Quote Originally Posted by K. Jones View Post
I certainly believe they've been expanded upon to the tenth and in all the world-building and what-not over the years, made more integral (in ways both naturally, organically and cool as well as cheesy, clunky and shoe-horned). But ultimately I always feel like Alfred and Gordon sort of serve the same role, with Gordon edging in as slightly more vital just because he's been there since the first issue (as brilliantly recontextualized and full-circled at the end of Morrison's run). But ultimately all they do is give us some like exposition - BATMAN shows up and Gordon gives him policey details about crimes that BATMAN then needs to go tackle. He then has funny interactions with BATMAN's civilian alter ego, none the wiser, during the day. Over they years clever writers wonder what the political and inter-police nature of a Commissioner helping a psycho costume vigilante might be, and thus, people do some crafty work trying to explain the "Rules" of Gotham City. Badda-bing. But he's mostly just a functionary to witness Batman, assist Batman, give Batman some exposition, and occasionally be either a damsel in distress figure, get his hands dirty in his own cases here and there to bolster his rep next to Batman's, or even to occasionally be a hindrance ... to Batman.

Meanwhile Alfred came about for effectively the same reasons. Somebody who spends as much time Batmanning as BATMAN needs somebody taking care of the homestead. If he has a mansion, he should probably have a butler. Oh organically and naturally let's let this butler be the one who cared for him for all those years since we know he was a young lad when his parents died. Oh logic though! What are the rules of this world? How can this butler be such a polymath bad-ass caretaker for somebody who is himself a polymath bad-ass? Gotta invent that military background (which in the decades following WWII were always pretty realistic for any character to have). But ultimately he serves a similar function to Gordon, just "at home" instead of "at work". I mean, neverminding that Batman works from a home office.

Even a simple, pared-down, low-key Batman story "almost" requires using Alfred and/or Gordon. I'd say they're equal in that regard, and thematically important because they're also older and more experienced, if less daring and bold than Batman, and give that sense of Father Figure that comes with his lost father. (Mother figure stuff has always been a lot harder for Batman storytellers, but also in-canon, Bruce as a character, to deal with - which you know, in a nutshell explains ALL of his bad relationship decisions.)

It's always been interesting to me that other characters invented to reflect back important societal notions upon Batman haven't been elevated as much. We see a bit of it with Lucius Fox. Somebody asked "who runs the company while Batman is out Batmanning?" and we got a solid character. Who then inherited a lot of "where does he get his wonderful toys?" concepts. Vicki Vale had a really long run coming at things from the journalism side of it, and still gets into the books doing just that every once in a while. She gets lost in the shuffle though because she was a damsel, romantic interest, and those are always doomed for Batman not just relationship-wise, but like ... getting good Batman Stories out of them. Somebody had to ask the question of "Well, where does Bruce go when he's feeling a bit emotionally drained or sad? Does he NOT HAVE a replacement Mother Figure?" and that's where Leslie Thompkins comes into the picture - another indicator of why she too needs to be depicted as somewhat older than Batman.

Gordon. Alfred. Then a lesser tier of tradespeople that serve similar but micro-functions, reflecting Batman's Batman-ness back at him in the story, in the city, in the theme.

But they're all still just Mrs. Hudson, aren't they? LeStrade. Here's your tea. Here's the crime. Have at it boys.

ROBIN is the partner. The Watson. Whoever the Robin is at any given time "should be" Batman's most important character, and current Robin is his biological son, so I think there can't be any doubt that Robin SHOULD BE the most integral character. Of course Dick is the first, best Robin so there's that too. But trying to be fair and noting that all those characters have to be graduated and gain some sort of independence and have their "falling out" periods with Batman and so on and so forth, I figure the right all-encompassing answer is that it's Robin.
Perfectly said.