Was Albert always considered to be a badass in his youth or is that something invented for this series?
News Batman Prequel ‘Pennyworth’ gets series order At Epix
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If you mean Alfred, his history as a WWII veteran was established by about 1980 at the latest, and the idea that he worked in military intelligence was established no later than Batman: The Animated Series. He's been consistently portrayed onscreen as a tough Special Forces/intelligence veteran since the Nolan movies.
Of course, the Alfred of the 1966 TV series was a badass in his own right; he singlehandedly outfought the Joker twice in the course of the series, and while the Joker managed to turn the tables on him the first time, their second encounter ended with the Joker completely defeated and begging for rescue from Batman and Robin.
To be fair, all you need to do to win a fight in the 1966 Batman TV show is learn to dance and stockpile cards with worlds like BIFF and POW to toss at the camera.
Pish. Alfred outfenced the Joker with a fireplace poker, then trapped him in the Batpoles (with the signs conveniently removed for repainting so he didn't know they led to the Batcave) and kept him going up and down on the compressed-steam lift until he begged for mercy.
Granted, the Joker at the time was not the homicidal archnemesis of the early '40s and the '70s onward, and by that particular storyline he'd degenerated into kind of a doofus even compared to his earlier turns in the show. But Alfred was still pretty awesome there.
That was brilliant! #GodSaveTheQueen
Binged this over the weekend when my cable company offered a free "watchathon." Really damned fine. Lots of style and intrigue. Greatly enjoyed a lot of the characters/actors, with special marks to Emma Paetz's marvelous Martha Kane. Far better than an "Alfred" show has any business being.
Blu-ray just announced from Warner Archive, due June 23. Highly recommended for anybody who hasn't had the chance to see this.
Think Amazon Prime may only offer the first three episodes or something, then direct you to Epix for the rest? There were people bitching about the bait-and-switch in the site reviews.
Ouch - I didn't look at it that closely
(I've looked now on the UK too and it mentions starzplay. A few people have mentioned that sort of issue.)
I think it's exclusive to the Epix service for now, they all need a premiere title or two to try to entice people to subscribe. It's offered on Xfinity and they offer free weeks occasionally, often enough I've been able to gradually catch up with these offerings.
