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    Carmine Falcone

    Character » Carmine Falcone appears in 111 issues.

    Carmine “The Roman” Falcone was the head of organized crime in Gotham City during the early years of Bruce Wayne’s return to Gotham. He inherited the empire from his father Vincent Falcone.

    Short summary describing this character.

    Carmine Falcone last edited by abdullah5122 on 05/24/21 11:42PM View full history

    Origin

    Carmine Falcone, son of Vincent Falcone, was Gotham's most powerful mafia boss in the time leading up to and during Batman's first years as a costumed vigilante. His corruption extended into Gotham's police department and was one of Batman's first targets to bring down.

    Creation

    Falcone was created by Frank Miller and artist Dave Mazzucchelli and first appeared during their seminal Batman: Year One story in Batman #405 (1987). Writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale expanded upon Falcone and his family in their Long Halloween trilogy.

    He appears to be based of Vito Corleone from the Godfather films.

    Major Story Arcs

    Year One

    When Batman originally arrived on the scene, The Roman had almost all of Gotham in his pocket. He controlled the corrupt police commissioner Loeb, and the judges. He also used his power to keep Harvey Dent stuck at assistant D.A..

    Batman quickly went to work undermining the structure of his organization. At first he uses pure vigilante tactics, doing things like destroying Falcone’s Rolls Royce. Later during one of Batman’s raids Catwoman is also present and she claws Falcone’s face leaving three long scars down his right cheek. Batman then scored a major coup when he got a low level drug dealer to testify against Jim Gordon’s corrupt partner Flass. Flass in turn testified against Loeb, which resulted in the commissioner resigning. Falcone’s nephew Johnny Viti was arrested around the same time in an attempt on the life of Gordon’s wife and infant son. Falcone apparently attempted a hit on his nephew to keep him quiet, which resulted in a feud with his sister Carla.

    The Long Halloween
    The Long Halloween

    The Long Halloween

    The feud was eventually settled and Falcone persisted essentially undeterred for a while. He attempted to get Bruce Wayne to let him launder his money in the Gotham City Bank. Wayne obviously refuses. Later that night Batman and Catwoman both break into Falcone’s study at the same time. This prompts Falcone to put out a million dollar bounty good for either one of the masked vigilantes. Falcone then manages to convince enough of the other board members that he is approved anyway. Batman intimidates the bank president into resigning and Bruce Wayne manages to keep Falcone’s money out of his bank. Falcone lashes out by having Johnny Viti assassinate the former bank president.

    Batman, James Gordon and Harvey Dent form a pact to bring The Roman down, they agree that though they may bend the rules, they won’t break them. Shortly thereafter Johnny Viti is found murdered on Halloween night. The killer left a jack-o-lantern and a .22 pistol with a baby bottle nipple as a silencer and the serial numbers filed off. The Holiday killings had begun.

    Once a month, on a holiday, someone involved in organized crime in Gotham was shot. The crime families referred to this period as “The Long Halloween.” The killings ignited a war between the Falcone and Maroni crime families. Eventually, after all of Sal “The Boss” Maroni’s men had been killed (including his father), he decided to testify against Falcone. The Roman’s daughter Sofia managed to convince him otherwise and instead of testifying Maroni hurled acid on Dent, transforming him into Two-Face.

    The first thing that Two-Face did was to finish Harvey Dent’s vendetta against organized crime. He ultimately gathered a number of Gotham’s psychotic villains and stormed The Roman’s high-rise. During the ensuing showdown Two-Face murdered Falcone. He was eventually succeeded in his empire by his daughter Sofia Falcone Gigante.

    Dark Victory & When in Rome

    Falcone's body frozen
    Falcone's body frozen

    Sofia vows revenge against Two-Face for the death of her father and even forms an alliance with the Maronis to ensure Dent's death.

    Falcone's grave is robbed by Two-Face and kept preserved using Mr. Freeze's technology in order to antagonize the remaining Falcone Family. Also, Calender Man uses secret microphones and Fear Toxin lased cigarettes in order to trick Alberto Falcone into hearing his father's voice and try and make him commit suicide.

    Meanwhile, Catwoman travels to Rome to try and find evidence of Falcone being her real father. However she can't find enough evidence to confirm it, though she still suspects.

    The New 52

    In the reboot of the DC continuity, Carmine Falcone is still alive and makes his first appearance in issue two of the 2014 weekly series entitled Batman Eternal.

