Sofia Falcone was the daughter of infamous Gotham City crime lord Carmine Falcone.
History
The Long Halloween
Sofia greatly inherited her father's manipulation abilities, and married Rocco Gigante merely as part of a much larger scheme. Sofia is the mother of two children. When the killer known as Holiday began murdering members of Gotham's most powerful crime families on holidays, the Falcones became one of Holiday's major targets. Some of Holiday's most notable victims include Sofia's brother Alberto on New Year's Eve and her cousin Johnny Viti who threatened to testify against Carmine, on Halloween.
Sofia later visited Johnny's mother, Carla who planned on killing Holiday with the .22 pistol that she had found on New Year's Eve when Alberto was killed. Sofia informed Carla that her father (and Carla's brother) Carmine planned on hitting one of his rival's safe houses. However, by the time Sofia had arrived, all the men inside had already been slaughtered in an attack by Holiday. Around this time, all of Gotham's major mob bosses were putting all of their efforts into finding and eventually eliminating the Holiday killer.
Carmine and Sofia sought after the help of The Riddler, hearing that there was "no riddle he couldn't solve". The Riddler offered a number of theories, with his final solution being that Carmine himself was Holiday. However, the Falcones were less than satisfied with the Riddler's results. The Riddler later became one of Holiday's targets, but was purposely left unharmed, as it was April Fool's Day.
As the search for Holiday continued, Sofia began looking for the man who made Holiday's guns. Sofia interrogated Lin, a Chinese weapons dealer in Gotham's underworld, on Gotham Bridge. Lin told her that a man using the alias "Gunsmith" living in Chinatown made a custom pistol each month identical to the ones Holiday uses. When Lin asked to be let go, Sofia dropped him off the bridge, killing him. Sofia tracked Gunsmith to Chong's Tea House in Chinatown, only to find that Gunsmith had already been killed by Holiday in order to cover his/her tracks.
The murders continued for nearly a year, with other notable victims being Gotham City Coroner Jasper Dolan, and Luigi "Big Lou" Maroni, the father of Carmine's top underworld rival Sal Maroni. Lou's death prompted Sal to testify against Falcone, but during the trial, Sal attacked Gotham City D.A. Harvey Dent with a vial of acid, scarring half of Dent's face. After Holiday shot and killed Sal, Holiday was captured and it was revealed that Holiday was in fact Alberto, who had faked his own death on New Year's Eve in order to cover his tracks. However, after the attack by Maroni, one side of Dent's face was horribly disfigured and he became the criminal known as Two-Face. Two-Face formed an alliance with The Joker, Solomon Grundy, Mad Hatter, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and The Penguin. The "freaks" attacked Carmine Falcone's estate, but were attacked by Batman. Batman managed to defeat most of them, but was unable to stop Two-Face before he killed Carmine with two shots to the head, stating that "it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy", the same words Dent said after he had heard of Johnny Viti's death.
Sofia lashed out at Dent, only to be held back by Catwoman. During the scuffle, Sofia was accidentally flung out a window, and plummeted to the streets below. The glass from the window sheared off the right side of Sofia's face, nearly causing her to bleed to death. Before police arrived, she was found by Angelo "Killer" Mirti, and the two later fled to Italy where Sofia's brother Mario was residing after he was deported as a teenager. After she was treated by a plastic surgeon, Sofia scarred one side of her face to resemble the scars of her father. At this time, Sofia was apparently wheelchair-bound.
Dark Victory
Due to her still being in Italy, Sofia was unable to attend her own father's funeral, but she did manage to arrange a gathering at the Falcone crypt on her father's birthday, assembling some of Gotham's most feared and powerful gangsters, along with some of Carmine's most trusted friends including the likes of Sofia's godfather Bobby "The Don" Gazzo, Falcone associate Eddie Skeevers, and Sofia's cousin Lucia Viti. The gathering was interrupted by Batman and Catwoman, yet all the major mobsters managed to evade arrest.
