from Max The Penguin isn’t the first TV show to emerge from Hollywood’s fascination with Gotham City’s seedy underbelly, but it’s perhaps the one most committed to steering clear of Batman or Arkham Asylum’s so-called rogues gallery. Case in point: even its one Arkham patient, Sofia Falcone, aka the Hangman, is a riff straight out of Batman’s great mob-era.
(Editorial note: This piece contains spoilers for The Penguin‘s premiere episode, “After Hours.”)
The Penguin introduces Sofia Falcone, daughter of the Falcone crime family played by actor Cristin Milioti, as perhaps the scariest player vying for the Falcone crown. Sofia could be a sure thing after her father’s death in 2022 The Batman and the death of her brother in The Penguin‘s premiere, but her path is hampered by the general sexism of the mafia and also by the perception that she is not mentally fit to be a boss.
Sofia, Penguin tells us, fresh out of Arkham Asylum, and in a past life she committed a string of murders. But who did she kill, and why did it earn her the nom de guerre of “the Hangman”? The Penguin has not yet answered this himself, but the DC Comics stories in which Sofia originated have.
A little bit about Sofia Falcone in DC Comics
Sofia first appeared in Batman: The Long Halloweena 1996 miniseries by writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale. It is one of the best Batman mystery stories ever put to paper and undoubtedly one of the most influential modern Batman comics in cinema. Long Halloween followed Batman and other characters as they searched for the true identity of the serial killer Holiday, who had been targeting members of Gotham’s mafia elite. Sofia enters the story about halfway through, just after she gets out of prison.
Normal prison, that is, not Arkham Asylum. Instead of the family pariah, Long Halloween‘Sofia is Carmine Falcone’s beloved daughter and best enforcer. She’s also, like, a total brick shithouse nicknamed “Sofia Gigante.”
Sofia would only get her serial killer status Long Halloween‘s sequel, Batman: Dark Victorywhere she turned out to be the mysterious serial killer Hangman. That’s a enormous spoiler for Dark Victorybut okay, blame it The Penguinnot us.
Who killed the Executioner?
As Hangman, Sofia preyed on the police and other law enforcement officials (mostly corrupt ones, this being Gotham City). She would surprise her victims with a noose and leave them hanging in plain sight, with her calling card pinned to their chests: half-finished gallows, scribbled on papers Harvey Dent had swiped from his desk before he went rogue.
The purpose of all this was revenge: at the height of The Long HalloweenHarvey (as Two-Face) had executed her father, Carmine Falcone, and all of Hangman’s victims were people who had helped Harvey build his career. Sofia, who had survived a fall from Carmine’s penthouse rooftop at the end of Long Halloweenmanaged to escape suspicion for most of the story by pretending to be paralyzed from the neck down in the fall.
The Penguin isn’t the first “grounded” Batman TV series to put Sofia in the spotlight — Crystal Reed (Teenage Wolf) played her for several seasons Gotham. She’s a natural fit for a series that wants to play with succession in the Falcone family and experiment with a more traditional true-crime-style supervillain. Sofia dies at the end of Dark Victoryso her comic book character presence has been limited in that and The Long Halloween.
Besides being mysterious stories and serving as origin stories for Two-Face and Robin, Long Halloween And Dark Victory asked the question: “But how exactly did Gotham City transition from the mafia-dominated underworld of Batman: Year One to the chaotic, theatrical crime wave of a loose society of costumed killers?” Part of that transition, Loeb and Sale argued, was that the descendants of Gotham’s major crime families turned to serial killing and calling card crime themselves.
But is The Penguin Also interested in following that particular transition, or will it continue to steer clear of Batman’s villain moniker? That’s for the rest of the miniseries’ episodes to show us.