Black Mask

Roman Sionis (ローマン・シオニス, Rōman Sionisu) was one of the first crime lords to seize complete control of Gotham City, a former business executive who originally hated Bruce Wayne rather than Batman, born into a wealthy family, but was nonetheless raised by abusive, selfish, and neglectful parents. As his parents cared more about their own image and social standing in society rather than the welfare of their own son, Roman grew to loath them and the 'friends' they made in Gotham City, especially Thomas and Martha Wayne and their son, Bruce, seeing them all as hypocrites wearing figurative masks to conceal their true feelings about each other to simply blend in with society.

Finally reaching his breaking point, Roman set fire to his family mansion, completely burning it to the ground and murdering his parents at the same time. Left with their massive fortune and his father's company, Janus Cosmetics, Roman embezzled his inheritance money and started numerous lucrative business ventures, which he eventually used as a front for illegal operations in conjunction with his deceased father's corporation. Carving a mask from the black wood of his father's coffin, Roman became known to the criminal underworld as Black Mask (ブラック・マスク, Burakku Masuku), a sadistic and vicious mass murderer and crime boss large sections and known of Gotham City's criminal underworld.

Using the mask as inspiration to form and build up a massive gang known as the "False Facers", Black Mask unleashed a crime wave throughout all of Gotham with his army for years on end and soon became the leading crime lord among the criminal underworld and one of the most powerful and influential individuals within the entire city as his businesses grew into a massive empire. Now in a position of wealth, power, and ultimate control, Black Mask seeks to bring vengeance to everyone who he has believed wronged him in the past to perfect his criminal lifestyle, particularly Bruce Wayne, his old childhood rival in his mind, and Batman (unaware that the two are one and the same), for interfering with his plans and rise to power.

However, over the years, Black Mask's power and control was diminished a great deal as other villains of the criminal underworld took over pieces of his fallen empire for their own designs, starting with a wrapped psychopath named, Joker.

During one of his earlier plans to regain his power, which were eventually foiled by Batman, a massive explosion and fire resulted in his mask being violently, or at least, extremely difficult to remove without sufficient force. Still intent to regain his lost power over the entire city, Black Mask, from within Arkham City, a massive prison built right in the heart of Gotham, takes advantage of the gang wars to build up his own forces and make plans to escape from the prison to resume his criminal activities in Gotham and beyond.

"No one goes up against Black Mask and lives. No one!"
 * —Black Mask

Appearance & Biography

 * Voice actor: Nolan North (English), Not Known (Japanese), Not Known (German), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Arabic), Not Known (Latin American Spanish)

Biography
Following the suspicious death of his multi-millionaire parents in a fire, Roman Sionis inherited their fortune and then went on to bankrupt their company. Saved by a buyout by Bruce Wayne, Roman came to resent and hate Wayne. Fixated on the concept of masks, Roman carved one from his father's black coffin and sought revenge; his ensuing battle with the Dark Knight caused his mask to be burnt into his skin, remaking him as the Black Mask. Roman is now a feared gang leader and one of the most powerful mob bosses in Gotham, with a burning hatred of the Batman.

Appearance

 * Hair Color: Brown
 * Eye Color: Brown
 * Height: 6ft. 1in.
 * Weight: 195lbs.

Attributes:

 * Obsessed with masks.
 * Harbors a hatred of Batman and Bruce Wayne.
 * Face resembles a black skull.
 * Feared and powerful mob boss.
 * Skilled marksman, known for his double handguns.

Friends/Allies

 * False Facers
 * Giovanni Luchese
 * Tattoo
 * Tupeng
 * Tiffany Ambrose
 * Riddler
 * Firefly
 * Mister Hammer
 * Peter Grogan
 * Arnold Flass
 * Howard Branden
 * Michael Wuertz

Rivals

 * Carmine Falcone
 * Penguin
 * Two-Face

Enemies

 * Thomas Wayne
 * Martha Wayne
 * Batman
 * Robin
 * Nightwing
 * Gotham City Police
 * Gillian B. Loeb
 * James Gordon
 * Joker

Abilities

 * Criminal Mastermind: He is arguably the greatest criminal strategist and organizer in all of Gotham, having taken complete control of the entire Gotham underworld on at least two occasions.
 * Torture Master: Perhaps his most defining skill is his mastery in both physical and psychological torture, which he often uses to extract information or to punish his enemies.
 * Master of Disguise: He appears to be a master of disguise and a highly gifted actor.
 * Hand to Hand Combatant: His fighting skills are at least on par with people such as Nightwing, The Red Hood, Robin, Catwoman, even Batman.
 * Marksman: He is an excellent marksman who is, 9/10 times, successful at hitting a target.

