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Sonia Zucco AKA Sonia Branch is a cunning Gotham City businesswoman and owner of GGM Bank. Sonia is the estranged daughter of gangster Tony Zucco, the man who killed Dick Grayson's parents. Sonia herself has served as both an ally and adversary to the Bat-Family, and morally-ambiguous love-interest to Nightwing.

History[]

New Earth[]

Sonia Zucco was the daughter of low-level mobster Tony "Fats" Zucco under Gotham crime-lord Sal "The Boss" Maroni. After Sal Maroni was murdered and Gotham's underworld taken over more by, "The Freaks", Zucco began working for Maroni's lover Sofia Gigante under whom he murdered the acrobatic Flying Graysons as a racketeering threat to extort Haly's Circus. Tony Zucco was later sent to Blackgate Prison for the murders where he was was gunned down by a rival gangster, leaving Sonia without her father.

Sonia left Gotham and changed her name to Sonia Branch before returning as leader of Gotham's GGM Bank. Sonia intended on separating herself from her father's legacy while having money laundering connections to super-criminal smuggler, "The Tiger Shark". Through unknown circumstances, possibly for blackmail, Tiger Shark left the corpse of a smuggled orca with Sonia's close friend's dead body inside within Sonia's bank lobby which attracted the attention of police, and Batman (now Dick Grayson). Dick recognized Sonia as Tony Zucco's daughter to which she apologized and explained she was separating herself from her father's legacy, to which Nightwing sympathized.

Sonia then lied to Batman about the most likely orchestrator behind the orca to be her criminal rival, Bixby "Roadrunner" Rhodes whom she denied an account to. Sonia did this to arrange for the Dynamic Duo to eliminate Roadrunner while ignoring her criminal connections with Tiger Shark. Batman did take out Roadrunner but also followed the trail to Tiger Shark who defeated capture while they freed his trafficked animals. When confronted, Sonia denied any involvement and gaslighted the Dynamic Duo for not having captured Tiger Shark.

Prime Earth[]

Sonia was born from mobster Tony Zucco's second marriage. At some point, her father murdered the Flying Graysons in-front of their son, Dick Grayson and abandoned Sonia to skip town under the alias, "Billy Lester". Sonia always lived in guilt and shame for her father's crimes, even leaving Gotham before returning under the name of, "Sonia Branch". As Sonia Branch, she ran Gotham's GGM Bank and believed her father to be dead.

Sonia's history with Batman and Nightwing appears to mimic her New Earth history. Sonia did however begin dating Dick Grayson who she gave a loan of money to restore Amusement Mile into a permanent branch of Haly's Circus. Their relationship went through strain when the now faceless Joker resurfaced in Gotham and kidnapped Dick to attend a twisted, "Dinner" in the Batcave as part of his scheme to destroy the Bat family and force Batman to grow, "Stronger" without them. While Joker's plan to murder Batman's sidekicks failed, it did successfully reveal Batman and Joker's perverse relationship to the rest of the Bat family and cause them to disassemble, causing emotional turmoil for Dick.

Sonia and Dick's relationship was further damaged when Dick Grayson travelled to Chicago and learned that Tony Zucco was alive, with a new wife and child. Nightwing saved Tony's life from the villainous, "Prankster" before Tony was arrested, alerted his wife left him with their child, and reclaimed his old, "Tony Zucco" moniker. Tony Zucco was moved to Blackgate Penitentiary where he was visited by Sonia whom he apologized to and confessed his paternal love for. After this, Sonia reminded Tony that he never apologized for the Graysons' murder and then left him to rot in jail.

Gallery[]

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