In Alfred's first appearance, he was overweight and clean-shaven; however, when the 1943
Batman serial was released,
William Austin, the actor who played Alfred, was trim and sported a thin
mustache. DC editors wanted the comic Alfred to resemble his cinematic counterpart, so in
Detective Comics #83 (January 1944), Alfred vacationed at a health resort, where he slimmed down and grew a mustache. This look has remained with the character ever since, even surviving his apparent "death" In most early tales, he made bungling attempts to be a
detective on a par with the young masters. He was given a four-page feature of his own, "The Adventures of Alfred", in
Batman #22 (April–May 1944) and the feature lasted 13 issues, skipping
Batman #35, with the last story in
Batman #36. The stories followed a simple formula, with Alfred solving a crime and catching the culprits entirely by accident. In later years, the comedic aspects of the character were downplayed.
Pre-Crisis The Pre-
Crisis comics (the comics that were published by DC Comics between 1938 and 1984) established Alfred as a retired actor and
intelligence agent who followed the deathbed wish of his dying father (identified only as "Jarvis") to carry on the tradition of serving the Wayne family. To that end, Alfred introduced himself to Bruce Wayne and
Dick Grayson at
Wayne Manor and insisted on becoming their butler. Although the pair did not want one, especially since they did not want to jeopardize their
secret identities with a servant in the house, they did not have the heart to reject Alfred. Initially, Alfred discovered their identities by accident; while fighting a burglar in
Batman #16 (Alfred's first appearance), he accidentally hit a switch and opened a sliding panel leading to the
Batcave. He is helpful to the duo, following them to a theater where they had been captured, bound, and gagged by a criminal gang, and rescues them after Batman attracts his attention by knocking a rope down before the crooks return. This was revised in
Batman #110 (September 1957); during his first night at Wayne Manor, Alfred awoke to moaning and followed the sound to the
secret passage to the staircase leading to the Batcave and met his would-be employers in their
superhero identities with Batman wounded in the field. As it turned out, the wounds were actually insignificant, but Alfred's care convinced the residents that their butler could be trusted. Since then, Alfred cheerfully included the support staff duties of the Dynamic Duo on top of his regular tasks. Ironically, Alfred's loyalty would lead him to become a member of Batman's rogue's gallery: While pushing Batman and Robin out of the way of a falling boulder, Alfred was seemingly killed in
Detective Comics #328 (June 1964). It was revealed in
Detective Comics #356 (October 1966) that he had been revived by a scientist named Brandon Crawford. His attempt at regeneration gave Alfred pale white skin, superhuman powers, including
telekinesis, and a desire to destroy Batman and Robin. Calling himself the
Outsider, he indirectly battled Batman and Robin on a number of occasions, using others as his puppets. He did not physically appear in the comics until
Detective #356, when he is bathed again in the rays of the regeneration machine during a struggle with Batman, and returns to normal, with no memory of his time as a supervillain. Alfred was later reunited with his long-lost daughter, Julia Remarque, though this element was not included in Post-
Crisis comics. Her mother was the war heroine
Mademoiselle Marie, whom Alfred had met while working as an intelligence agent in occupied France during
World War II.
Post-Crisis and Zero Hour In the Post-
Crisis comics
continuity, Alfred has been the Wayne family butler all of Bruce's life and had helped his master establish his superhero career from the beginning. In addition, he was Bruce's legal guardian and father figure following the murder of the boy's parents. Alfred's history has been
modified several times over the years, creating assorted versions. In one such version, Alfred was hired away from the
British royal family by Bruce's parents, and he virtually raised Bruce after they were murdered. Meanwhile, another version of Alfred's Post-
Crisis life was slightly more closely linked to his Pre-
Crisis counterpart. In this version, Alfred is an actor on the English stage who agrees to become the Waynes' butler to honor his father's dying wish that he continue the "family business" of serving the Waynes, his father having been butler for Bruce's grandparents. At the time he begins working for the Waynes, Bruce is a young child. After several months, Alfred voices the desire to quit and return home to continue his life as an actor. However, these plans are momentarily forgotten when young Bruce returns home after getting into a fight with a school bully. Alfred teaches Bruce to outsmart the bully, rather than use brute force. When Alfred's advice works, Bruce asks him to stay, and he agrees without a second thought. Shortly afterward, Bruce's parents are murdered, and Alfred steps in as the boy's legal guardian. Alfred later helps Bruce raise his adopted wards
Dick Grayson,
Jason Todd, and
Tim Drake, all of whom also become his crimefighting partner,
Robin. He also has close friendships with other members of the
Batman family, including
Barbara Gordon and
Cassandra Cain. Alfred often acts as a father figure to Bruce, and a grandfather to Dick, Jason, and Tim. He is also highly respected by Batman's fellow superheroes, including
Superman,
Wonder Woman,
Green Lantern, and the original
Teen Titans. Alfred has also been romantically linked to Dr.
