Alfred in the The Dark Knight Returns

[arosenbarger]

Okay.

Needless to say - Spoilers for one of the best Batbooks in comicdom.



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Seriously I can't believe I am doing spoilers...its like doing Spoilers for Citizen Kane.


Did Bruce kill Alfred?

My evidence to yes - Alfred felt a tinkle up in his spine, thinking "of course, how utterly perfect" to imply Bruce had chemically poised Alfred to die.

My evidence to No - THE WHOLE POINT OF THE CONFRONTATION WITH THE JOKER is that he could NOT kill the Joker. Why would Bruce kill Alfred but not the Joker?


This has bothered me ever since I read the book over 20 years ago and still bothers me to this day. This question may have been asked before but my brain cannot remember the consenus.

[tako]

No, he didn't. He died from a stroke.

It was "utterly perfect" because Alfred died soon after the Batcave was destroyed.

The old Batman, the old manor, the old help - died with the cave. Everything that tethered him to his past, gone.

[arosenbarger]

No, he didn't. He died from a stroke.

It was "utterly perfect" because Alfred died soon after the Batcave was destroyed.

The old Batman, the old manor, the old help - died with the cave. Everything that tethered him to his past, gone.

Bruce tied a lot of loose ends during his fight with Superman. It doesn't seem like he would forget or overlook Alfred. It was leaving an issue to chance...

[nepenthes]

Alfred is hardly a "loose end" or "an issue". This is one of the weirdest theories I've ever read.

[arosenbarger]

Alfred is hardly a "loose end" or "an issue". This is one of the weirdest theories I've ever read.

Maybe I have a sick sort of mind, but Bruce was outwardly ending his life as Bruce Wayne to concentrate on life as Batman from behind the shadows. He went to lengths to fake his death, he burned down Wayne Manor, he had Robin dig him up after his "heart attack." If Bruce could trigger a heart attack/coma through chemicals and planning, I always thought he chose to end Alfred's life - again keeping with the idea that BRUCE WAYNE'S life would be left behind as Bruce went forward in the Batman only persona.

Everything that Batman did in the Superman fight was calculated. Everything was done to proceed on from AFTER the fight.

HAD ALFRED LIVED the proceeding would be different.

That brings me again to my original paradox

Either Bruce discovered his willingness to kill AFTER the Joker, and his first kill is an arguable mercy kill, Alfred, so Batman could live his new life in semi secret, removing the ties to the past.

OR

Alfred's death was a conincidence, which Bruce did NOT calculate - although he calculated all other aspects of his "fall" to Superman.

[Naked Bat]

I think Bruce hates Alfred. So yeah. He did kill him obviously.

[Lorendiac]

Did Bruce kill Alfred?

That had never even occurred to me. (And I first read that graphic novel about 25 years ago.)

But now that you've raised the point -- I still don't see any reason to take the question seriously!

There was no reason for Bruce to kill Alfred (even on the incredibly implausible assumption that he were capable of doing so). I always figured, and I still figure now, that Alfred just suddenly felt something in his body breaking down, and realized that his own death of natural causes, right then and there, was the "perfect" dramatic finale to the end of an era.