Chronology: Alfred, Part 2

After checking out Alfred’s unrecognizable Golden Age incarnation, let’s see his weird journey through the Silver Age.
While the first the first Silver Age appearance of Batman is subject to some debate, Batman #92 is definitely an Earth-One story and could be considered the first Silver Age appearance of Alfred.

But that story doesn’t focus on him, unlike…

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Batman #110 (1957)
by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff
cover by Curt Swan

Sadly it’s not the cover story.

If you’re curious about that, Batman was blasted by a McGuffin Machine that made him intangible for a while. Yeah his 50s stories were quite insane.

We’re instead looking at the story that retcons how Alfred discovered Batman’s secret identity.

This version of Alfred is not the son of the original Wayne butler, and wasn’t the family butler when Bruce was a kid like in most other continuities… he was just hired.

Forget the fact that he’s Batman: given that Bruce is a billionaire, I’m surprised his butler isn’t constantly being offered bribes to spill dirt on him.

The great secret to how Alfred learned the real identity of Batman and Robin is that… they just told him. Kind of anticlimactic!

Alfred tells him that someone is trying to get information on Bruce Wayne, and then goes on to his butler business.

I suspect this version of Alfred might be the only reason why Batman keeps a secret identity.

You can still feel the influence of the bumbling Golden Age Alfred.

The framing device for the flashback is that Alfred decided to resign because one guy discovered the Bat-Cave… but he has an idea now.

A very dumb idea.

Good thing that billionaires have a lot of free time, because this was all just a trick to test Alfred’s loyalty.

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Historical significance: 0/10
As mentioned, in virtually all other versions Alfred is not just hired by the adult Bruce Wayne.

Silver Age-ness: 4/10
It looks like Bruce’s disguise is just a fake moustache.

Does it stand the test of time? 5/10
It’s not a bad idea… Batman tested Alfred’s loyalty when he first hired him and now he confesses the truth… but you would need to change most of the story, plus you can’t do this to almost any other version of Alfred.

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By the time “Untold legend of the Batman #2” was published in 1980, a mix of the various origins was established.
He was the son of the original Wayne butler, who like in the Golden Age shows up when Batman and Robin have already established themselves…

…but it combines that with the way he discovered Batman’s identity in 1957.

But going back to 50s insanity…

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Batman #127 (1959)
by Jerry Coleman & Dick Sprang
cover by Curt Swan

 Once again we are sadly not here for the cover story.

Which has a version of Thor that some reason he throws his hammer sideways?

The hammer flying back is from mythology, so no wonder that it pre-dates the Marvel version… but this one ALSO transforms into Thor from a mortal!

But there’s no gods involved, just magic radioactive meteorites.

We’re instead looking at the second story, which has Batman and Robin team up with The Eagle.
Which I guess fits as Robin’s partner better than Batman.

If you’re wondering why this is in the Alfred chronology, well…

…I did promise insanity.

Turns out that these powers were only temporary. And a terrible idea, but you knew that already.

I wouldn’t put past THIS Batman to have engineered the loss of powers.
Obviously I can’t analyze ALL of Alfred’s stories during the Silver Age, but there is one last storyline to talk about.

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Detective Comics #328 (1964)
by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff
cover by Carmine Infantino

Aren’t you guys forgetting something? Like asking Batman to remove his mask?

Alfred decides to carry out his own investigation on a case…

…and eventually he has to save Batman and Robin from being crushed.

Alfred dies in this!!!

This is all so that he can be replaced by Robin’s never-before-seen Aunt Harriet.

There is no explanation why Harried didn’t get custody of Dick Grayson when his parents were murdered.

There’s speculation that she was written to replace Alfred because of the influence of Fredric Wertham’s “Seduction of the innocent” crusade insinuated there was something “suspicious” about having three men in the same house, but I find that more than a little unbelievable for two reasons.
One is that 1964 is VERY late for that to be the case, as by then Wertham’s influence had been reduced to zero.
The other is that I don’t think Alfred was ever suspected to be the “suspicious” part of that arrangement!

Aunt Harriet will play a recurrent role in the 1966 Batman TV series, played by Madge Blake.
She’s often misremembered (by myself included) to have originated in the TV show first, but she’s from the comics originally.

Alfred was considered dead for about two years, until…

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Detective Comics #356 (1966)
by Gardner Fox and Sheldon Moldoff
cover by Carmine Infantino

For a few issues by this point, Batman had been dealing with a supervillain named The Outsider.

In addition to having a bunch of superpowers (including telekinesis, telepathy, invulnerability and molecular powers), The Outsider is particularly dangerous because he knows Batman’s identity.

Batman suspects that he could be Alfred (!!!), but he’s still in his refrigerated coffin inside the Alfred Mausoleum.

Turns out that Alfred wasn’t dead when they put him in the coffin.
Wait, WHAT!?!?

Yes apparently Alfred, who I remind you was CRUSHED BY A BOULDER, was just taking a nap.
Sounds legit.

The scientist exposed Alfred’s body to some Nonsense Rays, and that turned him into The Outsider.

Take a moment to appreciate that this technology turned Alfred into a superhuman monster and a different person into a doppelganger of Alfred SO precise that they have the same fingerprints!

At the end Batman exposes The Outsider to the same machine, and turns him back into Alfred.

Alfred returns to his butler duties, having lost all memory of his time as The Outsider.
May we all be so lucky to forget as well.

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This was not how the plot was originally supposed to be!

The Outsider was originally conceived as being completely unrelated to Alfred. However the producers of the Batman TV show wanted the comics to align with the series, requesting Alfred to be resurrected.
The decision to reveal the Outsider was Alfred was not taken well by readers, if the letters from Detective Comics #360 are to be believed.

While it is kind of funny to see readers from 1964 complain about characters never staying dead (if only they knew!) and that the return of Alfred didn’t receive universal acclaim… in the long run, it was definitely the right call.

I’m not a fan of the Batman TV show in the slightest, but I have to give this to them: without the producers, it’s entirely possible that Alfred might have stayed dead.
And I think we can all agree Batman would not have been the same without him.

I couldn’t possibly cover the rest of Alfred’s history, especially after the 70s really developed him as a character and expanded on his relationship with Batman.
I have to mention that he dies again in 2019, on Batman vol3 #77, after having his neck snapped by Bane.

There was a fakeout return in 2023, but that allowed Alfred to give a tearful goodbye to Bruce Wayne (who wasn’t around during his death).

I only flipped through the storyline of his death because I really don’t like that period of Batman’s life. But I have to admit that his second death scene is written perfectly.

And AMAZINGLY, at the time of this writing Alfred is STILL dead in main DC continuity.
I haven’t read a ton of Batman stories following his death, but it’s entirely possible they might keep him dead since he does fit the Uncle Ben Dead Mentor role nicely…

…but it’s more likely than not that he’ll eventually return.