Black Mask's History
Early Life And Mob Leader
"This city has a problem. Some freak who thinks he's a hero. Fortunately, there isn't a problem in the world that can't be solved with a little bit of money."
—Black Mask
Sionis inherited his parents' fortune after a mysterious fire that claimed their lives (which he may have caused, possibly an early manifestation of his sadistic impulses). In addition to their cosmetics company, Sionis expanded into the construction business, purchased a Steel Mill, built theme park attractions, and purchased a restaurant as well. Unfortunately, Sionis Steel was forced to back out of the theme park business due to the resultant attractions breaking down and killing or maiming customers. Though it's just as likely that Black Mask was using the Steel Mill as a front to manufacture drugs during its legitimate days, control of the Gotham drug trade was the source of most of his money, which allowed him to dabble in other businesses, most likely also fronts, as well as bribe city officials. The greatest of these assets was undoubtedly ownership of the Gotham Merchant's Bank.
With the anonymity of Sionis' trademark mask allowed him to be the face of both his business and his criminal empires, Black Mask became a rising star in the Gotham underworld alongside arms dealing rival Oswald Cobblepot, a.k.a. the Penguin, and was backed up by an army of similarly masked mobsters. Sionis enjoyed so much wealth, that he was able to afford a private suite in the prestigious Lacey Towers, which he preferred to use as a safe house in times of crisis, and indulged several relationships with several women, particularly Tiffany Ambrose, a convicted drug trafficker who may have been the only person that he ever truly loved. Sionis' power similarly increased to the point where he had direct influence over corrupt GCPD officials such as Commisoner Gillian B. Loeb and SWAT team leader, Howard Branden. Sionis was even the one who suggested to a frustrated Loeb to use the stubbornly incorruptible Captain James Gordon as good publicity for the rest of the department. Whenever there was the possibility that he could be linked to his alleged crimes and his minions could not bribe or silence witnesses, Sionis had them kidnapped and disposed of. This most likely contributed to Sionis' developing appetite for torture, as torture equipment could be found within his own office at the Steel Mill. Such was Black Mask's power, that he was even able to challenge The Falcone Crime Family, Gotham City's most powerful crime family. A man pretending to be Sionis took particular delight in intimidating Alberto Falcone, the family's youngest and most insecure member, after he witnessed him drunkenly boasting about his supposed power in public at a restaurant. That came back to bite Sionis though as he was threatened over the phone by a "higher power", who was secretly Alberto in the throws of a schizophrenic episode.
In spite of all that, Black Mask was not invincible. Sionis was accused with multiple crimes despite managing to avoid conviction and large numbers of his men were dissatisfied with what he paid them and how he treated them. Sionis' legitimate businesses were not always successful, and Batman's presence also interfered with his criminal enterprises as much as any of his rivals'. Despite his bravado, Sionis was paranoid to the point of hiring a body double, not an entirely unreasonable outlook in his line of business but, coupled with his temper and sadism, was possibly also the result of instability. Sionis' physical health didn't air much better and he was forced to have a pace maker installed for Prolonged Q-T Syndrome. He also harbored an obsessive hatred of Bruce Wayne for some reason, though Dr. Penelope Young later speculated in her notes that Black Mask may have fabricated reasons for that as a result of his instability, but that was simply speculation.
When surveillance photos showed a pale skinned man called "the Joker" stealing chemicals from Sionis's various businesses, which could be used in the manufacture of explosives, Black Mask had the so-called-Joker followed to find out what he was up to. Black Mask was unaware that the Joker wasn't just after his chemicals and was turning members of his own mob against him to take over his empire. As the Christmas Season wore on, Joker raised the stakes by stalking Tiffany. That spooked Tiffany so much, that Roman placed her in his safe house at Lacey Towers. Unfortunately, for Black Mask and his lover, the Joker was waiting when Tiffany returned from grocery shopping. Tiffany's last act before Joker violently smashed her head into the kitchen counter and tied her to the living room chandelier was to message Roman about the identity of her stalker, whom he dismissed as "No one important" and begged him to come over.
Ever paranoid, Black Mask had his body double enter the safe house as a diversion while he snuck in via the adjacent balcony. When the decoy arrived through the front door, the Joker, who casually waited at a table, immediately shot him through the heart. The real Black Mask rushed from behind and tackled the Joker straight through his props, but the Joker managed to rally, overpowered Black Mask, and tied up his hands. The Joker removed any evidence of the crime (or so he thought) with a Molotov Cocktail and jammed a gun into Sionis's hands, then forced him to pull the trigger and shoot Tiffany dead before he dragged him from the room.
