It’s been nearly seven years since Bane realigned Alfred Pennyworth’s neck in Tom King’s Batman. And even now, one of the most common questions I get from lapsed and casual readers is: “Is Alfred really still dead?”

Comic book deaths are a strange thing in that it’s expected that any significant character who dies will eventually be resurrected. But that isn’t always the case. There are some major DC characters who have stayed down since they were put down—characters who appeared in hundreds of issues, even, prior to their deaths.

To that end, we’re introducing “The Alfred Club,” the most prominent, formerly recurring characters in DC history who were introduced as participants in an ongoing story (no backstory deaths here, sorry Dr. and Mrs. Wayne) and remain in the dirt to this day. After some cautious mathematics, we can present here the top ten most significant departures which have yet to be undone in the DC Universe. That is, after Alfred, who will almost certainly remain at the top until someone decides that enough is enough, or DC really does kill off Batman.
 

Sylvester “Skyman” Pemberton, the Original Star-Spangled Kid

Dead Since: Infinity, Inc. #51 (1988)
Cause of Death: Solomon Grundy, via Mister Bones

Once one of the premiere young heroes of the early DC Universe, Sylvester Pemberton is best remembered for inverting the hero/sidekick formula as the first kid hero with an adult sidekick, Stripesy. As the Star-Spangled Kid grew into a Star-Spangled Man, Pemberton took a leading role in Infinity, Inc, a team of legacy heroes inspired to continue the work of the Justice Society of America before them. It was ultimately the tragedy of Pemberton’s death in battle against their foes in Injustice Unlimited that led to the dissolution of the team—and for a certain Courtney Whitmore to one day rise up as his successor.
 

Giovanni Zatara

Dead Since: Swamp Thing #50 (1986)
Cause of Death: The Great Darkness, Constantine’s Poor Planning

Debuting alongside Superman in Action Comics #1, Zatara is one of the oldest heroes in the DC Universe to maintain a regular presence throughout the Golden Age. Though his feature was eventually retired from Action Comics as Superman rose in popularity, his legacy was guaranteed by the introduction of his daughter Zatanna, who has since continually upstaged him. His end came not long after the first time we see him interact with John Constantine, drawn into a ritual to combat an encroaching primordial darkness upon reality that consumed him in the effort. It’s been a sticking point between John and Zee ever since.
 

Starman (Ted Knight)

Dead Since: Starman #72 (2000)
Cause of Death: Fighting the Mist

Fair warning: a lot of the guys on this list are going to be JSA members. But the original Starman, one of the first additions to the Justice Society of America roster back in the Golden Age, is one of many original heroes whose death marks the passing of one generation to the next. His triumphs, his tragedies and his grave mistakes all loom large over one of DC’s best comics of the 1990s, the Starman saga of Ted’s son, Jack Knight, as his modern successor. Ted’s role in the series came to an epic finale close to the end of the series, taking down his life-long nemesis while preventing the detonation of an atomic weapon, seeking redemption for his greatest regret. Like Sylvester, Ted is also technically succeeded today by Stargirl.
 

The Atom (Al Pratt) and Dr. Mid-Nite (Charles McNider)

Dead Since: Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #3, #2 (1994)
Cause of Death: Extant, The Man Who Makes You Old

Another two Golden Age Society-types, who share this space for dying in the same incident. Three members of the Justice Society were lost to the villain behind DC’s major Crisis event of the ’90s, who was either a time-traveling Hank Hall or Captain Atom depending who you ask. (It’s complicated.) But a big part of the Zero Hour event was the effect it had on many of the JSA members who had been granted supernatural longevity into the modern age, with Extant stripping that protection away from a good portion of the team. Along with Rex Tyler, the original Hourman, neither the original Atom nor the first Doctor Mid-Nite survived the assault, though Rex was able to come out of it fine later thanks to some temporal manipulation by the Hourman of the 853rd Century.
 