Sofia resorted to hiring Salvatore Maroni's sons Pino and Umberto Maroni to kill Harvey Dent, considering that their father already did "half the job". The three met at Sofia's penthouse. Dent was currently residing at Arkham Asylum, where Sofia's brother Alberto was being kept. Sofia wanted to ensure that Alberto would not be harmed. Suddenly, Sofia's security system began to indicate that there was an uninvited guest. Mirti, who was now Sofia's bodyguard, later located a grappling hook inside the building. Sofia, Pino, and Umberto met again on Christmas Eve along with Tony Zucco, after a former police officer was found dead outside of a club owned by the Maronis. Just when the four gangsters were about to settle down and exchange gifts, Pino suggested that Sofia's father may still be alive (considering that Alberto faked his own demise), and Sofia promptly shot Pino in the arm.
Sofia was later again confronted by Catwoman who claimed that Carmine Falcone's body was missing, and she wanted one million dollars to retrieve it from whoever took it. Sofia later received a package containing her father's ring finger, a sign that someone wished to take everything from her. Enraged by this, Sofia became The Hangman, and began a killing spree that targeted police officers and city officials associated with Harvey Dent. She made the crimes appear to be the work of Dent himself, stealing case files from the office of Janice Porter to help her in the ruse. Sofia would hang her victims, and would then use the case files to spell out cryptic messages in the form of the word game Hangman. Hangman's first victim was Clancy O'Hara, Gotham's Chief of Police.
No one that was sane would imagine that a supposedly crippled woman would be the Hangman killer. However, The Joker theorized that Sofia was in fact capable of walking, and attacked her at her grandfather's estate where Alberto was living under house arrest. The Joker killed Mirti, and pushed Sofia down a flight of stairs. However, Sofia was saved when Alberto shot the Joker in the arm with the pistol he received from someone he believed was the ghost of Carmine Falcone. Shortly after, Batman arrived, knocked Alberto's gun away, and defeated the Joker.
Later on, Commisioner James Gordon formed a task force to attempt to stop the Hangman before anyone else was killed. However, with the aid of informant Laureen Wilcox, Sofia managed to kill every member of the task force (including Wilcox) with the exception of Gordon and Julia Lopez.
Later, Calendar Man (who was the one that gave Alberto his pistol) managed to infiltrate Vincent Falcone's estate, and attempted to kill Alberto. Calendar Man shot Alberto wounding him, but Sofia later arrived, brutally beat the Calendar Man, and broke his jaw. Sofia brought the wounded Alberto to the Falcone family crypt, where she scolded him for his incompetence. Sofia then suffocated Alberto to death, and set out to finish off her final victim: Two-Face.
Sofia set fire to Two-Face's underground hideout, and nearly killed him with a noose. However, Batman arrived and cut the rope, freeing Two-Face. Sofia managed to overpower Batman for a short amount of time, claiming that he still protected Dent, even though he betrayed him, and the entire city. Batman responded by saying that it wasn't about Dent, and it was about all the men and women that Sofia had killed. Suddenly, Two-Face shot Sofia in the head, finally putting an end to the Hangman killer.
Powers and Abilities
Abilities
Weaknesses
- Restricted Mobility: Supposedly bound to a wheelchair and head-brace. Sofia was incapable of going anywhere without the aid of her bodyguard Angelo Mirti.
Trivia
- Jeph Loeb has stated that he designed every member of the Falcone family to resemble someone in the Corleone family from The Godfather. Sofia, with her fiery temper, parallels Sonny Corleone.
Recommended Reading
Related
- 25 Appearances of Sofia Falcone (New Earth)
- 16 Images featuring Sofia Falcone (New Earth)
- Quotations by or about Sofia Falcone (New Earth)
- Character Gallery: Sofia Falcone (New Earth)
Footnotes
  Batman Villain(s) |