| “ | 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, Sionis came to resent and hate Wayne. Fixated on the concept of masks, Sionis 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. Sionis is now a feared gang leader and one of the most powerful mob bosses in Gotham, with a burning hatred of the Batman. | „ |
| ~ Black Mask's bio in Batman: Arkham Asylum. |
| “ | First you fall, then Gotham. | „ |
| ~ Black Mask in a game over sequence, and his most famous line. |
Roman Sionis, better known as the Black Mask, is a crime lord in Gotham City and a major antagonist in the Batman: Arkham franchise.
He was voiced by Nolan North in Arkham City (who also voiced Penguin in the same series and Merasmus, Blutarch Mann and Redmond Mann in Team Fortress 2), and Brian Bloom in Arkham Origins and Arkham Knight.
Biography[]
Past[]
Born as the heir of the Sionis family, Roman inherited the fortune of his parents, after murdering them by burning down their mansion with them in it. When his company was saved from bankruptcy by Bruce Wayne, Sionis grew an immense hatred towards him out of envy. Developing a fixation for masks, Sionis carved a black one from his father's coffin and became the powerful crime lord known as Black Mask. At some point, he formed an enormous criminal organisation with all members wearing duplicates of his black mask; Sionis choosing to run his empire out of the penthouse in Lacey Towers.
Pre-Arkham Origins[]
On December 22nd, Sionis begins receiving terrified texts from his girlfriend Tiffany Ambrose about a character known as the Joker so he sends her to his safe-house in Lacey Towers. When he checks on her though, he gets no response Bso he begins to suspect that something is wrong and has one of his men disguised as himself enter the safe house as a diversion while he sneaks in the back to gain the upper hand on the Joker. When the decoy arrives through the front door, Joker is gleefully waiting in a chair and immediately shoots the man through the heart, instantly killing him, knowing that he is not his true target.
The real Black Mask then sneaks up behind Joker and attacks him, but the Joker proves to be an exceptionally competent fighter and overpowers and beats Black Mask, tying up his hands in the process. so he sends a lookalike decoy to surprise the intruder whilst he sneaks in through a balcony. However, the intruder (the Joker himself) kills the decoy and overpowers Black Mask; even making him shoot Tiffany before dragging him away. Using intimidation and murder, the Joker takes control over Black Mask's gang by slaughtering over half of them and adopting the facade of the Black Mask himself.
Batman: Arkham Origins[]
Under the guise of Black Mask, the Joker attacks Blackgate Prison to kill Commissioner Loeb and hires hiring eight assassin *(Bane, Deathstroke, Deadshot, Shiva, Killer Croc, Copperhead, Electrocutioner, and Firefly) to hunt down and kill the Batman on Christmas Eve by promising them $50 million of Sionis' money.
However, Batman later deduces that the Joker must have done it after solving the Lacey Towers' murder and confronts the Joker at the Gotham Merchants Bank where the villain reveals himself and that he has Sionis hostage. When Sionis insults Joker, Joker severely beats him and has his men drop Sionis into the back of his escape car. Due to being kept at gunpoint, Batman is helpless to save the bank manager or to prevent Joker from shooting him and escaping in an ambulance with Sionis. Joker then brings the captive Sionis to his own steel mill which the Clown Prince of Crime promptly takes over, and has Sionis chained up deep within the mill.
Black Mask as Joker's hostage.
After Batman tracks the Joker to the steel mill, he comes across Sionis and frees him; begining to interrogate Sionis on the Joker's whereabouts, by breaking several of the fallen crime lord's ribs. Sionis however refuses to speak as he wanted the pleasure of murdering the Joker himself. Just as the Dark Knight is about to malfunction Sionis' pacemaker as an incentive, Copperhead attacks him. Sionis then makes his escape from the mill but not before offering the assassin anything she wanted in return for killing the Bat and making him suffer. However, Copperhead considers him a "fallen king" as she knows about the Joker and therefore ignores his offer. Declaring that Batman and Copperhead are a 'couple of freaks' who deserve each other, Sionis takes the opportunity to escape.