    Rise and Fall

    Fall of Falcone
    Fall of Falcone

    Long before the arrival of the Batman to Gotham City, young Carmine Falcone worked as an adviser and right hand-man to Rex "The Lion" Calabrese, who was Gotham's biggest crime lord at the time, until he was betrayed and overthrown by Falcone. Carmine took control of Gotham's underworld for many years as its kingpin, and nothing could even phase him until the period known as "Zero Year" when Gotham's criminal underworld started shifting from the organized crime families to the costumed super-villains. "The Roman"'s empire started to weaken when the Red Hood gang hijacked one of his blimps that was shipping weapons, drugs and information and killed his cousin Luca Falcone. After the "Zero Year" and the formal appearance of Batman in Gotham City, Falcone's hold on Gotham started to weaken even more thanks to the combined efforts of Batman himself along with Jim Gordon and D.A. Harvey Dent. And finally, Falcone's empire crumbled when the Penguin, once an associate of Falcone, took over all of his operations as well as killing many of Falcone's lieutenants, and an encounter with the thief Catwoman, who seemed to hold a vendetta against the Roman, left him scarred in the face. This marked the end of Falcone's reign, forcing him to flee Gotham City.

    Hong Kong

    He would travel to Hong Kong where he quickly tried to take over as crime boss there, causing him to go head-to-head with the reigning crime lord Shen Fang. A huge gang war would take place, lasting five years, with Falcone using Yakuza from Tokyo while Fang countered with Triads from Shanghai, but towards the end it appeared that Falcone was on the verge of victory until one day, he received an invitation that told of the fall of Jim Gordon and the devastation of Gotham City. Seeing this as a lucrative opportunity, Falcone approaches Fang and makes a deal with him, he would leave Hong Kong and all of its operations to him and give the impression that Fang had won the war as long as Fang gives him a percentage of the entire Hong Kong operation.

    Return to Gotham

    The Roman Returns
    The Roman Returns

    After Gordon is framed for murder and is sent to jail, with involvement from a former Falcone henchman, The Roman makes his return to Gotham and quickly re-assembles his old gang, also acquiring the services of the criminal known as Road Runner, and causes a huge gang war throughout the city. Using his influences over Mayor Hady, he places corrupt police lieutenant Jack Forbes in charge as police commissioner, acting as his own agent.

    With Forbes in charge, the GCPD makes Batman its primary target and any of Falcone's gang members who are captured by the vigilante end up quickly getting released because the GCPD now refuse to cooperate with him. Also, he foils the operations of other criminals, notably Professor Pyg whose lab was destroyed and the Penguin, with whom he re-ignited an old rivalry when he sunk Cobblepot's Iceberg Casino into the ocean. Batman confronts Falcone and asks him whether or not he was involved with framing Gordon, which Falcone denies, but Batman vows that if he had anything to do with it he will take him down.

    Still feeling vengeful over the scar on his face, Falcone captures Catwoman when she attempted to steal from one of his safe-houses. Falcone vows to rid the city of the costumed freaks, starting with Catwoman, but before he could kill her, Professor Pyg, wanting revenge for the destruction of his lab, breaks into Falcone's penthouse. Pyg is about to perform surgery on Falcone before Batman intervenes and saves both.

    Incarceration

    Lieutenant Bard, apparently one of the few honest cops in Gotham, becomes a thorn in Falcone's side, and takes advantage of the GCPD's animosity with Batman and attempts to take down the Roman in spite of the commissioner's orders. Having located one of Falcone's weapon caches, Bard feigns an attempt to take down a safehouse belonging to Batman Inc. only to arrest a number of Falcone's men for possession of illegal weapons instead, causing a lot of tension between Falcone and Forbes.

    After losing his entire criminal empire, the Penguin, in a crazed state, following a tip from Bard, breaks into Falcone's hideouts, kills several of Falcone's men, and then brutally attacks the man himself but before he could finish him off, the GCPD led by Jason Bard barges in along with the press to arrest both criminals. Bard had managed to find evidence connecting Forbes with Falcone, whom he arrested for criminal conspiracy along with Cobblepot for attempted murder, seemingly ending the gang war for now.

    Blackgate and release

    Falcone and Penguin are both placed in Blackgate where it didn't take long for a war between members of both crime bosses' gang to take place inside the prison. Penguin even attempted to bribe the warden into handing him Falcone but she refused.

