Apparently, Killing Off Alfred Was DC's Decision Not Tom King's

[CPSparkles]

True. Dick faked his death when he joined Spyral, Jason's is one of the most famous comic book deaths of all time, and of course he eventually got resurrected, Tim was mistaken for dead in Joker's Last Laugh, and Damian was once killed and resurrected as well.

Dick died in Forever Evil and Alfred died a long time ago and came back as a Bad guy gunning for Bruce. UTRH decades before UTRH happened

[Agent Z]

There is a difference between a fake out death and an actual death. King wanted the former, DC made him do the latter.

[David Walton]

I guess DC must have been in the planning stages of 5G back then, to the point where they would approve taking out major characters like this.

I think Alfred's issue with Bruce being Batman makes for a more interesting and nuanced dynamic then if he was just all-for it, but that's just me.

Not that I don't like Lucius, but he doesn't really have much of a developed dynamic with Bruce in the comics on the level of Alfred.

Alfred is comparable to a parent whose child has chosen military or police service. He's very proud and he recognizes the important work that Bruce does, but he'd prefer Bruce have a more normal and much safer life, as any parent would. King expressed that beautifully in the Father's Day story from Annual #3, I think?

At any rate I think Alfred is pretty irreplaceable. There's only so much mileage you can get out of the vacuum his absence leaves, but there's no simply no substitute for Alfred's dry wit. I imagine that every writer who gets their hands on Batman wants to do Alfred one-liners.

[Badou]

Does anyone care about this death? I can't even muster up the drive to feel upset or angry at DC for it. I can't even get upset that the awful Ric Grayson situation spilled into this and we don't get a proper Dick Grayson reaction to his death. All death in comics now just feel pointless when we know they will be back, probably within a year. I mean I get they are doing this to charge for some "special issue" that some people will go out and buy, but they probably mainly wanted to remove him so Lucius Fox could be the Alfred to Luke's Batman in 5G.

When Alfred comes back I wonder what will happen to his memorial statue, haha.

I call BS. King was the one who suggested it for his story, therefore it was his idea the same as Dick Grayson's amnesia. The fact that the editorial insisted that his story choices have some lasting consequences instead of the hollow one he was writing doesn't mean that it was not King's idea. It just means that someone said "Make it meaningful, Tom. Give Bruce a real reason to be upset as no adult will swallow a grown man over 30 being that upset over an ex dumping him again."

This is called playing the PR machine to try and get readers to forgive his story choices bby passing the blame.

I have to agree with this as well.

[Fergus]

Honestly i don't care. I hope he bloody stays dead.Alfred's shady as hell and going by King's Batman senile to boot.

The internet doesn't seem to mind so why King is still rattling I have no idea. Missing the spotlight or something Thomas?

[Scott Taylor]

This thread reminds me of the end of a Scooby Do episode where they unmask the REAL perpetrator. Aha!

Its got just about the same amount of significance, too.