CARMINE "THE ROMAN" FALCONE
Created By: Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli
First Appearance: Batman #405 (1987)
Role: The Crimeboss
PL 6 (73)
STRENGTH 2
STAMINA 2
AGILITY 0
FIGHTING 4
DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 4
AWARENESS 4
PRESENCE 4
Skills:
Deception 8 (+12)
Expertise (Crime Boss) 9 (+13)
Insight 2 (+6)
Intimidation 2 (+6)
Persuasion 3 (+7)
Advantages:
Benefit 4 (Wealth), Equipment 5 (Car, Guns), Improved Critical (Tommy Gun), Ranged Combat 6, Tough
Offense:
Unarmed +4 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Tommy Gun +6 (+6 Ranged Damage, DC 21)
Initiative +0
Defenses:
Dodge +2 (DC 12), Parry +4 (DC 14), Toughness +3, Fortitude +2, Will +6
Complications:
Motivation (Greed)
Relationship (Sofia Gigante- Daughter)- Sofia loves her papa and will do anything he asks. Though her lover is his biggest rival.
Relationship (Alberto- Son)- Alberto is weak and soft- a bit of an embarassment, though Carmine is still protective of him.
Rival (Sal Maroni)- The two compete for their share of Gotham's pie, but are not actively at war.
Enemy (Batman)- Batman has repeatedly humiliated Falcone and cost him millions. The Roman's usual unflappable exterior breaks repeatedly over this.
Enemy (Catwoman)- Catwoman scarred his face and also repeatedly humiliates him. He has put out a hit on her as well as "The Bat".
Total: Abilities: 40 / Skills: 24--12 / Advantages: 17 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 4 (73)
-An evil, yet very civilized mob boss, "The Roman" rules Gotham City at the time Bruce Wayne returns home to clean it up. He holds both the Mayor and Commissioner of Police in his iron grip, and is a feared boss with few rivals. He's not QUITE as focused on in
Batman: Year One in comparison to others (the Commissioner falls by the end of the story, setting the stage for Jim Gordon to take the job), but his repeated humiliations (including being tied to his bed in his underwear) reflect just how much of a wrench Batman (whose identity is not known) has tossed into his works. In the story's end, Catwoman is endangered by Falcone, but she lashes his face with her claws upon her escape.
-Falcone becomes a major focus in
Batman: The Long Halloween in the 1990s. Here, he is deeply resentful of both Batman & Catwoman, as well as the various "Freaks" that have invaded Gotham in the wake of Batman's arrival, and a Batman/Gordon/Harvey Dent triumvirate forms to finally take him down. Warehouses full of money are torched even as Falcone's allies and other mobsters are killed on various holidays. Reaching a breaking point and thinking that Dent is the mysterious "Holiday" who's been whacking his guys, he persuades his rival Sal Maroni to throw acid at Dent during a trial. Going insane from the act, Dent becomes "Two-Face", and is thus ironically the means to Falcone's end- he executes the mob boss with a gunshot to the head. This is a symbolic gesture that represents Gotham going from the old-school mobsters to the new "Freaks" that have taken over.
-A sequel story,
Dark Victory, suggests that he may be the birth father of Catwoman. He reappears in the "New 52", just kind of banking off of the popularity of those stories.
-Our own Woodclaw was a bit annoyed with Falcone, because he shares a surname with Giovanni Falcone, a heroic anti-Mafia crusader in Italy, who was murdered by Mafia agents in 1992 for his magistrate's offices fights against them. Reading up on the guy is pretty interesting, and a show of how much stronger the Mafia was compared to here. By contrast, in the US, cop-killing is pretty well a no-go, particularly after the largest mass lynching in American history was perpetrated against a bunch of imprisoned Mafiosi- and some unfortunates who just happened to be regular criminals with Italian surnames- after the death of a New Orleans Police Chief (Theodore Roosevelt reflected most Americans' opinions when he stated "Monday we dined at the Camerons; various
dago diplomats were present, all much wrought up by the lynching of the Italians in New Orleans. Personally I think it rather a good thing, and said so"). However, it's like Frank Miller didn't know the connection (his story was written five years prior to Giovanni's death), and like just chose the name because it sounds bad-ass and regal (naturally, it just means "falcon").
-"The Roman" is similar build to other crimebosses, but smarter, richer and more well-connected. He has the police force, judges and others in his pocket, meaning only someone who moves about in the darkness can stop him.