Anna Daniels
The current version of Alfred, rebooted once again in 2011, is a synthesis of pieces from the past incarnations. Like the post-Crisis Alfred, he thinks of Bruce as a son, and like the Silver Age version, he has a daughter of his own — although this Julia Pennyworth is well aware of who her father is, and she followed him into the UK’s special forces before filling in for him in the Batcave. He also has the intense military past that we saw back in the ’70s and ’80s, but this time, it’s not tied to the real-world conflict of World War II. Instead, it’s the kind of wild ride you can only get from comics.
This Alfred’s youth in London was marked by an intense resentment of his father for taking a job across an ocean “winding clocks for rich people.” As a leather-jacketed ’80s punk, complete with mohawk, he got in trouble with the law several times for various petty crimes, including tagging the city’s rooftops with the symbol of a shattered clock. He found a more constructive outlet when he discovered acting, but his youthful rebellion ultimately led him to join the army at 18, where he quickly rose up the ranks of the SAS.
It was while he was there, having proven himself as an exceptional sniper and counter-terrorist operative, that he was recruited for one of the DC Universe’s many shadowy black ops programs. This one, however, had the distinction of dating back about a thousand years. Codenamed the Nemesis Program, the group was rooted in the idea of a kingdom having a soldier or, originally, a knight who operated in secret, with full deniability from the crown. Officially branded a traitor, this — wait for it — “Dark Knight” would do the dirtiest of the dirty work, completely alone other than a handler as his “squire.” Alfred was tapped for the job by the squire, codenamed Briar, and trained for a year before learning that Briar was less of a soldier and more of an unhinged madman driven to extremes by the death of the previous Dark Knight, his son, and who was planning to murder Alfred’s dad to sever his ties to anything other than the program.
Needless to say, Alfred quit and went off into the rewarding world of buttling for the Waynes. Briar, however, not only survived after his battle with Alfred, but he didn’t give up on his goal of turning Alfred into the perfect soldier. If he couldn’t make Alfred into the Dark Knight, he’d just clone him and spend the next 25 years or so raising him completely without humanity to be the ultimate killing machine. You know, normal stuff to have in your past when you go to work for Batman.
Written by: Looper
