Batman The Long Halloween, Parts One and Two from DC Animation depicts a parallel world in which the mafia family The Romans, modelled after the Godfather, controls criminal activity in a lawless Gotham City and governs the city covertly. Carmine Falcone, the leader of the criminal organisation, is connected to all branches of the legal system and is familiar with the flaws of each and every law enforcement official. He ensures that no one can escape his metaphorical mousetrap as a result. The live-action version of The Batman, which is being directed by Matt Reeves, begins on Halloween as well because both movies prominently reference Batman: The Long Halloween.
Carmine Falcone serves as a bridge in the 2022 live-action movie between the three central characters of the story, who are: Bruce Wayne, aka The Batman; Edward Nashton, aka The Riddler; and Selina Kyle, aka The Catwoman. Without further ado, let’s look at how Carmine Falcone, the major antagonist in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, sets everything in motion and inspires an idealistic anarchist to emerge from hiding to exact retribution.
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Warning: Major Spoilers
Carmine Falcone : The Godfather Of Gotham
Toby Reeves A news item that starts the fight off is how The Batman opens. In a news story, Mayor Don Mitchell Jr. and his associates from the Justice Department and Gotham City Police rejoice over their historic narcotics bust by apprehending gangster Salvatore Maroni.
Salvatore Maroni, the son of mafia leader Luigi Big Lou Maroni, is portrayed in Batman: The Long Halloween as being an arch-enemy of the Romans in general and Carmine Falcone in particular. The conflict between the Corleone crime family and the Tattaglia family is introduced in Mario Puzo’s The Godfather, which serves as the inspiration for the division of Gotham City between these two mafia groups.
Batman: The Long Halloween depicts a sequence when Luigi Maroni shoots Carmine Falcone five times in the chest, drawing further inspiration from Mario Puzo’s mobster world. Vincent, Carmine’s father, brings his dying son to Thomas Wayne, Gotham’s most capable physician, who, in accordance with the Hippocratic Oath, revives Carmine. The Romans pledge to do the Wayne family a favour in exchange (to Bruce in particular in the animated film).
When Carmine Falcone first encounters Bruce Wayne during Mayor Don Mitchell Jr.’s funeral in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, he immediately recognises the young boy whose father had saved his life. The Hippocratic Oath is also mentioned because Thomas could only have assisted a gangster because of the oath, or at least that is what Bruce wanted to believe about his father because he always saw him favourably. But later, when Carmine tells Bruce that his father solicited the gangster’s assistance during his election campaign and used it against a reporter called Edward Elliot who had delved too deeply, the realm is shattered.
Edward was aware of Martha Wayne, the mother of Bruce, who brutally murdered her father as a child before committing suicide. Martha had a mental illness brought on by her traumatic past, for which she was even admitted to Arkham State Hospital. Thomas Wayne requested assistance from Carmine Falcone, who murdered Edward Elliot in order to blackmail Thomas Wayne in the future, as he didn’t want this information to be made known to the public in order to save his wife.
At this moment, Carmine tells Bruce that Salvatore Maroni murdered Thomas and Martha Wayne out of fear that Carmine would gain control of Gotham City if Thomas won the elections because he already knew Thomas’s secret and could use blackmail at any time to exert influence. Alfred, however, disagreed. He claimed that Thomas wanted to come clean about his involvement in the murder of Edward Elliot and wanted to expose Carmine. Before he could confess his wrongdoing, Carmine killed both him and his wife the same night. But even Alfred doesn’t have conclusive evidence that Carmine was involved in the murder, so these two are just theories.
Nevertheless, whether Thomas and Martha Wayne were murdered or not, Carmine managed to profit from their demise. In Batman: The Long Halloween, Thomas Wayne and Carmine established hospitals, which Carmine then used to launder money following Thomas’s passing. In Matt Reeves’ The Batman, a similar crime is examined. Thomas Wayne established the Gotham City Renewal Fund to redevelop the city, but after his passing, corrupt ministers and mobsters utilised it to finance their racket and launder their illicit funds.
Even Salvatore Maroni, though, had his hands in Thomas Wayne’s Renewal Fund, and that’s where Carmine turned avaricious. He tipped off Maroni since he wanted all of it for himself, and with the aid of the dishonest mayor Don Mitchell Jr., the district attorney Gil Colson, and the drugs officer Kenzie, Maroni was arrested.
Carmine had complete authority over Gotham after Maroni was captured, but before he could celebrate, the Riddler stepped in and began executing people who had aided the Rat, also known as Carmine Falcone.
Batman: The Long Halloween also examines the contradictions in Carmine’s persona, who portrays himself as a gangster with high morals and rejects the adoption of an unmarried kid while yet committing cold-blooded murders. The Holliday, a serial murderer, begins killing members of the Roman family as a result of this particular quarrel. However, it wasn’t the first time Carmine had refused to accept a kid born to his family outside of marriage. According to a theory, Selina Kyle is the offspring of a woman he later killed after falling in love with her. Carmine Falcone is nothing more than a hypocrite if the theory is accurate, as Selina Kyle thinks it is.
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Selina Kyle The Alleged Daughter of Carmine Falcone
Selina Kyle, dubbed the Cat Woman, relentlessly pursues Carmine Falcone in both Batman: The Long Halloween and Matt Reeves The Batman to exact revenge on him for leaving her when she was a child. Selina’s mother, Maria, is thought to have been having an illicit relationship with Carmine, whom she most likely met in Iceberg Lounge, also known as 44 Below. After her mother passed away and her father refused to accept a kid born out of wedlock, Selina experienced an identity crisis and grew up in an orphanage. Maria was murdered when Selina was just seven years old (probably).
Batman prevented Selina from getting her hands smeared with blood, turning into a criminal, and therefore imitating her father’s mistakes. Selina was filled with rage and wanted to kill Carmine. Carmine admits to killing Maria, Selina’s mother, in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. Carmine had a change of heart, though, when he saw an exposed Selina and mumbled the name Louisa, who might be her mother, in Batman: The Long Halloween.
A few DC animated flicks, including the most recent one, Catwoman Hunted, subtly hint at Selina’s charitable deeds. Her act of helping women in need may perhaps be influenced by her own tragic past. So, when Selina is not stealing emeralds or diamonds, she is rescuing women who are in need.
The Conclusion
It might be assumed that Carmine Falcone is the one controlling the action in Matt Reeves’ The Batman story from behind the scenes like a puppeteer and that he therefore becomes the focus of conflict for nearly all the important characters in the movies. Both The Riddler and Catwoman are trying to get even with Carmine, but Batman—who goes by the moniker The Vengeance—finally understands that his own philosophy of instilling fear in people may be taken to the most terrible extremes and that he must therefore be more than that. He must be a picture of justice who inspires people with hope rather than dread. The knight’s transformational adventure had just begun.
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