    Mysteriously enough, after the riot is quelled thanks to the efforts of an incarcerated Gordon, Falcone is released under the orders of new Commissioner Bard. Falcone would also learn that his former boss "The Lion", thinking that he had killed him a long time ago, is willingly in Blackgate under the name "Leo", and on his way out, before returning to his empire in Hong Kong, Falcone gloats over the fact that he did not lose, as Gotham will not allow him to lose. He will nurse his wounds, reclaim his empire in Hong Kong and come back. He also threatens Rex and everybody he loves.

    On his way out of Blackgate, he is strung up by Batman who punches him in the face, reminding Falcone of what would happen if he ever found out he was involved with framing Gordon. Batman had found an old Hong Kong ceremonial knife belonging to Falcone in the chest of Dr. Falsario, the man responsible for tech that caused the murders Gordon was accused of. Falcone replies by laughing in Batman's face, ridiculing the fact that the vigilante is still unaware of who is pulling the strings, and gives Batman the invitation that brought him back to Gotham. Carmine explains that he had nothing to do with the Gordon murders, but he only heard that these events will take place and came back to take advantage and reclaim his empire.

    DC Rebirth

    Carmine Falcone appears during the The War of Jokes & Riddles event, where he is instructed by the Joker to kill the Riddler within an hour. He and his henchmen fail, and in response Joker pulls out Falcone's mother's teeth before showing them to him and then shooting him. Joker then places Penguin in charge of the operation.

    Other Media

    Batman Begins (2005)

    Carmine Falcone was played by Tom Wilkinson.

    Tom Wilkinson in Batman Begins
    Tom Wilkinson in Batman Begins

    Falcone is Gotham's underworld king and runs a successful drug smuggling operation. He is shown to have cops and judges under his payroll, including detective Flass. He shown to be the one who hired the hit on Joe Chill for threatening to testify against him after sharing a cell with him. He ends up working with the Scarecrow to bring in Fear Toxin narcotics for his use in the Asylum. He is however captured by the new vigilante known as the Batman. The Scarecrow later drives him insane for asking too many questions, Falcone not realizing he was actually working for Ra's al Ghul.

    He is mentioned in the sequel The Dark Knight (2008) during a court case for Sal Maroni.

    Batman: Year One (2011)

    Falcone appears in the animated original Batman: Year One movie, voiced by Alex Rocco. His scenes in the film are an almost direct translation from the comic itself.

    Gotham (2014)

    Falcone appears in FOX's drama Gotham as a recurring character, played by John Doman.

    He is the titular city's reigning crime-lord. He is also the boss of Fish Mooney and owns most of the Gotham Police Department. He claims that he was friends with Jim Gordon's father and that the Falcones, along with the Waynes, were the leading families in Gotham. His rivalry with the Maronis is also present in the show. After the murder of the Waynes, Falcone has petty crook, Mario Pepper framed for their murder in order to maintain order in Gotham, as he claims that organized crime cannot exist without order. He also orders Bullock to convince Gordon to kill the snitch Oswald Cobblepot.

    Much of the first season includes the sub-plot involving Falcone's underling Fish Mooney trying to usurp the empire from underneath him. She sends a girl named Liza to seduce him, giving her the information she needs to remind Falcone of his mother and fall in love with her. Flacone contemplates retirement, but upon being told of Mooney' plan, kills Liza and rekindles his desire for organized crime.

    Video Games

    Tom Wilkinson reprises his role for the video game adaptation of Batman Begins. The player must take him down on the third level.

    He is also mentioned several times in the game Batman: Arkham City through various in game items and character dialogue.

    In the video game, Arkham Origins, though he does not make an appearance, his son Alberto is kidnapped by the Penguin in an attempt to force the elder Falcone out of the weapons business. In one sequence, Alberto's bodyguard is held captive by the Penguin's henchmen, who declare that the Falcones' empire is dying. When Batman saves the bodyguard, the latter claims that if he saves Alberto, "old man" Falcone will be in his debt, to which Batman replies that he doesn't need Falcone in his debt.

    He also receives a mention in DC Universe Online for hiring Killer Croc to take down Bane.

    Carmine Falcone appears in Batman: The Telltale Series, where he is voiced by Richard McGonagle. In the game, he is described as Gotham's most powerful criminal.

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