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Sal Maroni
	; Sal Maroni from "Batman and Monster Men", illustrated by Matt Wagner
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Detective Comics #66 (August 1942)
Created by	Bob Kane; Bill Finger
In-story information
Alter ego	Salvatore Vincent Maroni
Team affiliations	Mafia
Notable aliases	The Boss, The Italian

Salvatore Maroni is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, usually as one of Batman's first enemies, and among the toughest gangsters in Gotham City. Maroni is most famous for being the one who scarred Harvey Dent, setting the stage for the young attorney's transformation into Two-Face.

[edit] History

[edit] Pre-Crisis/Earth Two

Maroni's first and only Pre-crisis appearance was in Detective Comics #66 (August 1942) as "Boss" Moroni, a mobster on trial for the murder of a man named "Bookie" Benson. Harvey Dent, (who was named Harvey Kent in his first appearance and Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths remained the identity of the first Earth-Two Two-Face), is the prosecutor at the trial. He calls Batman as his first witness. During Batman's testimony Maroni calls Batman a liar, leading Dent to show his proof: Maroni's lucky two-headed silver dollar found at the scene with Maroni's fingerprints on it. Enraged, Maroni throws a vial of acid at Dent, horribly disfiguring him and transforming him into the insane gangster Two-Face.

Two-Face later shoots and kills him in revenge, after which Two-Face surrenders and voluntarily goes back into police custody.

[edit] Silver Age

During Silver Age recountings of Two-Face's origin, Maroni was left intact, but his name was changed to Morelli. In this version, Batman is there at the trial and tries to prevent the mobster from throwing the acid, but Dent is still disfigured.

Prior to COIE, Maroni returned in DC Superstars #14 and Batman #328 to 329. He survives an assassination attempt by a still-bitter Two-Face in the first story, but his legs are left paralyzed. In the latter story arc, he undergoes plastic surgery and changes his name to Anton Karoselle to avoid attention. His first act is to murder Dent's former wife Gildas' new husband, Dave Stevens, as retribution against the former DA. By the story's end, he is murdered by Two-Face.

[edit] Post-Crisis

Maroni also appeared and is featured prominently in Jeph Loeb's maxi-series Batman: The Long Halloween. As of 2006^[update], he has been included further into Batman's early days in the form of a major role in Matt Wagner's Batman and the Monster Men, where he has been involved in funding of Hugo Strange's experiments.

In this version, Salvatore Maroni is the scion of the Maroni crime family, headed by his father Luigi "Big Lou" Maroni. In The Long Halloween, Maroni is the most powerful mobster next to Carmine Falcone, and both believe that serial killer Holiday (so named for assassinating mobsters on holidays) is working for the other (although they also think that Harvey Dent has something to do with the killer). Their business relationship becomes strained as a result. When his father is killed by Holiday, Maroni makes a deal with Dent to reveal all of Falcone's criminal activities, in exchange for leniency.

However, Maroni really plots to scar Dent, believing he is responsible for his father's death. Dent's assistant, Vernon Field, provides him prior to court with "stomach medicine" for a supposed ulcer. During the trial, Maroni throws acid into Dent's face, disfiguring him. Maroni gets into a scuffle with a bailiff, who shoots him twice in the chest. He survives, however.

When he is moved out of his cell, Maroni is finally killed by Holiday, who is revealed to be Alberto Falcone, the rival crime boss' son who acted out against the family to make a name for himself.

[edit] Other versions

Elseworlds is the term used to define stories involving DC characters but in settings that differ radically from the regular continuity. Sal Maroni appears in one such story, "Citizen Wayne" which was published in 1994. Set in the 1930s it depicts Maroni as an Al Capone-like crime lord who is involved in bootlegging, resides in a luxury hotel suite and who lures his law-enforcing enemies into a trap when they are led to believe that they can get him for tax evasion (Capone was eventually jailed for tax fraud). In this version Maroni completely scars Harvey Dent's face with acid. This leads Dent to assume the Batman mantle and break up Maroni's operations before finally killing him. Bruce Wayne is a newspaper publisher and fierce critic of Batman (much like Spider-Man's J. Jonah Jameson) who, following Maroni's death, goes after him since he feels that Batman/Dent has overstepped the mark. The pair are killed during the fight and, much like the classic Citizen Kane movie, their story is told in flashback as a young Assistant District Attorney interviews their friends and acquaintances, including Maroni's henchmen.

[edit] Other media

[edit] Film

[edit] Batman Forever

In a scene in Batman Forever, Bruce Wayne is watching a news story which features a man in a courtroom witness box throwing acid into the face of District Attorney Harvey Dent, the film's antagonist. The reporter refers to the man as "Boss Moroni", who is portrayed by Dennis Paladino.

[edit] Batman: Gotham Knight

Sal Maroni is featured in two segments of Batman: Gotham Knight (namely Crossfire and Field Test) voiced by Rob Paulsen. In these two stories, Maroni is at war with the Chechen's mob. In Gotham Knight, Maroni is shown to have greasy hair and a moustache and beard, while the Chechen is clean shaven; the two characters have the opposite appearances in The Dark Knight.

[edit] The Dark Knight

Eric Roberts as Sal Maroni

Eric Roberts portrays Maroni in the Batman Begins sequel, The Dark Knight. ^[1] In the film, Maroni has taken over as boss of Carmine Falcone's crime family following Falcone's fall from power during Ra's Al Ghul's attack on Gotham. Prior to the events of The Dark Knight, he has been embroiled in a violent turf war with rival gangsters Gambol and the Chechen, with whom he has now formed an apparent truce. At the beginning of the film, Maroni is put on trial by district attorney Harvey Dent. However, the informant testifying against him recants his statements and pulls a gun on Dent, but Dent cannot trace the attack to Maroni, and he is acquitted. Later, Maroni meets with fellow crime bosses to discuss the matter of their funds being jeopardized by Batman, the Joker (who had robbed one of their banks) and the Gotham police. The mobsters receive help from a Chinese Triad accountant named Lau, who hides away his and other mob faction's money in an undisclosed place. The Joker himself offers to kill Batman for half of all their money, but the mob refuses; they change their decision after Batman captures Lau in Hong Kong and delivers him to the Gotham police. Lau's testimony allows Dent to put all the mobsters in Gotham on trial, but as one of the bosses Maroni is able to make bail. Maroni is next seen when he is being interrogated by Batman above a club hours after the apparent murder of Lieutenant James Gordon. Despite Batman breaking one of his legs by throwing him off a building, Maroni doesn't disclose the Joker's whereabouts, instead accusing Batman of letting people die by not turning himself in to the Joker. Later on he shows up at the hospital where Dent is recovering and offers Gordon information on where to find the Joker. Maroni is next seen getting into his car, and is confronted by Dent himself, now calling himself "Two-Face". The disfigured vigilante interrogates Maroni as to the identity of the police officer that led to his fiancée Rachel Dawes' death. Hoping that Dent will spare him, Maroni reveals the officer's identity, but Two-Face still flips his coin to decide on his next course of action. The coin lands on the un-scarred side of his coin, sparing Maroni, but Two-Face, still unsatisfied, flips the coin again for the driver's life, and it lands on the scarred side. Two-Face secures himself in his seat belt and shoots the driver, which causes a serious accident in which the car flips over. Maroni is not seen again after this, and his fate is left ambiguous. Gordon later mentions that Two-Face killed five people, but it is not made clear whether or not Maroni was one of these five.

[edit] See also

List of Batman Family enemies

[edit] References

^ HEROIC SAVE - New York Post

[0] HEROIC SAVE - New York Post

[1]

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