Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: alfred pennyworth, Alicia Silverstone, Barbara Wilson, Daphne Pennyworth, Dustin Nguyen, jorge jimenez, Julia Pennyworth, Julia Remarque, matt fraction

"Suit Me Up, Uncle Alfred?" Batman Gets A New Butler In 2026, But Who?

"Suit Me Up, Uncle Alfred?" Batman Gets A New Butler In 2026, But Who? Daphne Pennyworth? Julia Remarque? Barbara Wilson? Alicia Silverstone?

Published Mon, 25 May 2026 05:58:14 -0500

by Rich Johnston

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Article Summary

Batman #12 teases a brilliant new Bat-Family ally, delivered by Alfred Pennyworth from beyond the grave.
Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez set Batman against six assassins as Gotham braces for a deadly mystery target.
Daphne Pennyworth and Julia Remarque emerge as top candidates to become Batman’s possible new butler in 2026.
Barbara Wilson from Batman & Robin also fits the Alfred niece angle, but DC may be introducing someone entirely new.

Jorge Jimenez posted "B A T M A N #12 Friends! A brilliant new ally has arrived in the Bat-family, just in time! and that's all I can say… #pennyworth #batman #mattfraction" . And here is his cover and that of Dustin Nguyen… a very interesting cover artist choice as well.

: BATMAN #12

: BATMAN #12

BATMAN #12
(W) Matt Fraction (A/CA) Jorge Jimenez () Dustin Nguyen
SIX ASSASSINS. ONE CITY. COUNTLESS WAYS TO DIE! Six of the world's deadliest killers have descended on Gotham City at once–but who hired them, and who's the target? Surely, it can't be the Batman… As the Caped Crusader races to uncover who set this deadly plan in motion, the late Alfred Pennyworth provides a gift from beyond the grave with the arrival of a brilliant new ally to the Bat-Family at a time when it needs one most. $4.99 8/5/2026

Now Alfred Pennyworth died years ago at the hands of Bane, to torture Damian Wayne, something The Joker thought was a waste. The writer, Tom King, intended it as a fake-out, but DC publisher Dan DiDio thought the reaction was so strong that it became the status quo. Recently, in the new Batman series by Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez, Bruce Wayne has been talking and arguing with the dead Alfred Pennyworth in his head, depicted as a ghostly figure on the page. But now? A new butler to Bruce Wayne and Batman? A young, white woman with long blonde hair and a taste in suits?

Daphne Pennyworth was created by Frank Robbins and Irv Novick in 1969 for the Batman comics and appeared for nine issues. An actor like her uncle, she was hired to steal an original copy of Romeo And Juliet from Bruce Wayne, later rescued from danger by Batman, in 1970. That was it.

: Julia Remarque

: Julia Pennywoth (New 52)

: Julia Pennywoth (Absolute)

There's also Julia Remarque, his daughter, whose mother was Mademoiselle Marie of the French Resistance during World War II, known as Julia Remarque after being brought up as Jacques Remarque. First appearing in Detective Comics and created by Gerry Conway and Don Newton, she was reinvented for the New 52 rebooted Batman series as special agent Julia Pennyworth by Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV and, yes, Dustin Nguyen in 2014, a flashforward to the Batman Eternal series, where she became a mission coordinator for Batman. Her lineage would have to be different, she is too young to be the daughter of a French Resistance fighter, and appears to have a different ethnic lineage too. She looks a little similar in the Absolute Universe, too, if playing another, very different role.

"Suit Me Up, Uncle Alfred?" Batman Gets A New Butler In 2026 — Screencap *Batman And Robin* (1997)

Another option might be Barbara Wilson, the character who appeared in the 1997 movie Batman and Robin, played by Alicia Silverstone as Batgirl, playing the Barbara Gordon role, but being Alfred Pennyworth's niece. And giving us the phrase in the headline, and luckily Uncle Pennyworth knew her exact measurements for such a tight-fitting suit on hand… or maybe this is someone entirely new, also even taking an entirely different role…