Uncategorized
https://nerdist.com/article/the-batman-crime-families-falcone-maroni-explained-before-the-penguin/
While I don’t love the moniker, the Matt Reeves version of Gotham City, “The Batman Epic Crime Universe,” is pretty apt. While The Batman has a superhero and a terrifying serial killer at its center, the main thrust of the plot centered around organized crime and police and government corruption. Fun! We always knew Gotham’s rot ran deep, but The Batman really highlighted that. Fittingly, it’s this aspect the TV series The Penguin focuses on, despite having a recognizable comic villain as the lead. Much of The Penguin deals with the hierarchy and squabbling between two particular crime families mentioned in The Batman.
Here’s what you need to remember about the Falcone and Maroni criminal organizations and families before you dive into The Penguin.
Boss Carmine Falcone Is Dead
Carmine Falcone (John Turturro in the movie, Mark Strong on the show) was the longtime head of Falcone crime family. In The Batman, he more or less acts as the fulcrum from which all of the other plots in the movie circle. Falcone is Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell)‘s boss, and owner of the Iceberg Lounge which the Penguin runs. He tells Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) of his connection to Bruce’s father, Thomas Wayne. Thomas fixed up Falcone’s mob-related wounds and later when a reporter threatened to expose Martha Wayne’s history of mental illness, Thomas asked Falcone to “put the fear of God” into the reporter. Falcone also had an affair with Maria Kyle, a dancer at the Iceberg, and is the illegitimate father of Selina (Zoe Kravitz).
The big penny-drop moment of the movie is when Batman figures out that Falcone is the rat feeding info to the police in exchange for the cops and politicians leaving him alone. Falcone murdered the reporter, and Selina’s mother, and later Selina’s friend Annika when she learned the truth about him. Part of his ratting consisted of selling out Salvatore Maroni, his criminal rival and operator of the city’s “drops” drug trade, and taking over the business. He puts Oz in charge of running it.
Through the Riddler (Paul Dano)’s clues, Batman uncovers all of this corruption and the uncorrupt members of the GCPD come to arrest Falcone. While doing so, the Riddler assassinates Falcone with a rifle in a nearby building.
The Penguin Sees a Vacuum in the Criminal Underworld
At the end of The Batman, we see the Penguin—who was vehemently against Falcone’s working with the cops—looking out over Gotham, contemplating his rise to the top. The series shows us it’s not that simple. The remaining capos in the Falcone organization aren’t going to just fall in line behind a thug like Cobb. He also has to contend with Carmine’s two legitimate children, Alberto (Michael Zegen) and Sofia (Cristin Milioti). Both have eyes on controlling the organization, and Sofia is freshly out of Arkham for apparently killing several women in the guise of the Hangman.
Salvatore Maroni Also Has a Score to Settle with the Falcone Crime Family
The aforementioned rival boss Salvatore Maroni will also appear in The Penguin, played by motherf***ing Clancy Brown. Maroni was the ruling family in the drops industry before Falcone’s involvement. Now that Carmine is no more and the big secret it exposed, Maroni sees this as an opportunity to take back what’s his. One setback, he’s still in prison. Lucky for him, his wife Nadia (Shohreh Aghdashloo) is more than capable, and ruthless, to go toe-to-toe with the Penguin and the Falcone kids.
The Falcones, the Maronis, and Their Crime Families in the Batman Comics
The criminal underworld of Gotham City as depicted in The Batman and The Penguin are not wholly new characters to the Batman mythos. In fact, many members of both the Falcone and Maroni families have appeared in comics over the past several decades in prominent ways.
Carmine Falcone
Carmine Falcone first appeared in Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s seminal four-issue mini series Batman: Year One from 1987. He later appeared as a main antagonist in Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s iconic 1996-1997 series, Batman: The Long Halloween, which serves as a major inspiration for much of The Batman and The Penguin. The backstory about Thomas Wayne tending to Carmine’s wounds with a young Bruce watching comes right out of that book. Carmine dies in The Long Halloween at Two-Face’s hand.
Sofia and Alberto Falcone
The two Falcone children also both first appear in The Long Halloween and continue on in Loeb and Sale’s other big arc, Dark Victory. (They have another brother in the comics who doesn’t apparently exist in the show.) Sofia aids her father in The Long Halloween in unearthing the true identity of the serial murderer, the Holiday Killer, who kills citizens seemingly at random during specific holidays. Holiday turns out to be Alberto Falcone himself.
