All-Star Batman #10 - DC Comics

ALL-STAR BATMAN No. 10, July 2017

This particular twenty-two page periodical is arguably a good example of Scott Snyder’s creative writing at both its best and worse. For whilst the New Yorker ultimately pens a somewhat engaging tale of modern-day pirates and swashbuckling shenanigans, such as when Bruce Wayne uses “a painting done on the broadside of Blackbeard’s ship” as a shield against automatic-weapon fire, the American author does so by providing as little exposition as possible to explain what caused this situation to arise in the first place.

Indeed, it's hard to imagine just how any reader who hasn’t encountered Paul Dini's “Heart of Hush” story-line (“Detective Comics #846–850) is supposed to understand why Hush is both sporting the billionaire industrialist’s face, and apparently has the criminal underworld clout to financially afford something as dangerous as the Genesis Engine? Or, for that matter, how the heavily-bandaged super-villain even comes to be in Miami, racing towards its football stadium in a helicopter whilst being pursued by an Alfred Pennyworth-driven Batmobile?; “Haha! Look at him! Take him out of Gotham and Batman drives like an old man!” 

Fortunately for this publication’s 66,018-strong audience however, such frustrating omissions are eventually forgivable once the Dark Knight lands at Fort Dexter and starts tangling with “a descendant of the most infamous Florida pirate, Edward Thatch…” Admittedly, this “pirate adventure” is pretty short-lived, and concludes in a shocking moment of mutilation, but it does allow the Eagle Award-nominee to pull off an especially enjoyable surprise as to the identity of the adolescent who is occasionally depicted outrunning a band of British blue-uniformed Bobbies pursuing him across the rooftops of London.

Quite possibly the greatest feature to Issue Ten of “All-Star Batman” though is its secondary narrative, “Killers-In-Law” by Rafael Albuquerque and Rafael Scavone. Dynamically-drawn by Sebastian Fiumara and atmospherically-lit by Trish Mulvihill’s colours, this ‘short’ begins the gripping tale of Wayne going undercover as a cold-hearted ‘pit-fighter’ in order to destroy a shipment of weapons supplied by “the most dangerous group in the Russian Mafia”, and is packed full of gritty pugilism and an all-pervading threat that he’s not going “pass as Alexey long enough to stay alive.”

Script: Scott Snyder, and Pencils, Inks & Cover: Rafael Albuquerque