Much later, after the Joker has been defeated and taken into custody, Black Mask takes back control of his criminal empire and almost immediately starts putting his highly toxic drugs back on the streets to be sold. Batman quickly puts a stop to Black Mask's resurgence to power, by destroying all of his drug stashes. After destroying the last drug stash, Sionis, along with a small group of his gang confront Batman in the Gotham Church. Despite being outnumbered, Batman manages to defeat both him and all of his men before knocking out Sionis and leaving him tied up for the GCPD. Although the GCPD don't pick him up for several hours due to the riot in Blackgate, Black Mask remains tied up for the rest of the night before being picked up and incarcerated in Blackgate.
Pre-Arkham Asylum[]
After Quincy Sharp renovates Arkham Asylum by using the Blackgate Riots as justification, Black Mask is transferred there and is not known to have escaped. Little is known about Black Mask's stay in Arkham except that he does not have any Interview Tapes nor does he seem to have been considered for Dr. Penelope Young's TITAN Program. However, she did seem to have treated him as his signature mask can be found in her office.
Arkham Asylum[]
Black Mask as seen in the Character Bios.
When the Joker and his gang take over Arkham Asylum, Black Mask escapes in the chaos alongside the Penguin and Catwoman so he is not seen on the night. His mask can be found in Dr. Young's office which solves the Riddler's riddle "How do you mask your feelings without losing control?"
Arkham City[]
During the Joker's takeover of Arkham Asylum, the Asylum was destroyed so it is shutdown and abandoned six months later in favour of a new prison named Arkham City. As a result, all of the criminals in Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison are transferred there which includes Black Mask. However, the crime lord is evidentally one of the last to be processed as he is seen at the Patient Transfer Facility when Bruce Wayne is incaerated for speaking out against Hugo Strange. He is seen holding several TYGER guards at bay with a chair, demanding to be led to Strange but he is then restrained by the TYGER guards with a taser. After falling to the ground, the guards continue beating him. A wanted poster of him can be seen on the part of the wall that he blasted and it is revealed that, using stolen explosives, he was able to escape Arkham City but later recaptured. In his Arkham City Story, it is revealed that (aside from Hush) he was the only inmate to escape Arkham City.
Despite being a crime lord, Black Mask does not become one of the prominent gangs and simply keeps his head down. He is later seen at Two Face's trial for the Joker and attacks Batman when he intervenes only to be knocked out during the scuffle. Due to being left untied, Black Mask escapes and is able to find somewhere safe to hide during Protocol Ten so he survives and the Joker's death allows him to take back power in Arkham City. Although he gains influence once more and even recruits Mister Hammer, Robin invades his hideout and knocks out the crime lord and his gang. When the GCPD storm and shut down Arkham City, Black Mask is arrested once again without incident. However, Hugo Strange's mass murder of prisoners during Protocol 10 violates their constitutional rights and the GCPD are forced to release all of the prisoners which includes Black Mask.
Batman: Arkham Knight[]
Despite being in Gotham on Halloween nine months later, Black Mask does not work with the Scarecrow to bring down the Batman nor does he or any of his thugs appear on the night.
Black Mask moments before his death.
Several months after the death of the Batman, Jason Todd, now known as the vigilante Red Hood, plans to take down Black Mask as well as to destroy his criminal empire. Opposed to Batman, Red Hood is more violent and ruthless and also kills his enemies and therefore decimates Black Mask's thugs. After defeating many of the henchmen, Red Hood interrogates the last one and is told that Black Mask keeps the real stuff at the docks. Heading there, Red Hood continues killing Black Mask's men. When interrogating one of them, he is told that Black Mask is at his office in Downtown, but that he expects Red Hood. After shooting the thug, Red Hood heads downtown to settle things with Sionis. There, he defeats the present henchmen, which causes Black Mask to enter the room with more henchmen. During the fight with Red Hood, Black Mask uses a gun as well as his fists, but is eventually defeated.
Outmatched, Black Mask pleads for his life, saying he will leave Gotham for good. However, Red Hood decides that Black Mask had his chance and instead pushes him through a window, causing him to fall to his death.
Personality[]
The Black Mask was a rightfully very paranoid and careful crime lord who always used decoys whenever he felt he was in real danger; being a brutally efficient man willing to kill and use corrupt police to his own end. However, he had a soft side as he hated the Joker for making him kill his girlfriend and showed cowardice after the Red Hood defeated him.
