I would be stunned if they killed off Alfred, he is almost as important as Batman himself.
I think the only thing that grounds Bruce and keeps him from being consumed by "the Batman" is Alfred.
Alfred must not die.
But that is the thing, if Alfred dies, then Bruce basically loses a second father and goes further off the deep end. He kills Two-Face (or whoever killed Alfred) and then regrets what he did, and quits being Batman. That could definately be a great storyline.
Plus, look at IronMan. They made his "Alfred" just a computer program! I haven't heard any outrage over that.