Leslie Thompkins, a Wayne family friend who is also aware of Bruce's secret identity. He ends the relationship after she apparently allows
Stephanie Brown to die from neglect. He also develops feelings for Tim Drake's stepmother, but again, nothing comes of it. In the
Knightfall story arc, Alfred watches helplessly as Batman slowly crumbles under the pressure of fighting every escaped criminal in
Arkham Asylum, who were set free by
Bane. When Bane breaks Batman's back, Alfred tries to treat the injury, but Batman remains
paraplegic and a wheelchair user. During the events of
Knightquest, Alfred accompanies Bruce to
England and becomes enraged when he insists on endangering his own health. This is the culmination of several weeks of Bruce's self-destructive behavior, and when Bruce returns to
Gotham City, Alfred remains in England, after tendering his resignation. He spends some time vacationing in
Antarctica and
the Bahamas before returning to England, aware that Bruce would respect his choice and not actively try to look for him. Dick Grayson tracks him down several months later and convinces him to return to
Wayne Manor after the two thwart a terrorist attack on the Channel Tunnel. In that story, it is revealed Alfred had walked out of his own wedding years earlier after his fiancé, Joanna Clark, was revealed to have been cheating on him for months beforehand. During a reunion with Joanna, she claims that her son Derek is actually Alfred's son rather than the son of her now-deceased lover and former husband, but after Derek is killed by terrorists Joanna admits that this was a lie to get Alfred's help. The matter resolved, Alfred decides to return to Gotham; having lived separate from the world for years in Wayne Manor, his time on holiday leads him to conclude that ordinary people let their emotions run deep but their understanding of themselves is shallow, choosing to return to Gotham now that Bruce has acknowledged his limits and resolved to control his destiny. Alfred's resourcefulness comes to the fore in the ''
No Man's Land storyline, especially in Legends of the Dark Knight'' #118. Batman goes missing for weeks, leaving Alfred alone to watch his city for him. He uses his skills as an actor, storyteller, medic, and spy to survive and collect information on the recently destroyed Gotham City. Alfred even uses
hand-to-hand combat in a rare one-panel fight sequence between him and a pair of slavers that ends with his rescue by Batman. In
Batman #677, agents of Batman's mysterious enemy
Black Glove attack and beat Alfred in front of Bruce and
Jezebel Jet, severely injuring him. In the same issue, a reporter from
The Gotham Gazette suggests to
Commissioner Jim Gordon that Alfred may be Bruce's biological father and that this may be a reason for the murder of Bruce's mother
Martha. Alfred later denies the entire story, agreeing with Bruce that it was a fabrication, explicitly noting that the man intended to be him in the doctored photographs looks nothing like Alfred at the implied age. After the event of
Final Crisis, when Batman is apparently killed in action, Alfred finds himself with the task of raising Bruce's biological son
Damian with Grayson.
Batman: Battle for the Cowl sees Alfred allowing Damian to take on his first mission as Robin, giving Damian a Robin tunic and calling on the
Squire to assist the new Boy Wonder in finding Tim Drake, who had gone missing while hunting down Jason Todd. Alfred also assists Grayson in his role as Gotham's new Dark Knight. Alfred is left emotionally shattered by Bruce's death, commenting more than once that, even if his biological fatherhood is a fabrication, in a deeper sense he actually was Bruce Wayne's father, having watched over him for years and feeling he failed him in the last moments. In the
Batman and the Outsiders Special, Alfred is seen apologizing at the graves of Thomas and Martha Wayne for Bruce's death, commenting that he grieves as a parent, regarding Bruce as his son. Later, a secret panel in Alfred's room opens, the result of a fail-safe planted by Bruce in the event of his death. Bruce leaves him one final task and also bids him an emotional goodbye, telling Alfred he considered him a father. After discovering that the original Batman was actually lost in time after his battle with
Darkseid, Alfred immediately seeks clues to his whereabouts. Eventually, Bruce finds his way to the present. After Batman successfully expands his mission globally with
Batman Inc., Bruce assumes full responsibility as a father, and Alfred assists him in raising Damian.
