10 Times Alfred Pennyworth Utterly DESTROYED Batman

The current version of the Dark Knight is, well... dark. Brooding. Serious. Almost self-loathing in some aspects.

Luckily, we have Alfred to remind Bruce not to be, to paraphrase Heath Ledger's Joker, "so serious".

As mentioned, Alfred often ends up playing doctor for Bruce, stitching up wounds, setting broken bones, even performing more serious tasks like X-rays, digging out bullets, decontaminating toxins, and performing minor surgeries.

It was during one such repair session that Alfred managed two separate shots at Bruce - hitting both his public image and his self-image.

For starters, while stitching up a nasty cut on Bruce's shoulder, Bruce quietly says "Oww", a minor thing that the annoyed Alfred immediately jumps on by sarcastically suggesting that he should alert the media that the fearsome, stoic Batman admitted that something hurt.

He follows this up by asking what would have happened on the night that Bruce was inspired to become Batman if nothing had came through the window that Bruce was staring through.

Of course, what came crashing through that window on that fateful night was a screeching bat, which Bruce felt would scare criminals.

Alfred suggests that if Bruce hadn't been so inspired, his motif may have become that of 'The Curtain', a theatre-themed vigilante stalking the streets of Gotham.

Nothing like kicking a man when he's already nursing wounds.