Arnold Stromwell

Arnold Stromwell was a mob boss created for "", and was the uncle of Tony Zucco in the series. He is voiced by Eugene Roche.

Fictional character history

Stromwell's appearances in the series are few and far between. In "Robin's Reckoning", Tony Zucco starts off as a young man eager to make a name for himself in the racketeering business, as well as with the mob. On the side he strong arms companies to pay him protection money. As in the comics, he threatens Haley's Circus, and kills Dick Grayson's parents. Zucco's brashness infuriates his uncle, mob boss Arnold Stromwell, who disowns him after Batman's visit to his house.

The other episode, "It's Never Too Late", is focused on Stromwell. His gang is portrayed as being in a gang war with Rupert Thorne's. In addition, Stromwell's son Joseph was missing, leading him to suspect that Thorne had kidnapped him to force Arnold Stromwell to retire from the Organisation and let Thorne take over.

Partly to get his son back, he decides on settling a truce to end the disrruptive war. However, Thorne set him up, leaving Stromwell to die in an exploding diner. Batman rescued Stromwell, and took him to the Sunrise Foundation's drug rehabilitation centre, and there was Joseph, pulling through from narcotic withdrawal symptoms, and Connie, Stromwell's separated wife and mother of their son. She informed Stromwell that it was his drug business that harmed Joseph. Having seen the effects of his doings, he initially decided to hand over to Batman information about the Organisation.

At the train yards, Stromwell changed his mind and decided to rub out Batman. The attempt was interrupted by Thorne and his henchmen, who found out that Stromwell was still alive. Stromwell escaped, while Batman took out the mobsters one by one.

Stromwell ended up at a set of tracks where he experienced a flashback from his childhood that had haunted him all the time. He saw himself and his younger brother Michael, and that Michael had saved him from an on-coming train, losing his right leg in the process.

Michael, now a Catholic Priest, was there to try to redeem Arnold at the behest of Batman. After a brief talk, Arnold Stromwell finally came to his senses, and decided to do the right thing. Just as Thorne was being knocked out by Batman, the police arrived. Arnold told Commissioner Gordon he had a statement to make, presumably to expose the mob organisation and shut it down for good.