The New 52 In
The New 52, it is revealed that Alfred's father Jarvis Pennyworth was the butler of the Wayne family before Alfred, when Bruce was a child. Jarvis was
blackmailed by the
Court of Owls to set a trap for the pregnant Martha Wayne. He declined and the Court managed to cause a car accident that caused the child to be born prematurely and eventually to have died. Jarvis attempted to resign from his service and write a letter to his son in which he describes the manor as a cursed place, and tells Alfred that he should not begin his service under the Wayne family. However, Jarvis was unable to send the letter as he was murdered that night. During
Batman: Eternal, Alfred is reunited with his long-absent daughter, Julia Pennyworth, an agent of the
Special Reconnaissance Regiment, when Batman finds her in Hong Kong and takes her back to Wayne Manor for medical treatment. She is initially hostile to Alfred, feeling that he has wasted his life going from a soldier to tending to a "
fop" like Bruce Wayne. However, after Alfred is attacked by
Hush and infected with a fear toxin, she discovers the
Batcave and takes on her father's role to coordinate the Bat-Family's efforts against their foes. Alfred is briefly transferred to
Arkham Asylum before it is attacked as part of a conspiracy, but he manages to survive the explosion and tricks Bane into helping him reach an emergency cave Batman had installed under Arkham. The cave's defences knocking Bane out and allowing Alfred to call for help. When Hush is briefly kept prisoner in the Batcave, he manages to break out of his cell and lock Alfred in it before sabotaging the
Batman Family's equipment via the
Batcomputer as they fought various villains, including crashing the
Batwing with Batman still in it. However, he was swiftly returned to captivity when Alfred escapes the cell and knocks Hush out, Alfred harshly informs Tommy that he was hardly going to be locked up in his own home. During the
Batman: Endgame arc, the Joker breaks into the Batcave, and cuts off Alfred's right hand. Following the death of Bruce Wayne, Julia says that with current medical technology, they can have Alfred's hand reattached without any complications. However Alfred refuses, stating that with Bruce dead, he no longer has need of it as he has no one left to serve. Even with the loss of Bruce as Batman, Alfred still assists the
Batman Family in the Batcave, along with Julia. After Bruce is discovered to be alive but with no memory of who he is or of his life as Batman, Alfred tells Bruce everything that had happened in his life up to the point of the creation of Batman, but accepts Bruce's request not to learn any more. However, when the new villain
Mr. Bloom launches a mass attack that apparently kills Jim Gordon—the new Batman—the amnesic Bruce pieces together enough information to deduce that he was once Batman, and convinces Alfred to subject him to a machine that will theoretically download all of his memories as Batman into his mind. With his master restored, Alfred's hand is subsequently reattached.
DC Rebirth Following the 2016
DC Rebirth continuity reboot, Alfred appears in
Detective Comics and the third volume of
Batman, as well as in
All-Star Batman. In the latter, Alfred is among the many Gotham citizens blackmailed by
Two-Face into stopping Batman from providing Two-Face's former self, Harvey Dent, a cure for his
split personality; Alfred in particular reluctantly shoots down the
Batwing as Batman is flying it. When asked, Alfred reveals his secret; years earlier, he had hired a hitman to kill
the Joker after the villain murdered
Jason Todd and disabled
Barbara Gordon. Alfred soon cancelled the hit, however, after realizing that committing cold-blooded murder would betray Batman's ideals. In Batman #77 (part of the "City of Bane" storyline), an evil version of Thomas Wayne from an alternate dimension invades Gotham City and defeats Batman, and uses Alfred as a hostage to keep the rest of the Bat-Family out. At Thomas' behest, Bane breaks Alfred's neck, killing him after
Robin sneaks into Gotham City to rescue him and defeat Bane. In
Nightwing #78, Barbara visits
Dick Grayson and reveals that Alfred was a billionaire, due to stock from Wayne Industries after Alfred became Bruce's legal guardian. Barbara then tells Dick that Alfred has left his fortune to Dick in his will. ==Characterization==