Strength level

 * Peak Physical Conditioning: His strength, speed, endurance, durability, reflexes, and agility are all in peak physical condition.

Past
Roman Sionis' childhood would be scarred with several incidents that left him in extreme pain, including being dropped on his head shortly after being born in the hospital. His parents are always more concerned on how it would affect their public image however, rather than their son. As they always leave their son behind to engage in social events to uphold their reputation, even if they despise those they are attending with, Roman develops an intense hatred for his parents and an aptitude towards the concept of masks, believing his parents were hypocrites wearing figurative masks to uphold their family image. Over the years, Roman would collect various masks that would make up a massive collection, which would serve him and his criminal activities well years later.

Among the socialites that the Roman's frequently engage with are the Waynes, with Roman being forced to become friends with Bruce by his parents. As Roman knows his parents true feelings about the Waynes, Roman grows to despise them all. Despite this, Roman is eventually able to complete his education and get a job at his father's massive company, Janus Cosmetics, where he meets a beautiful young woman named Circe, whom he eventually falls in love with. However, his parents forbid him to see her due to Circe being of the lower class compared to them; this would be the last straw for Roman. Roman then starts a massive fire within his family mansion with his parents inside to finally be rid of them once and for all.

After Roman sets fire to his family mansion, completely burning it to the ground and murdering his neglectful parents at the same time, the villain becomes rich in wealth, power lust, and tainted ambitions. With his parents out of the way, Roman took control of Janus Cosmetics and becomes engaged to Circe with Roman believing that he may finally have a chance at being happy. However, Roman is not the business man his father was and nearly bankrupts the company with several ill conceived and rushed products, leaving him no choice but to accept help from Bruce Wayne in exchange for giving up control of the company; this intensified Roman's hatred of Bruce Wayne even more. To make matters worse for Roman, Circe broke up with him in front of the entire company, destroying the last shreds of humanity that may have been left in Roman.

Roman decides to take his business activities into the criminal elements to capitalize on the Gotham's violent streets and criminal underworld. Still left with a massive fortune, Roman embezzles his inheritance money and starts numerous lucrative business ventures, which he eventually uses as a front for illegal operations in conjunction with his late father's corporation, which he manages to uphold control of with his newly formed, massive profits. Carving a mask from the black wood of his father's coffin, Roman becomes known to the criminal underworld as Black Mask, a sadistic and vicious mass murderer and crime boss.

Smuggling with the Law
Recruiting dozens of other thugs and murderers to form a group called "The False Facers", Black Mask would lead his gang into performing incredible and daring heists, using his family crypt as an initial base of operations to direct his affairs from. Black Mask and his organization would grip all of Gotham in a massive crime wave and murder countless individuals who have crossed him in the past, including Circe, who eventually commits suicide to avoid extensive torture done regularly to her by Roman, and several Wayne Enterprise employees.

Roman becomes extremely wealthy and powerful in a relatively short period of time, gaining the attention of the Dark Knight himself as the villain buys up and starts several more businesses. By the events of a particularly snowy winter during Batman's second year patrolling the streets of Gotham, Black Mask is by far the most powerful man and crime lord in the city, possessing immense wealth and resources and controls Gotham's criminal underworld with his massive gangs.

Using his massive wealth and ties to the criminal underworld to hire corrupt public officials, such as Commissioner Grogan, and countless bent cops, Black Mask also effectively and completely controls the Gotham City Police Department, with the exception of Captain James Gordon and a few others, allowing him to easily stay out of prison with any evidence against him mysteriously going missing and witnesses ending up dead. Additionally, judges, councilmen, and even guards at Blackgate Prison would end up on Roman's payroll, effectively making the villain the true law that controls the city with his criminal empire in a seat of supreme power.

To serve as a personal squadron of enforcers for Black Mask within the GCPD, Commissioner Loeb initiates a SWAT team made up of handpicked officers who would use stolen equipment and gear in their "assignments"; the worst of the worst with Howard Braden as their trigger happy leader. This team would serve Black Mask and Loeb most loyally of all by stealing weapons from evidence lockup and transferring them to Roman, helping the crime lord in selling drugs and expanding his profits, eliminating evidence and framing other individuals for his crimes, killing witnesses, and turning a blind eye to his criminal activities. Serving their own interests at the same time, Loeb and Braden would also use their connections to Black Mask to intimidate Gotham citizens into handing over protection money, use the homeless to do their dirty work or suffer beatings, and secure their own financial situations with bribes.

