All-Star Batman #14

Writers: Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, and Rafael Scavone

Artists: Rafael Albuquerque and Sebastian Fiumara

Colourists: Jordie Bellaire and Trish Mulvihill

Letterers: Steve Wands and Dezi Sienty

This is the final issue of the series, at least the final issue of the series as it exists in this format. Scott Snyder has made it clear that it is going to live on in a different form, something along the lines of a prestige format book perhaps. I personally think that's a good move, since I don't want Batman books to over-saturate the market. Plus, the $4.99 price tag since the series' beginning hasn't helped with sales. But I digress. Does this issue close out the arc satisfyingly? Mostly yes. This is one of the weaker issues of the arc.

Strangely enough, this was a predictable issue for me. An unconventional theory I had when the first issue of the arc hit actually turns out to be the case in this issue. I was mostly happy that my theory was correct but the fact that I saw it coming from a mile away is telling about the direction Snyder chose to go for his villains here.

I did like the way the issue actually ended, though. This is an Alfred story after all and this arc did a great job in demonstrating the unbreakable bond between Bruce and Alfred, how they very much so are a family and that they have each other's backs. It's more of a reminder than a touching ending, but it still mostly worked.

The back-ups have never been great expect for the truly exceptional art by Sebastian Fiumara. Fiumara seriously impressed me with his work in this back-up storyline and I'd love to see him on a main Batman book since his Batman was super stellar. It reminded me of David Mazzucchelli's work on Year One. Yup. That good. As for the story, it tries to make itself a whole lot more important by cementing itself in the storyline of the main story in an extremely contrived fashion.

In the final issue of the series, we get a bit predictable with a villain revelation but we get a decent enough ending to wrap it all up. The back-up tries too hard to make itself relevant but the art is just too great to completely write off. Whether or not this series was successful will be up to the format Snyder is interested in exploring. Until then, we got a mostly consistently good series.