In Batman: The Animated Series, Alfred found himself in trouble thanks to his association with both Bruce Wayne and his alter-ego. For his part, Alfred knows that Batman’s mission keeps the city from falling apart.īeyond the comic books, other properties like movies and TV shows have also explored Bruce and Alfred's relationship in a similar vein. As the one who holds down the fort and serves as mission control, Bruce relies on Alfred for everything. From then on, the Dynamic Duo added another teammate to their ranks. The 1980 issue of Untold Legend of the Batman #2 (by Len Wein, Jim Aparo and Glynis Oliver) revealed how Alfred learned that his employer was the infamous vigilante of Gotham City and instinctively knew what to do to help his injured surrogate son. However, in the pre-Crisis continuity, Alfred mostly played the role of a diligent butler with a past. Batman: The Animated Series perfected this trope so well that Batman comics have kept it alive for decades. Alfred takes care of the manor's day-to-day maintenance and also of its occupants, often criticizing Batman's nightly escapades with a healthy dose of parental disapproval. The modern depiction of Bruce and Alfred's relationship falls halfway between a mutual understanding and a ward-and-guardian relationship. What made this different than the Caped Crusader's standard adventures, though, is the fact that he was willing to engage in a massacre for his dear friend. However, little did they know that Batman was already inside their compound, taking the thugs out one after another in the silence of the night. Aiming to use the Wayne Foundation in Corto Maltese as cover for their unscrupulous business deals, they planned on using Pennyworth as leverage. Disguised as a tourist, he entered the country and learned that Alfred had been abducted by a gang and taken deep inside the island's jungles to a Mayan ruin. Bruce was suspicious when Alfred missed his flight. However, what was supposed to be a simple vacation turned into a tragedy. He was never going to do poorly in Nolan’s hands, but putting together a nuanced performance that’s always enjoyable to watch, doing so in a series of big IMAX films, and having the character you’re playing be Alfred Pennyworth is an achievement worthy of the top spot on more than a couple of lists.In Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #31 (by Jim Hudnall, Brent Anderson, Steve Oliff and Kevin Cunningham), Bruce sends Alfred on a vacation to Corto Maltese, acknowledging that his poor butler had hardly taken a day off in his thirty years of service to the Wayne Family. Being in arguably the best Batman movie imbues the overall performance with a lot of force that maybe wouldn’t be there if the surrounding filmmaking was worse. Caine’s ability to act and feel natural in a scene sells so much of the lesser Alfred material, that when he gets great Alfred material (i.e., every pep talk/info dump), it feels like another well-shot arrow from Christopher Nolan’s quiver. The fact that Caine seems to be enjoying himself - and can act extremely well - makes it so that his Pennyworth smoothly does all the things you’d expect (serve drinks, be fatherly, fret for his master’s safety) and makes them feel imperative, like always the right thing to do, and not just stuff that Batman’s butler is doing. Like just another person we can blame for why the movies aren’t quite working anymore.Ĭhristian Bale’s Bruce Wayne - like all Batmans who don’t have a Robin - doesn’t have a lot of friends, but he does have more than one friend, and so his reliance on Michael Caine’s Alfred as a trusted companion and a live-in therapist makes their relationship feel pure, and not like a contrived box being ticked because it’s from the source material. But when Keaton is no longer the Batman, that energy no longer bounces off this Alfred, and the character ends up feeling like the new guy's babysitter/manager or something. It makes this Alfred feel like a guy who must be pretty cool, too, to keep up with this guy. This twitchy, morosely offbeat loner who’s so in his head that he lets his villains eat all the scenery in his movies. In Gough’s scenes with Michael Keaton, he brings a cool dignity to a character charged with being not just Bruce’s steward and good friend, but the steward and friend to this Bruce. Their Alfred is iconic (and perhaps a generation’s template for the character) and the casting through-line across all these films, which is not bad. In a world with no nostalgia for them, it is hard to imagine what would eke through as value outside the lore itself, Batman Returns especially. These movies are absolute bangers, even the essentially bad ones that Joel Schumacher directed.
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