Can anyone pin down whenabouts Alfred started to be badass? In his introduction he was very much the comedy relief servant (and I suppose it was only luck that he wasn't a cariacatured black servant). By the Silver Age he seemed to be getting cooler (Alan Napier gave the impression of being more than he let on in the wacky old Adam West series), but it's the Modern Age where the badassness really got ramped up (he also turned into what TVTropes would call a Deadpan Snarker, which I was particularly struck by when first reading Frank Miller's DKR. Dunno if Miller's responsible for that particular element, though).