Later in the 2000 event Dark Victory, Sofia Falcone returns to Gotham in the guise of the Hangman, a serial murderer taking out members of the GCPD.
Salvatore Maroni
Salvatore Maroni is a very old character indeed. He first appeared in Batman issue #66 from 1942. He’s a gott-dang Bill Finger and Bob Kane creation! As one of the city’s major crime bosses, he appears on and off over the years. His major claim to fame is that he’s the one who tosses acid in Harvey Dent’s face which leads to him becoming Two-Face. This happens in The Long Halloween as well.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.
The post What to Remember from THE BATMAN’s Crime Families Before THE PENGUIN appeared first on Nerdist.
While I don’t love the moniker, the Matt Reeves version of Gotham City, “The Batman Epic Crime Universe,” is pretty apt. While The Batman has a superhero and a terrifying serial killer at its center, the main thrust of the plot centered around organized crime and police and government corruption. Fun! We always knew Gotham’s rot ran deep, but The Batman really highlighted that. Fittingly, it’s this aspect the TV series The Penguin focuses on, despite having a recognizable comic villain as the lead. Much of The Penguin deals with the hierarchy and squabbling between two particular crime families mentioned in The Batman.
Here’s what you need to remember about the Falcone and Maroni criminal organizations and families before you dive into The Penguin.
Boss Carmine Falcone Is Dead
Carmine Falcone (John Turturro in the movie, Mark Strong on the show) was the longtime head of Falcone crime family. In The Batman, he more or less acts as the fulcrum from which all of the other plots in the movie circle. Falcone is Oz Cobb (Colin Farrell)‘s boss, and owner of the Iceberg Lounge which the Penguin runs. He tells Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) of his connection to Bruce’s father, Thomas Wayne. Thomas fixed up Falcone’s mob-related wounds and later when a reporter threatened to expose Martha Wayne’s history of mental illness, Thomas asked Falcone to “put the fear of God” into the reporter. Falcone also had an affair with Maria Kyle, a dancer at the Iceberg, and is the illegitimate father of Selina (Zoe Kravitz).
The big penny-drop moment of the movie is when Batman figures out that Falcone is the rat feeding info to the police in exchange for the cops and politicians leaving him alone. Falcone murdered the reporter, and Selina’s mother, and later Selina’s friend Annika when she learned the truth about him. Part of his ratting consisted of selling out Salvatore Maroni, his criminal rival and operator of the city’s “drops” drug trade, and taking over the business. He puts Oz in charge of running it.
Through the Riddler (Paul Dano)’s clues, Batman uncovers all of this corruption and the uncorrupt members of the GCPD come to arrest Falcone. While doing so, the Riddler assassinates Falcone with a rifle in a nearby building.
The Penguin Sees a Vacuum in the Criminal Underworld
At the end of The Batman, we see the Penguin—who was vehemently against Falcone’s working with the cops—looking out over Gotham, contemplating his rise to the top. The series shows us it’s not that simple. The remaining capos in the Falcone organization aren’t going to just fall in line behind a thug like Cobb. He also has to contend with Carmine’s two legitimate children, Alberto (Michael Zegen) and Sofia (Cristin Milioti). Both have eyes on controlling the organization, and Sofia is freshly out of Arkham for apparently killing several women in the guise of the Hangman.
Salvatore Maroni Also Has a Score to Settle with the Falcone Crime Family
The aforementioned rival boss Salvatore Maroni will also appear in The Penguin, played by motherf***ing Clancy Brown. Maroni was the ruling family in the drops industry before Falcone’s involvement. Now that Carmine is no more and the big secret it exposed, Maroni sees this as an opportunity to take back what’s his. One setback, he’s still in prison. Lucky for him, his wife Nadia (Shohreh Aghdashloo) is more than capable, and ruthless, to go toe-to-toe with the Penguin and the Falcone kids.
The Falcones, the Maronis, and Their Crime Families in the Batman Comics
The criminal underworld of Gotham City as depicted in The Batman and The Penguin are not wholly new characters to the Batman mythos. In fact, many members of both the Falcone and Maroni families have appeared in comics over the past several decades in prominent ways.
