Tony Zucco

Anthony "Tony" Zucco is a fictional character in the DC Comics universe. He was introduced in Detective Comics #38 (April 1940) and is best known for his connections to the origin of Robin.

Fictional character history

Pre-Crisis

Antonio Zucco (originally just "Boss Zucco" in his first appearance) is a Mafia boss, or simple low level thug (his position of power varies depending upon the Golden and Silver Age continuity) in Gotham City who is responsible for the death of Dick Grayson's parents.

Throughout the years, Zucco's role in Robin's origin remains largely the same. Zucco tries to extort the Haly's Circus, where the Flying Graysons are the main attraction. When the ringmaster Mr. Haly (who runs an honest business) refuses to pay him protection money, Zucco sabotages the trapeze ropes the Graysons use in their act. The ropes break while Dick's parents are in mid-air. Because the Graysons perform their act without a safety net, they fall to their deaths.

Dick is subsequently adopted by Bruce Wayne (a.k.a. Batman) and becomes his partner Robin. Both of them locate Tony Zucco and send him to jail. In the Golden Age version, he is sent to the electric chair. In the Silver Age version, he is sentenced to life in prison.

Post-Crisis

Batman: Year Three

Having been sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the Grayson murders, Zucco is incarcerated in Blackgate Penitentiary. After serving seven years of his sentence, he files for a parole hearing and offers testimony against other Gotham criminals. He professes remorse for his crimes, but hides an ulterior motive. Before he was sent to prison, Zucco had hidden a ledger in the orphanage where Dick briefly resided following his parents' deaths; the ledger contains incriminating information about the Mafia's operations in Gotham. Zucco plots to remove the ledger from the oprhanage before it is demolished. Wanting to keep the truth from Dick (who has recently became Nightwing), Alfred goes to the parole hearing and pleads for the judge to keep Zucco in prison. Unfortunately, Dick learns of Zucco's release. Despite Alfred's attempts to stop him, Dick races to Blackgate to confront his parents' killer. However, as he steps out of the prison, Zucco is gunned down by a helicopter hired by a rival crime boss. While Zucco's death gives Dick some closure, his already-strained relationship with Batman becomes further complicated. Bruce insists he knew nothing about Zucco's murder.^[1]

Batman: Dark Victory

In Batman: Dark Victory, Zucco (dubbed Anthony "Fats" Zucco) is portrayed as a low-level thug working for Sal Maroni, a member of Carmine Falcone's Mafia empire. He and another minor family head, Edward Skeevers, are put in charge of drug trafficking. After constant attacks by other enemies such as Penguin, Zucco starts a new method of smuggling these drugs. He only lets Skeevers in on the secret, believing that its success will make their minor families greater than the Falcones and the Maronis put together, and attempts to take over Haley's Circus in order to use its trucks for his trafficking activities. He kills Dick Grayson's parents as a demonstration of power to the circus' owner, and then quickly goes underground. He is later found by Batman and Dick Grayson, who is not yet Robin, and is chased down a dark alley by Grayson until he has a heart attack, confessing to various crimes.^[2]

Blackest Night

Tony Zucco's remains have been reanimated as a Black Lantern in DC Comics' 2009/2010 crossover Blackest Night, with John and Mary Grayson, Jack and Janet Drake, Captain Boomerang, and the original Dark Knight's deceased rogue gallery members. They all attempt to take the lives of Dick Grayson and Tim Drake, who became the new Batman and Red Robin. Grayson eventually cryogenically suspended himself and Drake during the battle, which forced the Black Lanterns to retreat as they are unable to read any sign of life from them.^[3] This Zucco has an appearance similar to his depiction in Dark Victory.

