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There were a lot of shocking things that happened during Tom King's Batman run (remember when Nightwing got shot in the head by KGBeast?), but the one event that changed the landscape of Batman comics these last few years was the death of Alfred Pennyworth at the hands of Bane. This took place during the climactic City of Bane storyline in 2019. And, although a version of Alfred lives on in the mind of Batman, evident in issues of Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez's current run on the book, Batman's faithful manservant has seemingly shuffled off this here mortal coil for good. Gone, but not forgotten, he is. 

Writer Tom King is still surprised that Alfred has remained dead nearly 7 years later, as he detailed on the Word Balloon podcast. "I thought [Alfred'd] be back in 2 months after I did it. It’s shocked me it’s lasted this long," King said about Alfred's death. The writer stressed that he "[has] no inside information" about whether or not Alfred is going to return any time soon. (Never let it be forgotten that Mark Waid toyed with our emotions on this topic back in 2022.)

It's worth noting that, as I mentioned before, when Nightwing got shot by KGBeast in the head in King's Batman run (Batman #55 to be exact), he later became amnesiac, adopting the name "Ric Grayson" in Nightwing #50 by Benjamin Percy and Travis Moore. Dick Grayson was, well, Ric Grayson from 2018 until August 2020, and he's been solidly Nightwing ever since. Alfred, however, is still dead. This is all to say that a lot has changed for the Bat-Family over the last few years, but for now, it looks like Alfred is dead for good.

He is vengeance, he is the night, he is... one of Popverse's favorite subjects. Learn how to do a Dark Knight movie marathon right with our Batman movie guide, and for the true World's Greatest Detectives out there, dive deep into the heart of Gotham City by getting to know Batman with Popverse. Here are some of our latest Batman stories:

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