#Dick Brayson

[northoftheroad]

You ever notice that with each passing reboot or rewrite to the Dick Grayson origin, the character of Zucco gets demoted in his status in the Gotham criminal underground. As of now, he’s basically just a small pawn, barely above the common street thug under a much more prominent crime boss whereas in his all original appearance in Detective Comics #38 there was a reason he was called ‘Boss’ given the sheer amount of henchmen, rackets and even a large portion of the GCPD under his control. Heck for that latter part, that was one of the reasons Bruce took Dick in as a foster child in the first place, for his safety since going to the cops about foul play at the circus would’ve landed Dick in Zucco’s crosshairs

I kinda bit preferred the idea of Zucco being like the last great come boss of Gotham, rising to the top after the fall of Falcone and the last ‘normal’ villain Batman fought before the rise of the Rouges Gallery. Heck, if it were up to me in an ideal continuity and this is just me spitballing here so you may ignore this one bit: I’d have Zucco be the one that scars DA Harvey Dent’s face at his own trial, leading of course to Two Face since let’s face it, Falcone and Zucco aside, the Gotham mobsters are most interchangeable anyways.

Thoughts on all this?

I'd say I agree with your assessment of the situation, but I don't have much of an opinion, to be honest. When he was introduced, Zucco was indeed an important mob boss, and he was still considered a pretty important figure in Batman Year Three (1989) and the Robin Annual (1995).

Batman vol 1 # 438

I'm not well-versed in Robin-less Batman lore to be sure, but I guess we've got Frank Miller and Jeph Loeb to "thank" for Zucco becoming a small potato, compared to the Falcone family? (Falcone was introduced in Batman: Year One and used in Long Halloween.)

Since then, Gotham has also been infested with a Court of Owls, which surely is an upper-crust mob. Time will tell if that will impact the writing of the Gotham criminals in general.

I've never given Zucco or the mob families, or indeed the changing criminal makeup of Gotham, much thought. I think Golden age Batman and Robin fought their fair share of mobsters and "ordinary" criminals... But I haven't a clue if all the Falcones are gone or if they could pop up in a story next year...

Good luck with letting your imagination run wild trying to find a new story for him among the "modern" criminal underworld.

[fishfrommars]

braces dick grayson

BRA-

BR

BRAYSON

Getting your permit is very important to be a biker outlaw.