The resurrection of Alfred Pennyworth: when and how?

[PurpleGlovez]

I mean Alfred can't possibly maintain that whole house and cook and take care of the grounds- there has to be a staff.

Now if we reduce the size of Wayne Manor itself and let Bruce not be a billionaire (not a good look for a superhero) it would make a lot more sense that he and Alfred are the only ones there. I'm down with that.

In Tynion's pre-Rebirth Batman #52, Alfred fires all the manor's staff shortly after the Waynes were killed because they were stealing things and betraying Bruce's privacy to the press. They've always been pretty explicit that there is no house staff in the manor. Now I'm sure every once in awhile they have caterers or something, but still.

[Godlike13]

I cracked it, Bruce hires a new butler and just has him call himself Alfred.

[Pohzee]

I cracked it, Bruce hires a new butler and just has him call himself Alfred.

Make Alfred a legacy mantle. Four Alfreds in and they'll start joking about how expendable he is and how unimportant each individual one is.

[Jackalope89]

Alfred pulls a Thriller, annoying the hell out of Jason and Damian.

[Arsenal]

The Alfred Bane killed was actually a robot replacement while Alfred was away on vacation (that everybody forgot about). One day he’ll come back and wonder why the Wayne world is on fire.

[Bat-Meal]

I mean Alfred can't possibly maintain that whole house and cook and take care of the grounds- there has to be a staff.

Bane may have killed Alfred the Butler, but what about Alfred the Gardener, or Alfred the Tailor.

[Restingvoice]

I mean Alfred can't possibly maintain that whole house and cook and take care of the grounds- there has to be a staff.

Eh. He can. He's as ridiculously skilled as Bruce is now, just in different fields.

[km_sus]

I honestly think old Pennyworth has served dutifully to Wayne family. They're definitely bringing him back, but I think I could live with his death as a permanent status quo. While his death was underwhelming, Tynion's Joker War has actually served as an alright sendoff for Alfred. I think that his role should be taken up by another character (there are certainly a surplus of bat-family characters). Julia Pennyworth maybe? Barbara Gordon back as Oracle? Lucius Fox since he has Bruce's money now?

[Westbats]

I've thought about this question for a bit, I'm going to say that Alfred's "revival" will be a big plot twist for Tynion's Joker vs. Bane storyline, and that it will explain the notable absence of Julia Pennyworth. Also that Alfred's return will usher back the return of the Wayne fortune to Bruce, but not that it'll be a bookend to Tynion's run, rather it'll be the end of a part in the greater story Tynion is telling in Batman.

[Stanlos]

I'd honestly just have him come back the UK where he's been on a long trip, and act as if he never died.

That, or just have Wayne Manor have an actual staff that tends to it (I always assumed it did) and age up Tim Drake to an adult so he can be his confidential hired support guy who cleans up the Batcave.

That is a colossal waste of Tim's talents, don't you think?

[Stanlos]

A lot of it is down to politics these days. As in "Batman can't be a hero if he's a billionaire - and a white, male billionaire to boot".

That said, I understand the appeal of a more stripped down take on Batman, and I'm interested to see Tynion's take on it in the months ahead.

What part of the internet are you on exactly? This is the first I have read of Bruce being white being some sort of handicap. How does that work?

[Stanlos]

I get where you're coming from.

In fact, I don't think Batman being a billionaire necessarily means he needs to have satellites and moonbases. It means he can have them (which is handy for Justice League stuff I guess), but would you really need all that when you spend a good 70-80% of your time punching muggers in the East End?

A good model for the scale at which Batman should be operating is how Team Arrow operates on CW's Arrow. Even when Oliver was still a billionaire in Season 1, the only real equipment he spent his money on were a motorbike and a couple of other vehicles, and computer and lab equipment for his lair.

Actually, most live-action versions of Batman operate at a relatively modest scale. Take the Nolanverse for instance.

I suppose the problem is that Batman is a Justice League member, so they kinda need him to have the satellites and moonbases to deal with that level of threat. But the problem occurs when those come into play during his crusade in Gotham.

I think the best League depiction of Batman was definitely the first two years of JUSTICE LEAGUE/International. What Morrison did later in JLA just took a poop on what he actually is.

[Citizen Kane]

It's gonna be a Lazarus Pit: let's be real.

[Restingvoice]

What part of the internet are you on exactly? This is the first I have read of Bruce being white being some sort of handicap. How does that work?

Parts of Tumblr and Twitter. It's not about the handicap, but about how he can contribute to society by donating most of his fortune to the betterment of Gotham's economy, education, employment, and healthcare, rather than being Batman. A lot of those people don't read comics by the way, so they only know the Batman from the movies who's only depicted as either a punching superhero, sometimes extra violently, and the billionaire playboy, but not the charitable part.

[Astralabius]

It's gonna be a Lazarus Pit: let's be real.

Time to use the Nain Pit King carelessly invented to make his plot work.
I hated that one. If Ra's had such a powerful pit the entire time then why would he ever use a regular one?