The only thing that kept Sionis alive was the Gotham Merchant's Bank. The Joker needed him to access the bio-metric security that was installed in the vault. In the meantime, Joker disguised himself as Black Mask and began to take over his empire in earnest. Locked up in his own Steel Mill's torture room in his office, Sionis could only watch as the Joker turned Gotham upside down, ignored what few rules kept the underworld from erupting in all out war, and targeted honest and crooked institutions alike. The Joker's most brazen acts were hiring eight of the world's deadliest assassins that money could buy to kill Batman and openly attack Blackgate Prison, which released multiple inmates and killed Commissioner Loeb.
Arkham Origins Incident
"This time tomorrow, Gotham's gonna be mine."
—Black Mask
Black mask
Black Mask Takes over Backgate
During Christmas Eve Night, Batman thought that Sionis had put up the fifty million dollar bounty for his head. After he solved the Lacey Tower's case by hacking into the National Criminal Database, Batman made his way to the Gotham Merchant's Bank to track down the Joker who had taken Sionis hostage. In the bank vault, Batman encountered the Joker, who had disguised himself as Black Mask and Sionis. Sionis became infuriated at the Joker for stealing from him and for killing his girlfriend. Sionis threatened to kill him only for the Joker to beat and kick him into unconsciousness. Joker then revealed himself, while Batman quickly realized that he was the one who really put the bounty on his head. Joker then told Batman that he had more planned for him, took Sionis to the Steel Mill, and blew up part of the bank up in the process in the hopes of killing Batman. With this, Batman was forced to take down each of the assassins, hunt down the Joker, and save Black Mask. After he eventually rescued Black Mask from his former gang, Batman questioned him on the Joker's whereabouts. Sionis refused to divulge any information because he planned on murdering the Joker himself for stealing his money, his operations, and for killing his girlfriend. Batman started torturing Sionis and was almost able to control his pacemaker if he wasn't going to start talking. Before Batman could question him any further, Copperhead attacked, and while Batman was distracted, Sionis escaped into the night.
Later after he escaped the clutches of Batman and the Joker, Black Mask quickly moved to take back control of his empire. It was implied that Black Mask personally tortured and killed several of his former henchmen for betraying him to the Joker. This effectively scared many of Black Mask's men back into working under him once again. Black Mask then began by putting his drugs back out onto the streets of Gotham. Batman, however, was able to destroy almost all of his stashes before they could go on the market. Black Mask was furious at the Dark Knight, and set a trap for him at the Church, and used his last container of drugs as bait. After Batman destroyed the container, Black Mask appeared, flanked by several of his men. Black Mask then stated that he planned on making it his personal mission to capture and torture Batman to death for his meddling in his business. A large brawl then ensued with Batman besting all of Sionis' men before he personally beat the crime lord into submission. Batman then left a subdued Black Mask to be taken into custody by the GCPD.
Cold Cold Heart Incident
After his fight with Batman at the Church, Black Mask was sent to Blackgate.
Arkham Origins Blackgate Incident
After the events of Arkham Origins, Black Mask was finally arrested and placed within Blackgate Prison along with the other criminals within Batman's extensive Rouge's Gallery. During his incarceration at Blackgate, Roman kept a photo of Tiffany with him at all times, which implied that, despite his overall persona as a sadistic and mass murdering crime lord with several female admirers, Black Mask truly cared for and loved his former girlfriend. With his hatred of Joker only intensifying every day, Black Mask had his men within the prison watch the Joker and made notes of all his movements in preparation for his planned revenge.
After he stole various dental equipment from the prison's medical ward, Black Mask planned to slowly torture and murder the Joker in retribution for the actions against him and his criminal empire and planned to wipe out the rest of his opposition. Three and half months later, a massive explosion within the prison commenced a riot that allowed 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. Using a homemade security override system and a crowbar, as well as cutting several power cords that controlled the security systems, Black Mask was able to access several weapon caches, claim the artillery for his gang, made his way to the prison's power plants, wiped out all resistance, planned on using the prison's power to flush the Joker out, and use as his trump card and ultimate weapon against the rest of the prison population.
After he believed the carnage to be much more complex than just a simple prison riot and takeover, Batman arrived at Blackgate to investigate the situation further, which allowed Black Mask a chance of ultimate revenge against his hated enemy. After he took over a section of the prison, Black Mask attempted to overload the prison generators to wipe out everyone in the prison, take out all his rivals in the process, and leave himself the sole remaining criminal kingpin. After he forced a technician to overpower the generators, Roman shot the man dead after he completed the deed and ventured further into the Industrial District with several dozen of his men. After he targeted a lone security guard, who made one final phone call to his wife to say goodbye, Black Mask murdered the man and cut off his thumb in order to use his fingerprint to activate the main electric controls to reroute even more power.
