‘The Batman’: Who Is Salvatore Maroni?

Batman is known as the protector and Dark Knight of Gotham City. However, even before Batman emerged, Gotham City was a city full of conspiracies, corruption, and mafia gangs that didn’t even bother to hide their intentions. Similarly, powerful and wealthy families of Gotham, including the Wayne family, tried everything in their power to make the city prosper and set it on the right path. In the grim everyday life of Gotham, one of the main players was Salvatore Maroni, so let’s take a look at who he is and why he is important.

In his time, Salvatore Maroni was one of the most notorious criminals in Gotham. Twenty years before Batman’s emergence, Salvatore significantly influenced the city’s power players and led a drug operation. His drug, called ‘Drops,’ flooded the streets of Gotham and remained rampant for decades after its production. Maroni was ultimately arrested, and it was considered one of the greatest successes of Gotham’s legal system. Maroni also managed to dig up dirt that could have destroyed Thomas Wayne’s mayoral campaign.

This briefly summarizes Maroni’s actions and influence. His criminal organization and connections infiltrated every aspect of Gotham society, and his constant struggle with Carmine Falcone for power and positions in the city marked decades in Gotham. In the following paragraphs, we will talk more about it and get more into how Maroni impacted the lives of the Wayne family.

Salvatore Maroni was one of Gotham’s most notorious criminals

In Gotham, one can find an abundance of criminals, drug lords, and mafia figures. However, Salvatore Maroni and Carmine Falcone were the most influential and powerful ones. In the movie ‘The Batman,’ we learn many intriguing details about these two gangsters, and we also discover skeletons in the closets of the Wayne family.

In the movie, the main villain is the Riddler. Dissatisfied with false promises, corruption, and the overall political leadership in Gotham, he decides to take matters into his own hands. In a brutal and ruthless manner, he kills the mayor, forces the corrupt district attorney to confess, and hints that his next target is the prince of Gotham, Bruce Wayne. He also reveals to the world that the Wayne family wasn’t as righteous and “saintly” as they presented themselves to be.

Twenty years before Batman presented himself as Gotham’s vigilante and started working with James Gordon, Bruce Wayne’s father, Thomas Wayne, was running for mayor of Gotham City. Naturally, all the crime lords want to have the city officials in their pocket, and since they could not achieve that by bribing Wayne, they needed to find some incriminating information against him.

In that regard, Salvatore Maroni hired a reporter, Edward Elliot, to find some dirt Maroni could use against Thomas. Elliot found shocking revelations about Martha Wayne. Before she married Thomas Wayne, Martha came from another wealthy family, the Arkhams. Arkham’s family concealed a great crime and a tragedy from the world. Martha’s mother killed her husband and shot herself. All that left a toll on Martha, who spent years in and out of mental hospitals.

When Thomas Wayne learned that Elliot knew about that, he wanted to protect his wife and son from all the pain that information could cause if revealed publicly. So, Thomas went to see Carmine Falcone and asked him to frighten Elliot and prevent him from publishing the story. Wayne never wanted to kill Elliot, but Carmine Falcone knew that if kills Elliot, that way, he would always have something to blackmail Thomas with. So, Carmine killed the reporter.

Twenty years later, the Riddler publicly revealed to the world Martha’s history. Bruce was shocked, and in disbelief, so he went to see Carmine Falcone to find out the truth. Falcone admitted killing Elliot; even Thomas Wayne just asked to scare the reporter. But not only that, Falcone hinted his theory to Bruce regarding his parents’ murder. According to Falcone, Salvatore Maroni got Thomas and Martha Wayne killed because Salvatore considered that Wayne would become Falcone’s corrupt mayor, significantly weakening Maroni’s position.

And while it is possible that Maroni could’ve killed the Waynes, Alferd later told Bruce that his parents were killed the same night when Thomas confronted Falcone and threatened to go to the police and confess to everything; how he hired Falcone to frighten Elliot, but the latter killed the reporter instead. So, the question regarding the culprit of Thomas’s and Martha’s murder remained unanswered.

After Maroni was imprisoned, the question remained, who was the Rat that tipped the police?

Salvatore Maroni’s downfall was one of the greatest accomplishments of Gotham’s legal systems, and the mayor, Don Mitchell, loved to take credit for that arrest. Even after Maroni was out of the picture, his criminal family members remained, and one of the most notable is Penguin. As the former right hand of Salvatore Maroni, many thought that he might be the rat, but it turned out false.

The notorious drug Maroni developed, the Drops, had influenced the Gotham citizens in a big way, as even the highest city officials indulged themselves in it, including the district attorney. Nothing was ever black or white in Gotham, and to find uncorrupt city officials was like finding a needle in a haystack.

In ‘The Batman’ movie, we get to see the early years of collaboration between James Gordon and Batman, and it is clear that they have each other backs and trust each other. Together they stopped the Ridler, but only after he killed Carmine Falcone. It was revealed that Carmine Falcone was the rat who helped the police to bust Maroni’s drug operation.

This made sense since Maroni was Falcone’s main competition, and Maroni’s downfall meant that Carmine would become one of Gotham’s most powerful crime lords. However, Riddler had other plans for him. Overall, it is fair to conclude that Salvatore Maroni greatly influenced Gotham and everything that happened to Bruce Wayne and his family. The web of lies and corruption grows deep in Gotham, and eradicating it completely is almost impossible.

What do you guys think of Salvatore Maroni? Share your thoughts in the comments.