Carmine Falcone

Carmine Falcone
Carmine "The Roman" Falcone Art by Tim Sale
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Batman #404
Created by	Frank Miller David Mazzucchelli
In-story information
Alter ego	Carmine Falcone
Team affiliations	Mafia in Gotham City
Notable aliases	The Roman, Don Falcone
Abilities	Mafia don.

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Carmine "The Roman" Falcone is a fictional character in DC Comics' shared universe, the DC Universe, who made his debut in the four part story Batman: Year One written by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli in 1987.

Publication history

In the comics, Falcone is a powerful Mafia chieftain nicknamed "The Roman," where his stranglehold over Gotham City's organized crime is referenced as "The Roman Empire" at least once. In Batman: Year One, the top of his penthouse is shaped like Roman architecture.

Falcone later appeared as a major antagonist in the mini-series Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. The character is based on Marlon Brando's portrayal of 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: Falcone's power and wisdom akin to Vito Corleone, his son Alberto's personality and appearance that of Fredo's, and his sister Sofia's temper matching Sonny's. Lastly, his elder son Mario's deportation to Sicily, physical appearance, and desire to redeem and legitimize the Falcone family name are all traits shared with Michael Corleone.

Fictional character biography

In The Long Halloween, Vincent Falcone, Carmine's father, brings his dying son to Thomas Wayne's Manor. Carmine had been shot several times by Sal Maroni's father, Luigi. Fearing Luigi Maroni would finish the job at a public hospital, he pleads for Wayne's help in saving him at his home. A young Bruce Wayne watches his father perform the surgery secretly. Wayne saves Carmine, and this develops a connection between the Waynes and the Falcones. At Thomas Wayne's funeral, Carmine tells Bruce how his father saved him and he can always ask a favor of Carmine.

In Batman: Year One, Falcone virtually runs the city, with the mayor, city council, and Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb in his pocket. However, his power base comes under attack with the arrival of the mysterious vigilante, Batman. In one scene, Falcone hosts a dinner party, attended by the commissioner and other corrupt high society members. When the issue of Batman is brought up in conversation, Loeb tries to assure Falcone that the new opponent may be a long term benefit. The assurance falls flat and Falcone's concern is justified subsequently by Batman's bold assault on the dinner party to announce that they will be delivered to justice. Despite Loeb's desperate attempts to stop him, Batman's attacks on Falcone's organization become even more brazen. Batman has The Roman's car dumped into the river, invades his home, assaults him, strips him to his underwear, and leaves him hogtied to his bed. Humiliated, Falcone orders Batman killed. Batman is too elusive, however, as he later helps Catwoman attack Falcone. During this attack, Catwoman scratches three scars onto Falcone's right side of his face. Finally, Falcone orders police detective Jim Gordon's wife and child kidnapped to bring him to heel. He orders his nephew Johnny Viti for the job. However, the plot is in part foiled by the Gordons while Batman rescues their child. Eventually, investigations led by Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, with some secret assistance by Batman, restore law and order to Gotham; Loeb is forced to resign, and Falcone's power is put under threat by the new opposition he now faces. 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 plot of The Long Halloween involves a serial killer named Holiday. This mysterious assassin targets Gotham's crime families, with particular attention paid to the Falcone family. Falcone's son, Alberto, confesses to all of the Holiday killings, in an attempt to be accepted into the family business.

During The Long Halloween, Falcone is able to frustrate his enemies' efforts to thwart his criminal enterprise with a careful mix of murder and influence. However, the situation changes when Batman and Dent discover one of Falcone's warehouses which contains millions of dollars in literally towering piles of paper money the gangster is forced to stockpile due to being unable to launder it due to their interference. They burn it all, striking a potentially crippling blow against Falcone he cannot ignore. This drives him to take desperate measures to maintain his power such as hiring "freaks" in the form of what becomes Batman's Rogues Gallery. 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. He 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 Harvey Dent's efforts to disrupt his family's operations and convinced Dent is Holiday, he persuades his former rival, Salvatore Maroni, to murder Gotham's zealous district attorney while standing trial. Falcone's men provide Maroni with a vial of acid which he hurls at Dent during a court proceeding. This happens on August 2, also Falcone's birthday. The acid leaves half of Dent's face hideously scarred, and he becomes Two-Face. At the novel's climax, Two-Face and the rest of Batman's Rogue's Gallery break into the Falcone penthouse. Two-Face flips his coin, and the bad side lands up. Two-Face shoots and kills Falcone within the confines of his office.

In Batman: Dark Victory, Falcone's grave site 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. While at a Falcone home close to Wayne Manor, Alberto is ordered under house arrest there. However, Alberto begins to hear his father's voice in the home. Ultimately the murdered body of corrupt District Attorney Janice Porter ends up in Alberto's bed while he is sleeping. His father urges him to commit suicide. Knowing his father would never suggest that, he shoots a mirror in anger. Behind the mirror is the Calendar Man. Alberto manages to escape, but is shot by Calendar man in the process. When Batman and Gordon investigate the home, they find secret passages and microphones for the Calendar Man to move freely about the house. Scarecrow most likely worked up a psychological profile of 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 using 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 in his possession, 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.

Family

• Vincent Falcone - father
• Carla Viti - sister, Boss of Viti Family in Chicago
• (Falcone has a wife, but her location is unknown)
• Johnny Viti - Carla's son and Carmine's nephew
• Lucia Viti - Carla's daughter and Carmine's niece
• Sofia Falcone Gigante (Mario later legally changes her name to Sofia Gigante) - daughter
• Alberto Falcone - son
• Mario Falcone - son
• Selena Kyle - alleged daughter

In popular culture

Film

Tom Wilkinson as Carmine Falcone.

In Batman Begins (2005), Falcone, played by Tom Wilkinson, appears as a secondary antagonist. He all but controls Gotham City, flooding it with drugs, crime, and poverty. He is effectively above the law as most government officials are either on his payroll or afraid of him. He has Joe Chill (the murderer of Bruce Wayne's parents) killed for threatening to testify against him, depriving Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) of the chance to take his own revenge. Bruce confronts him at an underground establishment and tells Falcone that not everyone in Gotham is afraid of him. Falcone dismisses the young billionaire as a harmless nuisance, telling him that real power comes from being feared, that Bruce doesn't understand the criminal world, and that people fear what they don't understand. This inspires Wayne to travel the world in a journey that culminate in his transformation into Batman. When Falcone goes into business with Dr. Jonathan Crane (Cillian Murphy), he smuggles a fear toxin into Gotham and Crane, who runs Arkham Asylum, diagnoses Falcone's henchmen as insane when they are arrested so they can avoid prison. Batman foils the plot and leaves Falcone unconscious on the scene. While in prison, Falcone tries to blackmail Crane by way of into allowing him a part in the upcoming fear toxin project. Crane instead gasses him with the fear toxin, leaving him in a state of psychosis. In The Dark Knight, it is mentioned that he is still held in Arkham. In his absence, Sal Maroni (Eric Roberts) has taken over the crime family in Gotham.

Video Game

• Tom Wilkinson reprises his role as Carmine Falcone in the 2005 Batman Begins game. In the game, Batman confronts Falcone at the docks to show him that there is now something on the streets worse than his criminal empire, using a crane to lift Falcone's car into the air (with Falcone in it) to make his statement.

See also

• List of Batman Family enemies
• Alberto Falcone
• Batman: The Long Halloween
• Batman and the Monster Men
• Carl Grissom

References

Bibliography

• Batman: Year One by Frank Miller
• Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb
• Batman: Dark Victory by Jeph Loeb

Notes