read and will continue with the series. I took more time than I usually do, in part because of the artwork and also because I wanted to understand the whole storyline. I liked the peek into Alfred's past and would love to see even more at some point. During that part of the book, I got confused sometimes when they flipped the protagonist and had to go back and re-read to make sure I didn't miss out. As for its family-friendliness, I'd keep this to preteens and up personally. There's no swearing (rather it's censored) and no sex but, of course, there's a fair amount of violence although it's mostly blood from gunshot or stab wounds that you see. The violence you'd expect from a Batman or most superhero graphic novels. Again, this one is not the strongest in the stores, but it definitely has some redeeming value and is worth the read.

I would like to thank the publisher, author, and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

All Star Batman Vol.3 : First Ally covers a lot of Alfred's past. The similarities between Bruce and Alfred's origins are brought to life with dark, gritty art work. Alfred narrates as the past comes back to haunt Alfred and endangers the Batman. Action-packed and well written, the story draws you in as the art sets the mood of danger and intrigue for an enjoyable chapter of the Batman's and Alfred's story. My voluntary and unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.

This is kind of tricky to review because it's really two stories (by two authors) in a single collection. The first arc, the titular First Ally story, was fantastic, featuring shadows from Alfred's past and heavily playing on his father/son relationship with Bruce. Call me sentimental, but I love their relationship, so this story was totally up my alley. Also, the parts of the story set in Alfred's past were phenomenal-- I would read the heck out of a series about that period in his life. Or, if DC somehow was headhunting from Goodreads reviews, be willing to WRITE such a series. It's seriously so good.
The second arc was okay, a pretty typical Batman/mobsters story that really didn't bring anything new to the table. Definitely a B-storyline at best. Which is fine, not everything Batman does needs to be mind-bogglingly Earth-shattering.
So, between the five-star First Ally arc and the three-star mobster story, I'm giving this volume a solid 4. Definitely worth picking up.

Once again, Batman encounters an evil enemy. However, in a twist, Batman is experiencing great difficulty in countering it.
My young readers will delight in reading this graphic novel and it will be a welcomed addition to our collection!

Kind of a dull story about Alfred's background coming back to haunt him. The artwork is great throughout, but the story was too reminiscent of the Court of Owls and its unstoppable killers for me. I loved Snyder's run on the main Batman comic, but what he's done so far in All-Star Batman really hasn't been that great.