Black Mask (Arkhamverse)

No one goes up against the Black Mask and lives.

One of the first crime lords to seize complete control of Gotham City, Roman Sionis was 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, Sionis 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, Sionis embezzled his inheritance money and started numerous lucrative business ventures, which he eventually used as a front for illegal operations. He soon became a leading crime lord among the criminal underworld and one of the most powerful and influential individuals within all of Gotham as his buisnesses grew into a massive empire.

Carving a mask from the black wood of his father's coffin, Sionis became known to the criminal underworld as Black Mask, a sadistic and vicious mass murderer and crime boss, using the mask as inspiration to create and recruit a massive gang known as the False Facers. 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, 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.

Batman: Arkham Origins
''This city has a problem; some freak who thinks he's a hero. Luckily, there ain't a problem in the world that can't be solved with a little bit of money. ''

Black Mask is set to appear in Batman: Arkham Origins as the main villain and antagonist, 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 Bane, Deathstroke, Deadshot, Copperhead, and Firefly to Gotham City for one night on a particularly snowy 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.

At this point in the Arkham Continuity, 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. With corrupt public officials, such as Commissioner Loeb, and countless bent cops on his payroll, 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. Using sadistic torture, fear, and punishment to exert his control over his followers, enemies, and the entire city alike, 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 on Christmas Eve, while his contracted assassins attempt to put an end to the one man capable of ruining his plans and hold over the city once and for all. Forming an alliance with other criminals within Gotham City, including newcomer to the criminal underworld Oswald Cobblepot, also known as The Penguin, Black Mask also seeks to completely wipe out the Falcone Crime Family, one of his last remaining, competing adversaries.

Additionally, it appears that Black Mask's actual mask is not yet attached to his face, but rather a disguise he wears as part of his persona when heading up his criminal activities. This allows the villain 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.

It is unknown what Black Mask's true motivation is for suddenly targeting Batman, aside from keeping the hero from interfering with his rise to power, but it has been hinted to be on a more deeper level and serves as one of the story's primary mysteries that will become more clear over the course of the game.

Batman: Arkham Origins: Blackgate
After the events of Arkham Origins, Black Mask is finally arrested and placed within Blackgate Penitentiary along with other criminals within Batman's extensive rouges gallery. However, three months later, a massive explosion within the prison commences a riot that allows Black Mask, The Joker, and the Penguin to seize complete control of the facility and carve up a portion of it for themselves and advance their own, individual agendas. Believing the carnage to be much more complex than just a simple prison riot and takeover, Batman arrives at the penitentiary to investigate the situation further, allowing Black Mask a chance of ultimate revenge against his hated enemy.

Road to Arkham
According to Oracle in the Road to Arkham prequel oneshot, Black Mask was involved in a gang war and retreated to Bludhaven, home of Nightwing.

Batman: Arkham Asylum
While Black Mask does not appear in Batman: Arkham Asylum, his original wooden mask is mounted on the wall of Dr. Young’s office in the old Arkham Mansion. A newspaper clipping about Roman Sionis before he became Black Mask also appears on a bathroom cabinet in the Patient Observation room of Arkham Asylum's Medical Facility. Black Mask is referenced in the game in many of the Penitentiary cells, for example, in the cells is a drawing about a little boy and a house on fire, and then the devil rises up and takes the remains, and the boy is happy.

After Arkham
Black Mask was one of the final criminals to be incarcerated to the prison, attempting to stay on the run and leave Gotham until the flames died down. Unfortunately, his family's steel mill was seized by Joker's forces, much to Roman's anger, and was later driven out of his own land by Quinn and her hyenas. Black Mask also briefly appeared as a juror member in Two-Face's trial against Joker, where, in his anger for stealing his land, voted guilty.

Later, Penguin's crew forced him to blow the steel mill sky-high to kill the clown prince, but instead decided to use the explosives given to him by Penguin to blow a hole in the perimeter wall and escape. While operating outside of the prison, Sionis reunited his old gang, including Firefly as his right-hand man, and plotted a raid on all of TYGER's military weapons and to hop a train out of the city as he originally planned. After Lynns disappeared, Roman and his crew were apprehended by Robin and Nightwing and escorted back to Arkham City, now rigged with sentry guns to kill anyone who approached the wall.

Batman: Arkham City


As Bruce Wayne was being admitted to Arkham City, Black Mask was seen as one of the criminals being transferred into the cell block, having finally been recaptured by Tyger Forces. Sionis was busy fending off the TYGER forces with a chair; however, he was eventually detained. Using this to his advantage, the Joker was able to capture Sionis Industries and it was quickly modified into Joker's Funland, Joker's base of operations in Arkham City.

With the growing violence in Arkham City, as the three primary gangs (Joker's, Penguin's and Two-Face's gangs) fighting for control over the city, Black Mask secretly allied himself with the Riddler and slowly built up his forces for his plans to retake Arkham City in the confusion, although he was eventually stopped by Robin. Because of his earlier detainment, parts of his Skull mask were broken off, revealing brown hair underneath.

Challenge Maps
As the Dark Knight was preoccupied with his investigation into Protocol 10, Robin infiltrated Arkham City to investigate Black Mask's activities. After some work, Robin was able to determine the location of Black Mask's hideout and set out to take down Sionis. Robin fought against Black Mask's forces giving him time to escape from Robin aboard a freight train. While in pursuit of him, Robin was forced to fight his way through stray thugs belonging to the various gangs and Mister Hammer of the Abramovici Twins.

In time Robin was able to locate Black Mask and took him into custody.

Psychological Profile (by Dr. Young)
Black Mask

Real Name: Roman Sionis

CANDIDATE FOR ADVANCE RESEARCH?

Psychological Profile: A mild psychopath, Sionis has narcissistic tendencies but the main malady he suffers from is resentful obsession with, of all people, billionaire Bruce Wayne. Sionis is fixated on Wayne possibly due to childhood traumas that he has projected onto the idle playboy. It is difficult to say whether the two actually knew each other as children, or if this is Sionis's invention. However, it is Sionis's criminal activities, and the role playing that resulted in the black skull-like mask accidentally burnt into his skin, that resulted in his committal to Arkham.

Additional Notes

I'd question whether Sionis is actually insane, if not for the choice of his obsession; I can't imagine being interested in (much less stalking) such a pointless personage as Bruce Wayne.

Trivia

 * When Bruce Wayne sees Black Mask when entering Arkham City, it is likely that this is Black Mask's second time entering Arkham City, as Black Mask was the first and only inmate to ever escape, as revealed by a riddle that unlocks an Arkham City Story. Therefore, the Robin DLC is most likely a second escape attempt.
 * The Penguin may have Sionis's first mask or a replica in his Iceberg Lounge, indicating that Black Mask may at one point have been his main rival.
 * Black Mask's forces are oddly absent during the events of Batman: Arkham City, likely because Sionis was re-entering Arkham City during the game and had no thugs under his control.
 * The small part of his mask that is broken shows an undamaged forehead and some hair, suggesting that either his face had healed at some point or his mask is actually removable.

Game Over Lines
thumb|300px|right|Black Mask's game over screens.
 * "First you fall, then Gotham."
 * "What? Did you think you could beat me? Me?!"
 * "No one goes up against the Black Mask and lives."