Carmine Falcone

For decades, Carmine Falcone was the unquestioned kingpin of Gotham City's criminal underworld. Those brave or foolish enough to stand up to "The Roman" were paid off, or they mysteriously vanished. Recent efforts by Batman, Harvey Dent, and Jim Gordon led to his criminal prosecution. Unremorseful and unrepentant, Falcone refuses to accept that crime in Gotham is changing.

Biography[]

Carmine was the son of Vincent Falcone, and the heir to the Roman Empire. He was the husband of Louisa Falcone, the brother of Carla Viti and the uncle of her children Lucia, Sonny, and Johnny. He is the father of Kitrina Falcone, Sofia Falcone, Alberto Falcone, and allegedly, Selina Kyle. His primary underworld competitors were Salvatore Maroni (the Don of the Maroni Crime Family), Roman Sionis/Black Mask, and Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin.

Carmine ran his operation as a traditional Mafia. He didn't engage with any costumed "freaks" and kept things in the family. He ran several legitimate businesses, such as shipping and garbage collections.

Incident Reports[]

Before Arkham Origins Incident[]

For over a century, the Falcone Crime Family held absolute power in Gotham's underworld. As gang rivalries tensed, Luigi Maroni was known to have shot Carmine, mortally wounding him. This prompted his father Vincent to bring him to the surgeon Thomas Wayne, who proceeded to save his life. Decades later, Carmine would succeed Vincent as head of the Falcone Crime Family. For decades, he was the unquestioned kingpin of Gotham’s criminal underworld. He would later be known as “The Roman” for his Italian heritage. Anyone brave enough to stand up to Falcone either mysteriously vanished, or were paid off. Sometime after the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne, Carmine Falcone visited their son Bruce. He told him that he wished to repay the life debt by offering Bruce the privilege of one favor that Bruce could ask at any time. Bruce never called in the favor, knowing that Falcone would never grant the one he wished: To turn away from a life of crime entirely.

During Batman's first two years, Carmine became increasingly concerned, because Batman was costing his organization money.

At some point, Falcone's men supposedly coerced a struggling comedian with severe anger issues they met at a Comedy Club into conducting a heist at Ace Chemicals using the identity of the infamous criminal Red Hood, with the implied threat that they will kill him if he refused him.

Arkham Origins Incident[]

At that point, the Falcone's entered a rivalry with both Black Mask and the Penguin, two up-and-coming crime lords who tried to move in on Carmine's operations.

In order to stave of the competition, Carmine decided to branch out the Falcone's operations, and entered the weapons dealing business. Carmine's son, Alberto, was abducted by the Penguin, and was tortured by him. Penguin demanded that Alberto convince his father to back out of the weapons business. Alberto complied until he is rescued by Batman on the Final Offer.

Cold, Cold Heart Incident[]

Carmine later lost the gang war with Penguin and was forced out of the gun trade. That was partly due to the fact that the Penguin employed Mr. Freeze to design cryogenic weapons for him (weapons that were originally commissioned by GothCorp).

Arkham Shadow Incident[]

Six months after the events of Christmas Eve, Carmine Falcone was prosecuted by Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent, thanks to states evidence given by Penguin, and served his sentence at Blackgate Prison in maximum security. As influential as he was on the streets of Gotham, Falcone recruited a large portion of the general population as his muscle, such as the Penguin's former arms dealer Ricky "Loose Lips” LeBlanc, and had half of the facility’s correctional staff, such as Howard Branden, on his payroll, many of whom regularly accepted bribes from him as corrupt GCPD officers prior. The only rivals to his power at Blackgate are TYGER captain Lyle Bolton and the Rats, who had grown a significant presence in the prison. In spite of conditions, however, he was unremorseful and unrepentant, and refused to accept that crime in Gotham was changing.

During his stint in prison, Falcone was attacked and bagged by prison warden Lyle Bolton. After Bolton left, the Ratcatcher, Otis Flannegan, unmasked Falcone. As Falcone was unable to see his true attacker, he assumed Flannegan assaulted him.

Batman, disguised as Matches Malone, eavesdropped on a conversation between Bolton and Falcone, where the latter claimed he knew who the Rat King, the leader of the Rats, was. Unfortunately, Malone was soon caught, betrayed by fellow prisoner Takeo Yamashiro, and Falcone's thugs attacked him.

That night, Batman, without his Malone disguise, infiltrated Blackgate. He fought off both Falcone's thugs and the TYGER guards on his payroll, before reaching Falcone himself. After a lengthy battle between the Batman and Falcone's bodyguards, during which Falcone attempted to shoot Batman with a machine gun, Batman interrogated Falcone about the true identity of the Rat King. Falcone recalled the incident at the Chapel and told Batman that he believed Flannegan was the Rat King.

Two days later, Bolton assaulted Falcone in Blackgate's arena. All of the Blackgate prisoners were required to attend the fight, as Bolton wanted to demonstrate who was really in control of the prison. Before Falcone could be killed however, Batman, in his Malone persona, arrived and subdued Bolton, leading to TYGER guards stepping in and knocking Malone out.

Between Arkham Shadow and Arkham Asylum Incident[]

The Falcone Family suffered heavy losses during a mysterious killing spree by a murderer that killed on Holidays. It began when Falcone's nephew Johnny Viti was killed on Halloween, with the killer using an untraceable pistol with a baby bottle nippler as a silencer. A month later, on Thanksgiving, the Sullivans, a group of Irish hitmen that worked for Falcone, were killed at a nightclub with the same weapon.

