Maroni (Eric Roberts)

Character Analysis

Sal Maroni serves the same basic purpose that Mr. Lau does. He's part of the old order, picking up where his former boss Don Falcone left off when Falcone was carted off to the nuthouse halfway through Batman Begins. He's part of the old guard: non-flamboyant gangsters who used to run Gotham like kings and who now find themselves running for their lives ahead of Batman and DA Harvey Dent.

Maroni himself is venal, corrupt and awfully darn sure of himself. Even when Batman drops him off a roof and breaks his legs, he walks around with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. Sadly for him, his days are numbered, and ironically he has no one but himself to blame. He and the rest of his buddies ultimately hire the Joker to kill the Batman, and in the process, start the last stage of their inevitable replacement.

Fitting too that it's Two-Face who does him in. The guy who worked so hard to put Maroni behind bars as a good guy now has a remarkably easy time killing him as a bad guy. And if Maroni hadn't hired the Joker, Harvey never would have become Two-Face. Enjoy the irony as your car crashes, Sal: it's all on you.