While most police officers who would not take Roman's bribes or orders are horrifically tortured and murdered, Black Mask would have other plans in mind for Captain James Gordon. While Gordon was previously attacked by his fellow coworkers, including his partner, Arnold Flass, under the orders of Grogan for not being a "team player", Black Mask believes that Gordon would be far more useful to their plans and cause if he was controlled instead as his respectable public image would help to preserve the reputation of a thoroughly corrupt police department. To this end, Grogan orders Harvey Bullock, one of the few honest officers, to become Gordon's partner to uncover information on the captain that could be used to blackmail and effectively control him for their own designs.

In the meantime, Gordon is given a task that would both keep him busy and out of Loeb and Braden's operations and keep him focused on a task that would benefit Black Mask and the corrupt police department as a whole; capturing Batman. To this end, Gordon is put in charge of a task force whose sole assignment is hunting down and capturing vigilantes, with Batman at the top of the list. This would spark conflict between Gordon and his daughter Barbara, who believes that Batman accomplishes much more than the broken legal system in Gotham.

With Black Mask using sadistic torture, fear, and punishment to exert his control over his followers, enemies, and the entire city alike, and the entire Gotham police force and infrastructure serving as little more than a secondary gang for his forces, few stepped up against Black Mask, despite most believing his involvement in the numerous crimes he has been alleged, but never convicted of, to have committed. Having wiped out most of the competition and begun consolidating his power, Black Mask issues forth a crime wave with his gang to capitalize on his reign over the city. Forming a truce with other criminals within Gotham City, including newcomer to the criminal underworld Oswald Cobblepot, also known as Penguin, who agreed to assist in his plans for his own purposes, Black Mask also seeks to completely wipe out the entire Falcone Crime Family, one of his last remaining, competing adversaries.

Wearing a Black Mask when leading his men, also similarly wearing masks to represent their personalities, as a disguise and part of his persona when heading up his criminal activities, the villain is able to publicly run his company as Roman Sionis and keep himself from being connected to any crime, while also using his businesses as a front for drug trafficking and other illegal operations. Roman's buissnesses primarily consist of Janus Cosmetics, which he often uses to conceal illegal chemicals and drugs to be sold onto the streets, and Sionis Industries, which has since fell into disrepair.

However, Roman still keeps control over the mill and uses it as a storage facility to receive shipments of illegal materials used in the construction of his drugs. Within the mill warehouses, there is a secret passageway that leads to a massive drug manufacturing facility, where Roman makes and ships his drugs and also keeps a private office and torture chamber, which he uses to brutalize, intimidate, and slaughter his enemies and cops who would not take his orders in order to further feed his sadistic appetites. Roman also keeps stashes of his ill gotten gains within the mill as a failsafe fortune for his illegal activities.

The remainder of his illegal profits would be stored within the Gotham Merchant's Bank, yet another business that Roman owns and uses as a secondary front to launder his ill-conceived fortune. Through his control of the Merchant's bank, Roman would also embezzle city funds, leaving many clients broke and homeless as Roman buys up numerous resources and miles worth of real estate throughout new and old Gotham to serve as secondary headquarters and safe houses. With Roman selling large quantities of drugs each week, most of Gotham's infrastructure on his payroll, and owning much of the real estate, Gotham becomes rifled with corruption, crime, and poverty, with many turning to a life of crime to support themselves.

Crossing Against Joker
While Black Mask has complete control over the city and seems to be untouchable by any law, authority, or individual, the crime lord's luck took a turn for the worse with the emergence of a psychopathic mass murderer and villain calling himself Joker, who began stealing chemicals from Roman's mill to manufacture and construct explosives as part of a much larger scheme. To this end, Roman has his men follow Joker to learn and find out what the villain is planning while also moving one of his girlfriends, Tiffany Ambrose, to his safe house in Lacey Towers when Joker spooks her, until he could track Joker down and neutralize him.

Unfortunately for Black Mask and his lover, Joker learns of Tiffany's location and begins to stalk her, which results in Tiffany texting Roman for help. Unfortunately, Joker is able to break into the safe house, violently knocks out Tiffany, and ties her to the chandler.

