Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: alfred pennyworth, bane, dan didio, Tom King

Tom King Says Alfred's Death Was A Fake, And Talks Double Date Hate

Tom King says that Alfred Pennyworth's death was a fake, and talks about DC's double date hate

Once I go down a rabbit hole, I keep on going. Such as with Tom King and the death of Alfred Pennyworth, Batman's butler, at the hands of Bane, in front of Damian Wayne, as a way to punish Robin from entering Gotham and to send a message in Batman #77 in 2019. This was back in 2019, and he hasn't returned to DC Comics continuity… yet. Though Tom King recently said we may see him in the River Styx in upcoming issues of Wonder Woman, as he told the Word Balloon podcast. 

DC Comics hated the double date Batman story

But when talking to the Batman Book Club podcast, he first talked about the Batman comic most people talk to him about, the one with Clay Mann, in which Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle, Lois Lane and Clark Kent go on a double date, go to a funfair, and then dress up as each other. "Everyone says the double date issue, it's the one I signed the most, which is crazy because I've written Batman #1, they bring me Batman #37 instead. DC hated that, they did not want to do it when I proposed it, after I wrote it, I got a nastygram from [Tom stops just short of naming them]….  never do this again, this is not who we are…  my most successful issue was despised and I had to fight very hard to get that one little double date because…. I mean, there's violence in it, there's robbery and stuff, but they're, like, this is not Batman." And of course, it was that issue which was reprised at the very final wedding of Batman and Catwoman, Bruce and Selina, with Clark and Lois as their witnesses.

It was meant to be Bane, not the Flashpoint Batman

He also talked about how the big bad of Batman all the way through was meant to be Bane rather than Thomas Wayne. "Batman's father, the dark Batman, was not supposed to be as big a character as he became towards the end. He was supposed to be more
Darth Vader to Bane's Emperor, if you will, like his best bodyguard. And towards the very end, the powers that be at DC said, No, we want Bane to go down a little more and bring Batman's father more into the forefront. And I tried to fight that, and I lost." He doesn't mind that so much, but the staying power of the death of Alfred Pennyworth he has more of a problem with.

Alfred Pennyworth's death was meant to be a Scarecrow nightmare

Tom explains the so-called death of Alfred Pennyworth. "It was entirely supposed to be a fake out. If you look closely at the issue, you can see it was supposed to be scarecrow gas. Damien saw his worst fear, which was Alfred dying. That was it. It was 100% supposed to be a fake out death, and then the issue came out, people were like "I want to see where this story goes, what's going on" and the day it came out, I got a call from Dan DiDio [DC publisher] and he's like 'okay Alfred's dead', like he went online, saw the comments and he's like 'I want him to be dead, he's dead' and I was like 'well, no, because Alfred can't go out like that, that's a stupid way for Alfred to go, if I was gonna kill Alfred, I would do a whole big thing. And so my editor Jamie Rich and I got on the phone, I took my dog for a walk and we talked and talked and talked until we could figure out that how his sitting there was a sacrifice, and then so it became how he sort of sacrificed himself to save Batman in that moment, and then once it was a sacrifice then it could be done. I assumed it would stick for 15 or 20 issues. I thought James [Tynion IV] would bring him back, I thought Josh [Williamson] would bring him back, I think Chip [Zdarsky and he didn't] would bring him back, he's still he's still gone, it amazes me."

And Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez only have an imaginary Alfred Pennyworth… so far.

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