The Black Mirror

It is eventually revealed that Zucco had fathered a daughter named Sonia. Unlike her father, she is a seemingly a legitimate businesswoman and runs the GGM Bank under the alias of Sonia Branch.^[4] Batman (Dick Grayson), who initially hoped that Sonia is not as corrupted as her father, is disappointed when he realizes that Sonia manipulated him into subduing rivals who wish to take over her bank. Due to the lack of evidence, Sonia remains beyond the reach of the law.^[5]

Other versions

All Star Batman and Robin

In Frank Miller's All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, Grayson's parents are killed by a low-level hitman called "Jocko-boy" Vanzetti. Throughout the early issues, he is toyed with and brutalized by Batman (even coating his batarangs with snake poison).^[6] Later, he is brought to the Batcave, to be tortured and interrogated by Dick Grayson (at one point with an axe) while Batman looks on. During this period, he reveals that the Joker ordered the hit.^[7] Afterwards, he is thrown into Gotham Bay with his hands tied behind his back.^[8]

In other media

Television

• Tony Zucco appeared in the two-part Batman: The Animated Series episode "Robin's Reckoning" voiced by Thomas F. Wilson. Zucco starts off as a young man eager to make a name for himself in the racketeering and protection money business. As in the comics, he threatens Haley's Circus' owner Mr. Haley for protection money and kills Dick Grayson's parents by sabotaging the trapeze ropes. Batman, who as Bruce Wayne adopts Dick, goes after Zucco with a vengeance. After a couple of brief run-ins with Batman, an increasingly paranoid Zucco escapes town, but returns nine years later. Batman tries to handle it on his own, not wanting Robin to get involved. when Robin learns that his parents' murderer is back in town, he goes after Zucco on his own, ultimately saving Batman's life. Robin is briefly tempted to kill Zucco, but ultimately spares him and leaves him to be arrested.

• Tony Zucco appears in The Batman episode "A Matter of Family" voiced by Mark Hamill. In this version, Tony Zucco has three brothers who act as his underlings and acts as Gotham's Mafia Don. They are all involved in circus acts. His brothers are a strong man (referred to in the credits as Bruiser), a lion tamer, and a juggler. Tony Zucco's skill is knife throwing. As a child, he was part of a knife-throwing duo with his father, with Tony throwing the knives while his father was bound to the giant target. One night, he missed, killing his father. When John Grayson appears in the tent near the Grayson's trailer and Zucco offers his "protection", John refuses. John Grayson is attacked by Zucco's brothers. Dick calls the police minutes after Zucco first appears in their big top tent. The call is intercepted by Batman, who quickly arrives and takes Zucco and his brothers down. The police arrive and take Zucco's "Lion Tamer" brother away while Zucco and the other two brothers escape. Swearing revenge on Batman and the Graysons, Zucco tampers with the railings of the Graysons' trapeze act, resulting in the deaths of Dick's parents. After the Graysons' murder, Batman corners every one of Zucco's remaining brothers until he learns their boss' whereabouts, which turns out to be Haley's Circus. When Zucco knocks Batman out at Haley's Circus, he straps the Dark Knight to a knife-throwing wheel. Dick arrives in his Robin costume just in time and battles Zucco long enough for Batman to free himself. At one point, Dick has the chance to enact revenge on Zucco for the murder of his parents when Zucco falls from the same platform as the Flying Graysons. Dick chooses to spare Zucco, who is then arrested by the police. Afterward, Dick Grayson officially becomes Batman's sidekick, Robin.

Miscellaneous

• Tony Zucco appears in issue 6 of the Young Justice comics. He was featured in a flashback when Robin recaps his history. Like the comics, Tony Zucco tried to offer protection money to Mr. Haley who denied him. On April 1, 2006 during a trapeze routine without a net, Tony Zucco's men sabotaged the trapeze rig which broke during the act killing Dick's parents, aunt, and cousin while his uncle survived but was paralyzed. When Dick Grayson became Robin for the first time, he helped Batman bring Tony Zucco to justice.

See also

• List of Batman Family enemies

References

1. ↑ Batman (vol. 1) #436-439 (August-September 1989)
2. ↑ Batman: Dark Victory #0-13 (November 1999 - December 2000)
3. ↑ Blackest Night: Batman #3 (December 2009)
4. ↑ Detective Comics (vol. 1) #876 (April 2011)
5. ↑ Detective Comics (vol. 1) #878 (August 2011)
6. ↑ All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #1 (September 2005)
7. ↑ All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #7 (November 2005)
8. ↑ All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder #8 (January 2008)