Carmine Falcone
Carmine Falcone first appeared in Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s seminal four-issue mini series Batman: Year One from 1987. He later appeared as a main antagonist in Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s iconic 1996-1997 series, Batman: The Long Halloween, which serves as a major inspiration for much of The Batman and The Penguin. The backstory about Thomas Wayne tending to Carmine’s wounds with a young Bruce watching comes right out of that book. Carmine dies in The Long Halloween at Two-Face’s hand.
Sofia and Alberto Falcone
The two Falcone children also both first appear in The Long Halloween and continue on in Loeb and Sale’s other big arc, Dark Victory. (They have another brother in the comics who doesn’t apparently exist in the show.) Sofia aids her father in The Long Halloween in unearthing the true identity of the serial murderer, the Holiday Killer, who kills citizens seemingly at random during specific holidays. Holiday turns out to be Alberto Falcone himself.
Later in the 2000 event Dark Victory, Sofia Falcone returns to Gotham in the guise of the Hangman, a serial murderer taking out members of the GCPD.
Salvatore Maroni
Salvatore Maroni is a very old character indeed. He first appeared in Batman issue #66 from 1942. He’s a gott-dang Bill Finger and Bob Kane creation! As one of the city’s major crime bosses, he appears on and off over the years. His major claim to fame is that he’s the one who tosses acid in Harvey Dent’s face which leads to him becoming Two-Face. This happens in The Long Halloween as well.
Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. He hosts the weekly pop culture deep-dive podcast Laser Focus. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Instagram and Letterboxd.
The post What to Remember from THE BATMAN’s Crime Families Before THE PENGUIN appeared first on Nerdist.
Arike Ogunbowale during the 2024 WNBA All Star Game in Phoenix, Arizona. Photo Credit: Alex Slitz/Getty Images 
In the Yoruba language, the name Arike means “a child you treasure, cherish, pamper and love.” So, from the time she was born, WNBA star Arike Ogunbowale was special—and now the entire world knows it. In just six seasons, she became the fastest player in league history to 4,000 points, and also eclipsed the Dallas Wings’ scoring record. For an athlete that’s accomplished so much, she still has a lot more to give.
Ogunbowale was born in Milwaukee to Nigerian parents, and raised in an environment surrounded by sports. Her mother was a former softball player at DePaul University, and her brother Dare played football at the University of Wisconsin before joining the NFL as a running back for the Houston Texans. Growing up, Ogunbowale showcased her athletic prowess in multiple sports, contributing to four state soccer championships during her middle school years. However, her passion shifted to basketball, where she rose to prominence at Divine Savior Holy Angels High School, earning accolades such as Wisconsin Miss Basketball and a McDonald’s All-American selection.
The point guard’s career soared when she joined the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and eventually led the squad to a National Championship in 2018. Since being drafted by the Wings the following year, Ogunbowale has achieved multiple accolades, including four All-Star selections and two All-Star MVPs—the most recent of which came during the exciting matchup in Phoenix on February 18. “I just love having fun, and playing with a lot of super great players—that’s always what I look forward to in an All-Star game,” she says.
Amid all of her success, the 27-year-old understands the responsibility that she has in regard to influencing the next generation. “I was blessed to have two great parents that always did what they could for me and more,” Arike states. “I know how hard it is to get out of Milwaukee. So that’s always my mindset when I see young kids, I’m always trying to be the best person possible for them.”
“I know that I’m a role model,” she continues. “It just comes with being in your position, so I definitely embrace it. I want to be that type of person that people look to. Young boys, young girls, young Black kids—it doesn’t matter. I want to be somebody that they can see themselves in. So I know I’m a role model and I try to carry myself as that because I know people are watching.”
This past year has been memorable for the popular basketball star on both a personal and professional level. After establishing herself as one of the most prolific scorers that the WNBA has ever seen, the only thing that has eluded Ogunbowale during her illustrious career is a league title. As an athlete in her prime, a championship is something that she can check off of her bucket list in the very-near future. Outside of the court, reached a pivotal milestone by announcing her engagement to Lala Ronay. For some, the balance between home and hoops can be difficult, but for Ogunbowale, this new union was the perfect addition to her life.
“This really makes me happy,” she says of her decision. “My biggest goal always was to have a family and kids, now I’m a bit closer to that. This definitely brings a lot of peace and feels like I’m going in the right direction.”
TOPICS: Arike Ogunbowale black women in sports wnbaThe post Arike Ogunbowale Aims For Excellence Both On And Off The Court appeared first on Essence.