However, Batman was able to foil his plans once again, stabilized the generators, defeated Black Mask and his men, and left them to be arrested and imprisoned once again. Black Mask, however, had a fall-back plan, where he had Catwoman rig the prison with various explosives (that revelation depended on which kingpin Batman defeated last). Catwoman didn't actually care about ensuring that the bombs went off, however, as she only needed a distraction to ensure that Bane was smuggled out. However, before Black Mask could be taken into custody by the police, he regained consciousness and took a technician, who was fixing the generators (who also commented that Black Mask's earlier actions had messed up the heating and cooling systems, and certainly weakened them due to the quick succession of expanding and contracting pipes), hostage.
Black Mask demanded that the police officers give him access to the Joker, who was still hungry for revenge against the villain for everything that he took away from him. When the officers refused, Black Mask threw the technician at them as a diversion and began shooting, which forced the police to fire back, killed the technician, and critically damaged the generator right next to him. As a result, the generator exploded and the resulting fire consumed Black Mask, who screamed uncontrollably, but was nonetheless able to escape into the night, with the guards also speculating that wherever he went to, the Joker had better watch his back. Eventually, Black Mask became a victim of an accident that resulted in his mask being grafted onto his face to the extent that it was unable to be removed short of sufficient blunt force.
Between Arkham Origins Blackgate and Arkham Asylum Incident
At some point after Arkham Origins Blackgate, Black Mask was eventually recaptured and was presumably transferred to Arkham Asylum.
Road to Arkham Incident
Oracle told Batman that Black Mask had retreated to Bludhaven.
Arkham Asylum Incident
Black Mask didn't appear in Arkham Asylum, however, a replica of the wooden mask worn by the villain was mounted on the wall in Dr. Young's Office at the Arkham Mansion. In the Medical Facility there's a newspaper that says he was in court, meaning he was going to be sent to the Facility at that time.
Escape From Arkham City
Black Mask was the only inmate who was confirmed to have ever escaped from Arkham City.
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Black Mask's Arkham City Wanted Poster.
Using explosives that were stolen from the Penguin, Sionis waited until the TYGER Guard shift change, blasted his way through the containment wall, and went on the run in Gotham City. Black Mask then attempted to leave the city, but not before he decided to deal one last blow to Hugo Strange by attacking TYGER'S weapon storage facilities with some help from his own gang and Firefly. Furious, Strange ordered his TYGER operatives onto the streets, to focus all their attention on finding Black Mask, who was finally recaptured after a violent siege at the Meatpacking Plant that he owned which involved Batman, Robin, and Nightwing.
Arkham City Incident
"No one arrests Black Mask! No one!"
—Black Mask to the TYGER Guards at the Arkham City Processing Center
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Black Mask attempting to fend off the TYGER Guards with a chair in the Arkham City Processing Center
After he returned, Black Mask resisted on being sent back into Arkham City again. Black Mask tried to protect himself from the TYGER Guards with a chair in the Arkham City Processing Center, but he was easily overwhelmed by them.
Black Mask still had some loyal minions in the prison, as one inmate decided to go look for him because Sionis rewarded his men well. Said inmate would even put in a good word for his friends, to be hired as additional muscle.
That same night, Two-Face conducted his own version of a trial at the Solomon Wayne Courthouse, with Joker as the defendant. Black Mask showed up as both a witness and juror, testifying to how he lost the Sionis Steel Mill to Joker, who had stolen it from under him. Black Mask became overly passionate about his accusations, forcing Two-Face to order him to sit down. When Batman interrupted the proceedings to stop Joker's execution, Black Mask was one of many who attempted to kill the Batman. Batman eventually knocked him down, allowing both him and the Joker to escape.
After Arkham City Incident
After the Joker's death, Robin went to find Sionis, as he became a new gang leader in Arkham City. He went to Black Mask's hideout, an old Sionis Meat Packing facility, where he found out that some of Penguin's thugs joined him, and that the Riddler was also helping him. Lastly, Robin went onto the Freight Train and beat through some of the Joker's thugs, that had also joined Black Mask. After getting through three cars, Robin came to the end to find a few thugs, Mr. Hammer, and Black Mask blocking the control box. After he beat the thugs and Mr. Hammer, Robin left Black Mask for last, apprehended him, destroyed the control box that was moving the freight train, and sent him, the thugs, and Mr. Hammer back into Arkham City. It could be assumed that Black Mask was taken to temporary holding cells when the GCPD invaded the mega facility and shut it down.
Before Arkham Knight Incident
Like many of the inmates, Sionis was released with a compensation package. He likely returned to being one of the crime bosses in the underworld, taking the place of the Falcone and Maroni crime families as the former was now in Bludhaven and the latter was broken up.
Arkham Knight Incident
"One black mask belong to... Black Mask AKA Roman Sionis. Roman was an old school gangster until the night of the Blackgate Riots - the night Joker showed up. Roman was never the same."
—Aaron Cash's audio file
At the GCPD Lockup, Black Mask's wooden mask appeared in his display case in the Evidence Room.