Batman investigated this killing spree, and it became one of the longest cases he worked. It is unknown who was responsible for these murders, but it presumably ended at some point, as Falcone and his family remained active afterwards, though it dealt a crippling blow to their empire.

As the years passed by, Carmine had been forced to watch his family legacy begin to be usurped as the first "super-criminals" began appearing and masked vigilantes soon followed them. That gave Carmine an unwanted reputation as "Gotham's Last Don."

Arkham Asylum Incident[]

Carmine and his family remained aloof during the Arkham Asylum Riots. They had since lost the strength that they once had over the city, as the so called "Super-Criminals" had since filled the seat of power that they once maintained.

Between Arkham Asylum and Arkham City Incident[]

Following the Arkham Asylum Riots, Carmine became embroiled in another turf war, that time with the Maroni Crime Family, the Falcone's longtime rivals. This was the most violent gang war that Carmine and his family had fought. Sadly for the former capo de tutti capi of Gotham, crime worse than that was yet to come.

After the riots at Arkham Asylum, Hugo Strange schemed to open Arkham City. Carmine tried first to bribe, and, after he failed that, intimidate Mayor Quincy Sharp. It was all to no avail. The Mayor then moved to close down the Falcones' operations, both legal and illegal. Criminals, regardless of their affiliation, wealth, or political connections, were being rounded up and sent into Arkham City.

Increasingly desperate, Carmine called a family meeting. After some dispute with the younger members who refused to back down, Carmine declared that in order to avoid imprisonment, the family must leave Gotham. But first, Carmine dealt with the Maroni's once and for all (killed dozens of them in an ambush at their family restaurant in the bowery, before they left the survivors of the massacre to be arrested) and then, with his family, fled to Gotham's nearby sister city, Blüdhaven.

Arkham City Incident[]

However, Carmine still retained some power in Gotham behind the scenes. It's implied that he worked with Scarecrow, provided him a boat to use as a base, and wrote a note that said that "Mister Fine will arrange a more permanent base."

Quotes[]

Game Over Lines[]

• "Great. Tell our boys in TYGER we got some trash to take out." (Irving “Matches” Malone)
• "*smug laughter* When some east end nobody like this takes a run at me…it’s time to set an example. Remind Gotham who runs this town." (Irving “Matches” Malone)
• "Whoever the hell this guy thought he was doesn’t matter now, does it?" (Irving “Matches” Malone)
• "*smug laughter* I’m just getting started. Dent…pow! Gordon…pow! Their families…pow-pow-pow! They’re gonna pay dearly for your mistakes. Pow."
• "See what happens? Two years he had my guys running scared! Now he’s just another dead man!"
• "You actually thought you could take my city away from me, freak? Better men have tried, and just like you…they died. *spits derisively*"

Profile[]

GCPD Profile[]

Carmine Falcone

Gallery[]

Promotional image of Carmine Falcone in Batman: Arkham Underworld.

Concept art for Carmine Falcone in Arkham Shadow.

Trivia[]

• In the comics, Sal Maroni is the one who throws acid at Harvey's face during a court trial. In the Arkhamverse, it was previously implied that Carmine was the one to have directly or indirectly committed the deed. This was backed by when Dent recounts the courtroom incident that saw him disfigured to Hugo Strange, which can be heard in the Interview Tapes from the former's character bio in Batman: Arkham City. It was never made clear if Carmine was ever prosecuted for his attack on Dent or would avoid criminal charges.
  • Batman: Arkham Shadow shows Dent's scarring but also retcons the circumstances around it by making both Dr. Jonathan Crane (prior to becoming Scarecrow) and Irving "Matches" Malone (Bruce Wayne in disguise) responsible, albeit unintentionally. This would lead to the general public believing that the attack on Dent was coordinated by Carmine due to Malone having earned the mob boss' trust in Blackgate.
    • Additionally, prior to Malone's pre-trial hearing that saw Dent maimed, the former ratted out Carmine by revealing where he kept his secret stash of incriminating court ledgers in Blackgate to an honest TYGER guard, not only supporting the retcon, but presumably also factoring in the crime lord's influence over the prison likely being dissolved and setting him up for a later court trial after the events of Shadow.
• Carmine was the alleged father of Selina Kyle, something that was always alluded to in the comics.
• Carmine had some sort of interaction with Calendar Man in the past, which Catwoman referenced in Arkham City.
• In a behind-the-scenes video for Arkham Underworld, executive producer Fernando J. Paiz commented that when they brought in Jon Polito "There was this very nice moment where he said 'Okay, okay. Show me my character, show me who I am. Let me see.' and we showed him this image of Carmine Falcone in the game and he goes 'Oh. He's me. In that case, I got this." Whether it was intentional or not, Carmine's design does strongly resemble Polito.
• Carmine is seen using a minigun against Batman during his boss fight in Arkham Shadow, unlike most depictions of him, who used a handgun.
• During his incarceration in Arkham Shadow, Carmine gets agitated at one of the TYGER guards in Blackgate for pronouncing his surname as “Fal-kohn” as opposed to “Fal-kohn-ee”. The “Fal-kohn” pronunciation is used in the Gotham television series and Matt Reeves' The Batman Saga.
• In Arkham Shadow, Carmine has three scratches on his cheek, a reference to his appearance in Batman: The Long Halloween. It is unknown if Catwoman is responsible for the scars like in the comics. However, when looking at his previous appearance in Arkham Underworld, (release order-wise), it should be noted that those scars aren't there.