When Roman arrives at the safe house, he soon begins to suspect that something is wrong, he has one of his men disguised as himself enter the room while he sneaks in the back to surprise and gain the upper hand on Joker. The plan goes horribly wrong as the decoy arrives through the front door, Joker is gleefully waiting in a chair and immediately shoots the man through the face, instantly killing the decoy, knowing that he is not his true target. The real Black Mask then sneaks up behind Joker and attacks him, but Joker proves to be an exceptionally competent fighter and overpowers and violently beats Roman, despite the latter surprising the former, tying up his hands in the process.

To eliminate any evidence of him being at the safe house, Joker uses a cocktail incendiary device, then set ablaze and torches the room. As Tiffany struggles from the heat of the fire below her, Joker then cruelly and sadistically forces Roman to hold his gun and shoot his girlfriend through the heart, immediately killing her, as Joker drags the struggling Roman out with him. Abducting Roman, Joker tortures the crime lord over the course of several days to learn every detail about his life, which he then uses Roman's black mask and disguises himself as Black Mask, taking complete control of his gang, resources, and power for his own plans. Joker then plots to first destroy all of Black Mask's power and standing in the city and take his place and institute his own brand of anarchy and social disorder.

Joker, disguised as Roman Sionis (the real Black Mask), seemingly strives to kill him above anyone else, having placed a bounty of $50,000,000 on the Dark Knight himself and bringing in eight of the world's most deadly assassins, including Killer Croc, Electrocutioner, Deathstroke, Deadshot, Bane, Lady Shiva, Copperhead and Firefly to Gotham City for one night on Christmas Eve to kill Batman. This bounty and enlistment of assassins sets in motion a chain of events that leads Gotham down a road of death and destruction as Batman faces, for the first time in his career, the most iconic of Gotham's villains and criminals that would go on to become his immense rouges gallery and the most notorious inmates within Arkham Asylum.

However, as Batman investigates the crime scene in which Tiffany, as well as the impostor Black Mask serving as a decoy, were slaughtered by Joker, the hero learns that this new criminal has taken the real Black Mask hostage. Arriving at the Gotham Merchant's Bank, which Black Mask owns and uses to store much of his laundered money, Batman learns that Joker has been impersonating Black Mask for days, having seized complete control of his operations and gang, slaughtered the men who would not turn, and hired the assassins to take out Batman.

A Christmas Night Out for Revenge
After murdering dozens of the bank's employees, stealing billions of Roman's ill gotten profits, and beating the fallen crime lord into unconsciousness, Joker escapes in a stolen ambulance and blows up the remaining money and vault with explosives. Joker then consolidates his power by killing his opposition and taking control of Roman's Steel Mill, as well as his drug manufacturing plant and trafficking operations hidden within. Joker then has his men take Roman down to his old torture chamber, which was previously used to torture honest police officers and enemies of Black Mask to death, to brutalize and murder him.

However, Batman is able to rescue Roman, who manages to slip away when Copperhead arrives to kill Batman and collect the bounty promised to her by Joker. Despite his power being diminished a great deal, Black Mask rallies his remaining, loyal followers and sets up shop in the abandoned Gotham Cathedral, storing his remaining drugs, laundered money, weapons, and plans to control the rest of Gotham within the church. Sending out his men to continue selling his drugs, stored within canisters from his Cosmetics front operation, Roman plans his revenge on Joker and then intends to retake his position as top crime lord.

Unfortunately for the villain, Batman destroys his canisters of drugs and tracks him and his remaining men to the Cathedral, where he beats them all to a pulp and leaves them for the Gotham Police to arrest. While Roman ensures the hero that he will be out by morning thanks to the corrupt legal system on his payroll, Batman's exploits throughout the long night filtered out much of the corruption within Gotham's infrastructure as Gordon begins taking the leadership of Gotham's Police Department, with Grogan having been violently murdered by Joker earlier during the brutal night, and rids it of the bent cops once and for all. Harvey Bullock himself becomes a trusted partner and friend to Gordon and reluctant ally to Batman after gaining a deep respect for Gordon after becoming his partner.

In the end, Roman is finally arrested, prosecuted, and sent to Blackgate Prison by the renewed legal system as Joker takes his place as the criminal world's lead rouge with his men, resources, and money at his disposal. Roman was finally exposed for the criminal he was as his alter ego, Black Mask, was reduced to a fallen crime lord who lost nearly everything to Joker and Batman. His hatred of both individuals would be amplified further and ensure that he would return years later to continue in his criminal activities and strive to kill those who wronged him.