"Alfred..." Batman Bruce Wayne watched Alfred use equipment provided by New Krypton to move between Gotham's skyscrapers, calming the panicked ordinary people who had merged in from another universe and leading them to safe shelters.
Batman Bruce Wayne felt as though a bottle of mixed emotions had been overturned inside him. He felt terrible.
Everything in his universe had been terrible.
When the Justice League fought Darkseid, Wonder Woman Diana had been beaten to death by Darkseid after exhausting her strength. The Flash Barry Allen had run into the Speed Force and vanished, already becoming one with it. Steel Bone Victor Stone had been captured by Darkseid and remade into a steel Parademon. Aquaman Arthur Curry had torn Darkseid in half.
Only after enduring countless hardships had they managed to drive Darkseid back.
During that battle, Batman Bruce Wayne's butler, Alfred, had been found by Darkseid's subordinates.
When Batman Bruce Wayne returned to the Batcave after the war, he found only Alfred lying in a pool of blood.
Batman Bruce Wayne had held Alfred's body and cried for half an hour.
Darkseid's invasion, an alien war, had broken most of the Earth's superheroes in that universe. Nearly every superhero had a painful past and unbearable experiences, yet they continued bearing it all and acting as superheroes.
Quite a few superheroes had been unable to endure such torment any longer and quit the profession. Those who remained were more or less psychologically scarred.
After Alfred's death, Batman Bruce Wayne had gone on a killing spree against Gotham's criminals. Fortunately, Superman had persuaded Batman Bruce Wayne at the time, and Bruce Wayne had gradually recovered.
Then came this incident. The Sun-Eater had killed Superman, possessed Superman's corpse, manipulated it, and even carried the sun to Earth, nearly destroying the planet.
The future