‘The Dark Knight Rises’: 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Alberto Falcone

Today in superhero news, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been confirmed as Alberto Falcone, son of Carmine Falcone (played by Tom Wilkinson in Batman Begins) in Christopher Nolan’s next Batman flick, The Dark Knight Rises. Early rumors had Levitt pegged as the Riddler, but I actually think this is a much more interesting choice. Back in the early days of Batman, the Rogue’s Gallery as we know it didn’t exist. Yep, you heard me: no acid-disfigured mad men, no crazed psychologists who fall for their patients, no riddling supergeniuses– just mob boss crime lords like the Maroni family (one of Batman’s earliest adversaries, which made its first appearance in 1942). The Falcone family made its debut in Frank Miller’s masterpiece Batman: Year One in 1987, and his son Alberto first appeared in the 1996 story The Long Halloween. Here are five things you didn’t know about Batman’s newest villain:

1) He’s got daddy issues.
Alberto’s two older siblings, Mario and Sofia, went into the family business, while Alberto, the black sheep of the family, got shunted aside. This was apparently not for lack of trying – Alberto repeatedly expressed an interest in following in his father’s footsteps, but Carmine refused. Some say that Carmine favored Mario and Sofia; others believe that his favorite child was actually Alberto, evinced by his desire for Alberto to have a normal life outside the business. Whatever the case, though, Alberto took it badly. The result? Pathological jealousy.

2) He’s one smart cookie.
Having attended Harvard on scholarship and later Oxford University, Alberto clearly has one hell of a brain.

3) He’s got a secret identity.
SPOILER: In The Long Halloween, Gotham City finds itself terrorized by a serial killer known as “The Holiday Killer.” So named due to his tendency to attack only on holidays, Holiday systematically begins tearing down the Maroni family, leading to an all-out gang war between the Maronis and the Falcones. Though Alberto was apparently killed by Holiday on New Years’, this turns out to have been a clever ruse to remove Alberto from suspicion. He is eventually caught and sentenced to a term in Arkham Asylum.

4) He’s got a roommate.
Or at least, he’s got the next best thing during his incarceration at Arkahm: He lives across the hall from Calendar Man. Unfortunately for Alberto, the holiday-obsessed Calendar Man fears that Alberto’s fame will overshadow his own and decides to do something about it during the 1999 story Dark Victory.

5) He’s not his father.
And his sister Sofia agrees. This does not end well. (see Dark Victory for details).