Peyton, the daughter of Sean Riley, the head of Gotham's most prosperous Irish gang was set to be married to Matthew Atkins and begin a new life. This was until her father decided on an arranged marriage between Peyton and Johnny Sabatino, son and heir apparent to Gotham's first family of crime. Peyton's father had Atkins beaten and taken out of the picture by his goons in order to grease the wheels on the union between two of Gotham's most powerful mafias.

As the Sabatinos began to prosper (mostly as a result of a deal made with the original Ventriloquist and Scarface) Johnny became less willing to become head of the Riley family. Sabatino, never one to believe in divorce, decided to settle things the easy way by killing Sean Riley and taking Peyton to a run-down apartment and shooting her in the face.

Unbeknownst to Johnny, Peyton wouldn't be the only one to be shot in the face in that apartment that night. She would however be the only one to survive. Later on, Peyton would be present for the execution of the first Ventriloquist, Arnold Wesker, in the other room of the run down apartment. Afterwards, Peyton (suffering from a gunshot wound to the face and potentially delusional) stumbles upon the smashed remains of the Scarface puppet and absconds with him into the night.

After several plastic surgeries and one glass eye later, Peyton has assumed the role of Ventriloquist and is set to exact revenge on her would be murderer, Johnny Sabatino. She leaves with Johnny and Scarface promises to phone in a ransom request for Bruce when she returns. With the criminals out of the room, Zatanna appears in the form of a dove and frees Bruce.

Batman and Zatanna meet up with Scarface and Peyton on Johnny's yacht (a gift from the late Sean Riley) in the Gotham Harbor. The caped crusader disarms the goons and frees Johnny. Before he can take down Scarface, Zatanna is attacked and Bruce is forced to save her. Using this as a distraction, Johnny sneaks up on Peyton and threatens to kill her. Scarface urges Peyton to flee and she does, diving over the side of the boat and taking Johnny with her.

Unable to locate Peyton's body, Batman and Zatanna return to the Batcave with the Scarface puppet. Zatanna tells Bruce that Peyton's almost delusional belief in and need for Scarface resulted in the evil puppet effigy being brought back to life. Bruce retires the puppet to his trophy room and he and Zatanna decide to part ways as friends only.