Ok a while back a few friends shared this idea on “What if it was alfred who shot the Wayne’s, that would be a huge plot twist!”
I said “Yes that would, but I wouldn’t like that because after their deaths, alfred took care of Bruce and raised him as own, and was supportive throughout his whole life. Alfred being the one to kill the Wayne’s would just ruin that!”
That’s how I see it, what do you guys think?
Agreed he is an important person to batman his bat family
it only works if the Wayne’s are bad parents and abuse Bruce in some way
I guess if overall if it was an elseworld, even then,I still wouldn’t like but I would let it slide.
Wasn’t this done in one of the Batman: Black & White stories? Or something very similar?
Not sure about black and white but I have heard that’s owlman’s origin. Him and alfred plotted killing the Wayne’s.
I disagree. what if Alfred killed them because he wanted to be Bruce’s father?
I honestly think that could be a cool story/storyline
yeah that could work
Yes, it’s the Earth-3 Owlman’s New 52 origin from Justice League #25 - I don’t think the 1964 pre-Crisis version Justice League of America #29 ever got a formal origin.
In the modern story, Alfred killed Thomas’ parents and brother. In between, there was a version where the Crime Syndicate came from the antimatter universe, I think, where Thomas’ parents were killed by cops after refusing to go in for questioning, but I can’t find it on the service; I think it was a Grant Morrison one-shot that ran parallel to JLA WWIII …?
Anyway, I can’t find the Black & White story I was thinking of, so I suspect it was either in some other series, or a figment of my imagination. (Maybe I conflated the Rafael Grampá story (undercover Alfred) with the Becky Cloonan/Olly Moss story (drugging-women-and-spreading-tabloid-stories Alfred) and my brain ad libbed the rest…)
I have heard this theory many times. It makes little to no sense.Alfred and Thomas were great friends, he was happy with being hired by the Waynes. Most of the theory is based around him being Bruce’s father and that it may be guilt. Honestly that makes a tad bit of sense but as seen in Pennyworth R.I.P. the guilt was based around the fact that Thomas had given him a day off at the worst possible time. This also counter acts the fact that Alfred was the Wayne’s driver but instead they chose to walk instead.
Another point is Earth 3. The timeline is backwards in this earth, such as President John Wilkes Booth was shot by Abe Lincoln or The British won their Independence from the United States. In this earth Alfred helped in the plot to kill the Waynes, as well as Thomas Wayne Jr and the earth 3 counter part of Bruce. If all of reality was backwards why would that leave an exception for Alfred?
Right, that’s the whole point. Alfred’s involvement in the plot is the opposite of his lack of involvement on Earth Prime. It’s not an exception, but an exploration of this “what if…” on a completely flipped Earth, where it doesn’t undermine the core tenets of the Alfred/Bruce relationship.
I think a lot of people like the idea of undermining the relationship with a dark secret like this, which is why it comes up in so many different forms, but never in (Prime) canon.
I know. I was talking about in the concept of what if this theory was correct.
Just as long as that’s all it is and they don’t change the canon story.
Can’t speak for all, but friends aren’t comic readers so they probably don’t see how important alfred is to the batman Mythos
If this were the real world, I’d agree with you. Obviously that would be a horrible thing for an actual person to experience and I would hate to see it. That said, I think it’s actually very interesting from a literary standpoint. It would lead to some incredibly interesting character moments for Bruce and could send him down a wild path.
Bruce finding out the one person he could trust, that he saw as genuinely good and there for him, was actually an awful person who murdered his parents may genuinely be the last straw to break his battle with mental health. It would maybe send him on a rampage in the same way we saw Clark change after the death of Lois in the Injustice timeline.
Yes, it’s an awful thing to happen, but that doesn’t mean it’d be a bad thing for the narrative. I’m not personally hungering to see the entire story played out, but that’s mostly because I’m a little burnt out on Batman at the moment; not because I think it’d be bad from a story perspective. It just depends on how it was written. But I think the main point I’m trying to get across is that just because something is bad from a pragmatic/realistic standpoint doesn’t mean it’s bad for a story.
Yeah I’m with with an elseworld story being like this, it could make an interesting story but I would hate it if they were to making alfred killing the Wayne’s canon.
Idk if I’d hate it it were canon. It would entirely depend on how it was written and where it could build the character into the future. I’m just not someone who thinks that if a character was one way in the past, then they have to be like that forever in the future. So long as the writing is good and justified, then I’ll trust the artist and follow them where they wish.