No edit summary |
No edit summary |
||
| Line 77: | Line 77: | ||
| Links = |
| Links = |
||
}} |
}} |
||
| + | {{Batman}} |
||
{{Batman Villain}} |
{{Batman Villain}} |
||
{{Out-of-universe}} |
{{Out-of-universe}} |
||
Revision as of 21:54, 9 December 2012
I'll burn it all down -- before I let a freak have it! 
- — Carmine Falcone src
History
Year One
Carmine Falcone was one of the truly great crimelords of Gotham, back when it was a mafia-ran town. Nicknamed The Roman for his unflinching ruthlessness and expansionism, his mafia network was often called "The Roman Empire." As of the events of "Batman: Year One," Falcone virtually controlled the entire city, with the Mayor, the City council, and the Police Commissioner (Gillian B. Loeb) under his influence. Falcone was completely untouchable by the law, but not by the Batman. When Batman made his first several appearances in Gotham, Falcone was his first real target. At a dinner party hosted at the Falcone mansion, attended by Gotham's wealthiest and most corrupt residents, Batman makes his first announcement. He incapacitates the guards, breaks in, and informs Gotham's corrupt that they will be brought to justice. Despite Commissioner Loeb's promises that he will be stopped, Batman's attacks grow more brazen. At one point, he even invades the Roman's personal bedroom, assaults him, strips him to his underwear, and leaves him hogtied to his bed, then dumps his car into the river. Humiliated, Falcone orders Batman killed. But Batman is too elusive, and to the disbelief of the Roman Empire, nobody is able to even touch him, along with Catwoman. During an attack on the mafia head, Catwoman scratches three scars onto Falcone's right side of his face.
Finally, Falcone orders the wife and newborn child of police detective Jim Gordon (who had been stirring up trouble for Commissioner Loeb within the GCPD) kidnapped by his nephew Johnny Viti to bring him to heel. The plot is foiled by a joint effort on the parts of both Gordon and Batman. Eventually, with the help of District Attorney Harvey Dent, Commissioner Loeb is removed from office, and for the first time in years, Carmine Falcone's power begins to slip, just a little bit. Angered by Johnny's failure, he orders his nephew dead and has him slit with a knife. Johnny lives, however, and Falcone has to battle his sister Carla Viti, the boss of the Viti crime family in Chicago.
The Long Halloween
Later, during the events of The Long Halloween, a serial killer named "Holiday" begins targeting Gotham's crime families, with particular attention paid to the Falcones. Meanwhile Batman, Gordon and Harvey Dent form a coalition, and swear to each other that they will do whatever it takes, within the system, to bring Falcone down. The murders committed by the mysterious "Holiday" grow increasingly brutal, and begin to grow from simple hits to full out massacres of the Roman's men, and loved ones. Some of Holiday's victims include Johnny Viti and Falcone's bodyguard and long-time friend Milos Grapa. Sometimes including members of other syndicates, such as those in the Maroni family, sometimes people not even involved in the mafia like Carmine's son Alberto, who's body was found and identified by Gotham city coroner, Jasper Dolan. Also trying to find Holiday and out an end to his bloodbath, Batman grows even more persistent with Falcone. He and Dent even manage to burn an entire warehouse of piled up unlaundered cash to the ground. While fighting off the attacks against him from both sides, Falcone is reduced to hiring several of the new "costumed freaks" in Gotham to do special jobs for him. His family saw some disgrace in this, as otherwise the crime in Gotham was largely organized, and the "freaks" were seen as unpredictable, disrespectful, and "bad for business." For example, he hires Poison Ivy in an attempt to coerce Bruce Wayne into allowing the Falcone organization to use his bank for money laundering purposes, recruits the Scarecrow and the Mad Hatter to attempt to blackmail the city by contaminating the water supply- after arranging Scarecrow's break-out from Arkham-, and also asks The Riddler to solve the mystery of Holiday's true identity. He also has a hand in the birth of Two-Face; infuriated by Dent's efforts to disrupt his family's operations and convinced Dent is Holiday, he presumes his formal rival, Salvatore Maroni to murder Gotham's zealous district attorney while standing trial. Dent, while prosecuting Sal Maroni in court, is hit in the face by acid slipped to Maroni by one of his men. This happens on August 2, also Falcone's birthday. Dent escapes from the hospital with half his face seared off, and disappears below Batman and Gordon's radar for a disturbingly long time, despite their attempts to find him. Falcone's seemingly weakest son Alberto is eventually revealed to be responsible for the Holiday killings, after killing Maroni in prison, wanting his father to accept him into the family business. He is put in Arkham Asylum. It is important to note ambiguity was left as to the roles of Harvey and Gilda Dent in the killings, and Gilda seems to have committed at least one of the murders. Still loving his son, Falcone attempts to get Alberto to plead innocent, knowing he can get him off, but Alberto refuses. With both his business and his family in shambles, Falcone returns to his house and finds Harvey Dent, the newly established Two-Face, waiting for him. Despite Batman's attempts to intervene, gathered with the Mad Hatter, Solomon Grundy, the Joker, Catwoman, the Scarecrow, Poison Ivy and the Penguin, Two-Face shoots Falcone in the head and ends his control of Gotham once and for all. The mob loses to the new power in Gotham, the so-called "costumed freaks."
Dark Victory
In "Batman: Dark Victory," Falcone's grave is robbed and his body goes missing. His finger is cut off and sent to his daughter, Sofia Gigante, the new leader of the Falcone Family. This is described as an "old style message", signifying that someone is out to take everything away from the Falcone Family, crushing them both as a public business organization in the crime world as well as literally killing members of the family. While at a Falcone home close to Wayne Manor, Alberto is ordered under house arrest there, only for Alberto to begin to hear his father's voice in the home. Ultimately the dead body of corrupt District Attorney Janice Porter ends up on Alberto's bed while he is sleeping. His father urges him to commit suicide. Knowing his father would never suggest that, he shoots the mirror in anger. Behind the mirror is Calender Man. Alberto manages to escape, but was shot by Calender Man in the process. When Batman and Gordon investigate the home, they found secret passages and microphones for the Calender Man to move freely about the house. Scarecrow most likely worked out a psychological profile on Alberto and discovered his fear was of his father, and the cigarettes Alberto smoked were laced with Scarecrow's fear toxin. Janice's body, meanwhile, had been preserved with Mr. Freeze's technology. Batman and Gordon note that it's a conspiracy against one man, Holiday. Not until the end it is revealed that Two-Face has Falcone's body, having frozen it using Mr. Freeze's cryogenic technology. Selina Kyle briefly visits the grave at the conclusion of the story, where it is revealed that she believes that Falcone is her biological father, although she has been unable to obtain any evidence.
See Also
- Sal Maroni
- Sofia Gigante Falcone
- Alberto Falcone
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
Trivia
The character is based on and bears a striking resemblance to Marlon Brando's portrayal of mafia leader Don Vito Corleone from the 1972 film The Godfather. Loeb stated in an interview that he paralleled the Falcone family to that of the Corleone family: Carmine's power and wisdom akin to Vito Corleone.
This character is portrayed by actor Tom Wilkinson in Batman Begins (2005).
Recommended Reading
Related
- 27 Appearances of Carmine Falcone (New Earth)
- 17 Images featuring Carmine Falcone (New Earth)
- 2 Quotations by or about Carmine Falcone (New Earth)
- Character Gallery: Carmine Falcone (New Earth)
Footnotes
  Batman Villain(s) |
This is an in-universe article with out-of-universe material.