The Sandman (Wesley Dodds)

Dead Since: JSA Secret Files and Origins (1999)
Cause of Death: Defiance of Mordru

Another founding JSA member, the original Sandman warrants his own entry off the enduring potency of Sandman Mystery Theatre alone, one of the greatest detective series DC has ever published. Unspared from the ravages of time, Dodds survived into the 1990s as an aged man of deteriorating health, never shaking the prophetic dreams which drove him to his mission. Although he enjoyed a lengthy retirement, in the end, he chose to end his own life just a little bit early by taking a dive off Nanda Parbat rather than give the dread sorcerer Mordru some intelligence he craved. A hero to the very end, Wesley did return briefly in the Knight Terrors event in 2023, but that was very much a “one night only” engagement.
 

Doctor Fate (Kent Nelson)

Dead Since: Justice League Dark #27 (2020)
Cause of Death: Fighting the Upside-Down Man

Arguably the best-dressed hero in the history of the DC Universe and another original Justice Society founder. Doctor Fate is a sorcerer who’s come back from the dead before, but he’s been on the other side of the veil for some time now. In Justice League Dark, Kent, one of the most powerful magic wielders in the DC Universe, channeled everything he had into an attack meant to destroy the avatar of dark magic, the Upside-Down Man. The attack was so powerful, Nelson was reduced to ashes in the blowback. And yet, his foe was unaffected. Fortunately, Zatanna ended up handling that, and his successor Khalid Nassour has admirably stepped up to fill in as Doctor Fate.
 

Wildcat (Ted Grant)

Dead Since: JSA #6 (2025)
Cause of Death: Lady Eve

One of the more shocking recent deaths in comics was that of JSA founder and favorite Wildcat, boxing trainer to basically everyone in the DC Universe who has cared to learn. Ted was brought low in battle against the Injustice Society, establishing them as a sizable threat to the newly revived JSA. The real tragedy is that Wildcat’s been a beloved hero in the DC Universe since 1941 and has never had his own series. But here’s the good news, for both him and all the other JSA members on this list: they continue to maintain a presence in the JSA series not just through flashback stories to their Golden Age, but through the new Kid Eternity, who has the power to call upon their spirits—and their powers.
 

Ra’s al Ghul

Dead Since: Shadow War: Alpha #1 (2022)
Cause of Death: Geo-Force, Impersonating Deathstroke

Can you believe Ra’s has been dead for four years now? Considering that resurrection is kind of his whole deal, it’s a little surprising, even if this isn’t his first extended absence. It was former Outsider Geo-Force who took out one of Batman’s greatest nemeses in 2022 after messing with his homeland of Markovia a few too many times. But that doesn’t mean he’s gone for good—since 2023’s Lazarus Planet, we’ve been getting glimpses that his grandson’s girlfriend Flatline has been receiving visions and instructions from him. Exactly where that might lead is yet unresolved, but maybe we’ll learn more in the upcoming Teen Titans series where Nika appears next.
 

Brainiac

Dead Since: Superman #15 (2024)
Cause of Death: Spaceship Explosion

I know, I can’t really believe it either. But the epicenter of a big explosion is the last place we saw Brainiac following the 2024 Absolute Power precursor, House of Brainiac, and we haven’t seen him show up again since then. There’s probably some kind of drone or replacement body or transdimensional warping going on, and it would be a pretty safe bet that’s not the last time we’ll ever see him. He’s arguably Superman’s second greatest enemy, and he’s going to be the main villain of David Corenswet’s next movie. But for now, we technically have to park him here. You’re welcome in the Alfred Club today, Vril, but don’t get too comfortable.
 

Steve Trevor

Dead Since: Wonder Woman #14 (2024)
Cause of Death: The Sovereign

Oh, yeah. Steve’s dead. The tragedy of the murder of Wonder Woman’s most persistent love interest and the impetus for her journey into man’s world is the driving drama of the current ongoing Wonder Woman title by Tom King, the writer, you may recall, who also wrote the issue where Alfred died, kicking off this entire list in the first place. Be sure to read Wonder Woman if you’d like to see whether that status remains quo. At this point, though, if King’s name should ever appear on the Superman title…I fear for Jimmy Olsen’s safety.

...Wait, what's that? You're telling me Steve Trevor is alive again? Since when? Since the Wonder Woman issue that came out while I was writing this? Well, what can I say? That's comics for you.
 

Alex Jaffe is the author of our monthly "Ask the Question" column and writes about TV, movies, comics and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Bluesky at @AlexJaffe and find him in the DC Official Discord server as HubCityQuestion.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Alex Jaffe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.