Yes, even Alfred Pennyworth had super-abilities at one point, becoming the villainous Outsider. Even as a young kid reading the story for the first time, I thought it was an odd development. If memory serves, it was all part of a plan by DC to get Alfred off the table and replace him with Aunt Harriet at Wayne Manor. Fortunately that new status quo was soon abandoned and Alfred was returned to his proper post (and life as well - I think they also killed him off). I guess it's like being a supporting character on the CW's The Flash - hang around long enough and you'll get powers, too.
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It made it really weird that Batman started a team and named them the Outsiders.
As I recall the reprints from the Seventies, he was (in PRINCESS BRIDE-ese) really only mostly dead. A high-tech biologist, looking for a certain species of nocturnal insect, heard Alfred moaning from the conveniently nearby crypt...and rescued him. Subjecting him to some device similar to Cap's oft-mentioned "vita-rays!"
I've read before that Julius Schwartz ordered Alfred killed off when he became the editor of the Batman books. They brought Alfred back when they found out that the producers of the Batman TV show definitely wanted to use him as part of the show.
And the Outsider wasn't supposed to be Alfred, although no one seems to know what his original deal was going to be, as far as I know. Outsider was introduced as a recurring villain, and when the decision was made to bring Alfred back from the dead, they just said that Alfred hadn't really died but was turned into the Outsider, even though it meant that Batman had technically had Alfred buried alive.
Dear Ross: given your genius for cinematic and televisual exploitation of publicity photo-captures, how about a team up featuring this past year's Justice League (including Gal Gadot) with the rebooted big-budget Power Rangers?*
*A recently purchased TP of the mini-series gave me the idea.
Or what about Scooby Doo and the mystery gang vs. DC's Shaggy Man? "Shaggy, what's happened to your father?"
The Outsiders actually meet the Outsider in a Christmas issue of DC Comics Presents. I think it was his last appearance before Crisis on Infinite Earths.
I heard the same story that Batman of Earth 13 mentioned above. Evidently Schwartz wasn't too thrilled with the all-male Wayne household.
A small trivia bit... In Forever Evil, Owlman's butler from Earth 3 (Presumably a Pennyworth) is referred to as 'The Outsider' during the build up and throughout the mini-series.
Ideas man 2 said...
"Or what about Scooby Doo and the mystery gang vs. DC's Shaggy Man? "Shaggy, what's happened to your father?"
Or what about sending Scooby Doo & friends to Sunnydale? After all, Buffy's friends have been referred to as "the Scooby gang"...
^_^
@Simreeve: With Sunnydale now gone for good, the closest they could come to that would be a team-up with the Winchester boys from SUPERNATURAL. ;-)
Like, dude; you know they did that last Thursday night. Right?
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