Sofia Falcone

Sofia Falcone
Sofia Falcone in Batman: Dark Victory #1 (December 1999). Art by Tim Sale.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Batman: The Long Halloween #6 (May 1997)
Created by	Jeph Loeb Tim Sale
In-story information
Full name	Sofia Falcone
Species	Human
Notable aliases	The Hangman

Sofia Falcone, also known as Sofia Gigante, is a fictional character appearing in DC Comics, primarily in association with the character Batman. Debuting in the 1996–97 comic book limited series Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, she is introduced as a member of the Falcone crime family, who assists her father Carmine Falcone in unearthing the identity of the "Holiday Killer", a serial killer who had been killing Gotham City's citizens in correlation with holidays in the yearly calendar.

In the 1999–2000 limited series Batman: Dark Victory which served as a continuation of the arc established in The Long Halloween, Sofia is revealed as the identity behind the murderer known under the alias the Hangman, who had spent over a year targeting and eliminating various members of the Gotham City Police Department, notably in association with former district attorney-turned criminal, Harvey Dent / Two-Face, who ends up killing her during a lengthy confrontation with Batman himself.

The character made her live-action debut in the 2017–2018 fourth season of the television series Gotham, portrayed by Crystal Reed. She also appears in the 2024 HBO television miniseries The Penguin set in The Batman shared universe, portrayed by Cristin Milioti.

Publication history

Sofia Falcone first appeared in Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's 1996 miniseries Batman: The Long Halloween as the daughter of crime lord Carmine Falcone. She returned in the sequel Batman: Dark Victory, where she became the Hangman killer to avenge her father's death.

Loeb stated in an interview that he paralleled the Falcone family to that of the Corleone family, with Sofia's temper matching that of Sonny Corleone.

Fictional character biography

The Long Halloween

When the Holiday killer started killing members of the Falcone family, Carmine has his daughter Sofia released from prison early to help him find who the killer was.

In the end the killer was apparently revealed to be Alberto Falcone, Carmine's son and Sofia's brother. Afterwards, Carmine was killed by Gotham's district attorney Harvey Dent, who became Two-Face after having his face splashed with acid, and Sofia fell out of the Falcone's penthouse window after being attacked by Catwoman.

Dark Victory

Sofia is revealed to have survived her fall, now in a wheelchair and wearing a neck brace, and is the new head of the Falcone family. Meanwhile, a new serial killer known as the Hangman is killing the cops of Gotham City with a noose, striking on holidays and leaving an incomplete hangman puzzle with each victim. The first half of the year, the victims are all cops who in some way assisted in Harvey Dent's rise to power in Gotham before he became Two-Face, while from April Fool's onwards the victims are all part of the task force Gordon has assembled to investigate the hangman killings.

In the end, Sofia is revealed to be the killer, having faked her paralysis. She kills her brother Alberto for being a "disappointment" to the family, and then tries to kill Two-Face, but Batman stops her. While she is battling him, Two-Face shoots her in the head.

In other media

Television

• Sofia Falcone appears in Gotham, portrayed by Crystal Reed. The daughter of Carmine Falcone, and sister of Mario Calvi Falcone, she first appears in the fourth season episode "A Dark Knight: They Who Hide Behind Masks", where she teams up and begins an affair with Jim Gordon to take down Oswald Cobblepot, who has taken over Gotham City. She befriends Cobblepot and opens an orphanage in Gotham. Teaming up with the Gotham City Sirens, she later uses Cobblepot's friendship with an orphan boy to start a war against him. Also, she is revealed to have hired Professor Pyg, a serial killer who targets cops working for Cobblepot, and to have put out a hit that killed her own father. In addition, she orchestrates events that led to Cobblepot being remanded to Arkham Asylum, gains Victor Zsasz's allegiance, and kills Professor Pyg. She then blackmails Gordon into working for her. When Gordon goes back on their arrangement, she works to hurt him by pressuring her sister-in-law and Gordon's ex, Leslie Thompkins, into giving her control over the Narrows. When Thompkins refuses, Sofia breaks her hand with a hammer, and gives control of the Narrows to Thompkins' rival, Sampson. In the episode "A Dark Knight: The Sinking Ship, The Great Applause", Sofia leads Zsasz, Headhunter, and two Falcone crime family operatives to Spa Bo'sh Sumka to target Arthur Penn, her father's former accountant. While Zsasz and Headhunter go after Harvey Bullock and Penn, Sofia engages Gordon in a gunfight and seriously injures him. However, before Sofia can kill him, Thompkins shoots her in the head. As Gordon recuperates in the hospital, Bullock tells him that Sofia is in a coma.
• Sofia Falcone is portrayed by Cristin Milioti in The Penguin, a television spin-off to the 2022 film The Batman. This version was framed for the murder of seven women by her father, Carmine Falcone, who also murdered her mother in a similar fashion, staging all incidents as suicides by hanging. This earns her the nickname "the Hangman" and leads to her being remanded to Arkham State Hospital, where she endures years of torture, abuse, and neglect. She is released after a decade in the facility upon the death of Carmine, and joins Oswald "Oz" Cobb in distributing a new drug called Bliss when her brother Alberto turns up dead. Other members of the Falcone family view Sofia as a liability and arrange for her to be sent to Rome. After learning Oz was her brother’s killer, and fed up with her family’s treatment of her, she escorts her young cousin, Gia, out of the family mansion and releases a deadly gas, killing all but one occupant, Johnny Viti, whom she kidnaps and tortures. She then renounces the Falcone name, and adopts her mother's maiden name "Gigante", killing Johnny and winning the loyalty of her father's remaining men. Later, she meets with Salvatore Maroni, who just escaped from prison and learned his wife and son were murdered by Oz, proposing an end to the war between their families and a truce to kill Oz. Upon raiding his apartment, they find out that his mother, Francis, who Sofia was told died prior to their meeting, is actually alive. Sofia confronts Oz's girlfriend Eve, who tells her the location where Oz is keeping his mother; Sofia attacks Oz's protégé Victor Aguilar and kidnaps Francis. While interrogating her about Oz's childhood, Sofia is informed that Gia may have told something to police. She visits Gia at the orphanage, where Gia says she saw a mask in Sofia's bag, and Sofia admits to Gia that she killed the family. She also sees that Gia has been cutting herself, and shortly after, learns that Maroni has died of heart failure and that Oz wants his mother back. Sofia initially agrees, but instead sends a car bomb to Oz's base and hold his mother at a theater. She has Oz brought to her in an attempt to force a confession that Oz murdered his brothers during childhood, a fact she found out from Francis. However, Oz escapes with Francis; Sofia then burns down the Falcone estate and decides to leave the country. At the airport, a recaptured Oz is brought to her. However, this is revealed as a double-cross, and Oz fakes Sofia's execution while secretly arranging for her to be returned to Arkham. Alone in her cell, Sofia receives a letter from her half-sister Selina Kyle and is visibly comforted by the contents inside.

Film

• Sofia Falcone appears in Batman: The Long Halloween, Part Two, voiced by Laila Berzins.

Video games

• Sofia's name is mentioned on the Falcone family tree in Batman: Arkham Origins.

See also

• List of Batman family enemies