It’s hardly a new development for DC fans to find themselves questioning some of the creative decisions and onscreen developments being made across the length and breadth of the comic book company’s multimedia empire, but the next episode of rebranded prequel series Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler has taken the internet by storm.
The show was given the new moniker ahead of its third season because creator Bruno Heller admitted that a large part of the audience had no idea it was even connected to the Batman mythos. Not only is the project a period-set spy caper that revolves around young Alfred’s history with the Wayne family, but it’s also a canonical prequel to Heller and Danny Cannon’s Gotham.
However, the latest twist in the tale has left plenty of DC supporters just as confused as they are bemused. Not content with being the prequel to a prequel about the beginnings of the Caped Crusader, this week’s installment seems to officially confirm that Pennyworth exists in the same world as V for Vendetta.
That’s right, Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s dystopian classic has been embraced as part of the AlfredVerse (PennyWorld? Stiff Upper Lip Cinematic Universe?), and the reactions range from the incredulous to the hilarious.
In essence, what we’ve established from the latest goings-on is that Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman’s Butler is nuts. In season 2, Martha Kane had a baby daughter named Samantha, which was already a huge deviation from the comics given that Bruce has never had a biological sibling before, and now it’s embracing V for Vendetta while still operating as a prelude to all five seasons of Gotham. Got all that?