A decade after Joker upset the balance of the criminal underworld, Black Mask was known to be one of the best employers; he treated his men well, much like Penguin. However, unlike either, he has no taste for their vicious sadism; never killing his men without a just and very reasonable cause. (Joker killed at random for a laugh, while Penguin killed his men for failure of any caliber.)
Skills and Abilities[]
- Endurance: Despite being a regular, un-armoured man, Black Mask needed to be beaten down like a an armoured thug during Arkham Origins.
- Criminal Organisation: Black Mask was clearly very skilled at running a major criminal enterprise
- Skilled Fighter: Black Mask was a skilled fighter, putting up a good fight against the Joker and the Batman during Arkham Origins. However, as seen in Arkham City, he could not fend off the TYGER Guards.
Arsenal[]
- Fists: Even without any weapons, Black Mask was a brutal fights with just his bare hands.
- Shotgun: When he confronted Batman in the Church during Arkham Origins, Black Mask initially used a large black shotgun.
- Chair: At the start of Arkham City, Black Mask can be seen trying and failing to hold off TYGER Guards with a fold-up chair.
Victims[]
| Victims killed by Black Mask |
|---|
|
Relationships[]
Allies[]
- Tiffany Ambrose (girlfriend)
- GCPD (formerly)
- Howard Branden
- Gillian Loeb
- Blackgate staff (formerly)
- Firefly
- Riddler
- Deathstroke (formerly)
- Bane (formerly)
- Deadshot (formerly)
- Scarecrow (formerly)
- Penguin (formerly)
- Maroni family (formerly)
- Falcone family (formerly)
- His own henchmen
Enemies[]
- Batman
- Nightwing
- GCPD
- James Gordon
- Batgirl
- Robin
- Red Hood
- Aaron Cash
- Harvey Bullock
- Riddler
- Joker
- Harley Quinn
- Two-Face
- Mad Hatter
- Penguin
- Killer Croc
- Bane
- League of Assassins
- Deathstroke
- Mr. Freeze
- Victor Zsasz
- Deadshot
- Calendar Man
- Poison Ivy
- Bronze Tiger
- Catwoman
- Clayface
- Anarky
- Copperhead
- Lady Shiva
- Firefly
- Hugo Strange
- Quincy Sharp
- Blackgate staff
- Arkham Asylum staff
- Arkham City staff
Quotes[]
Arkham Origins[]
| “ | You sunova bitch! You think you can steal from me and get away with it? You're a dead man! DEAD! | „ |
| ~ Roman Sionis' first words after the Joker revealed that he had the real Black Mask hostage. |
| “ | Kill him and I'll pay you whatever you want. Make him suffer and I'll double it. | „ |
| ~ Black Mask to Copperhead in the Steel Mill. |
| “ | Couple a 'freaks. You two deserve each other. | „ |
| ~ Black Mask before escaping his Steel Mill. |
| “ | Sionis: I was hoping you'd show up. Saves me the trouble of having to hunt you down. Batman: You just don't know when to quit, Sionis. Sionis: Guess we've got that in common. Batman: One way or another, I'm bringing you in. Now, we can do this the easy way or the- Sionis: Yeah, yeah. Or the hard way. But I think you know my choice. |
„ |
| ~ Black Mask confronting Batman in the Church. |
| “ | With everything going on in Gotham tonight, you decide to waste your time with me? I'm touched. | „ |
| ~ Black Mask during the fight. |
| “ | You know what's so great about you, Batman? Even when I lose, I win. So go ahead - call the cops. They'll lock me up, sure. But my lawyer will have me out on bail before the sun's up. And you know what I'm gonna do when I get out? I'm going to dedicate every waking minute to tracking you down and taking you out. And the best part is-there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Because that justice system you love so much? It's a SCAM. And you? Well, you're the mark. Because you keep tossing us in-and we keep bouncing right. Back. Out. | „ |
| ~ Black Mask after being defeated. |
Arkham City[]
| “ | GET ME STRANGE! | „ |
| ~ Black Mask demanding that the TYGER Guards bring him to Hugo Strange. |
Arkham Knight[]
| “ | You don't need to do this. I'll give you money. Drugs! Guns! Weapons! Whatever you want. Please. I'll take a plane. Leave Gotham. Never show my face again. Anywhere you want! I'll go anywhere! | „ |
| ~ Black Mask's last words to Red Hood, before falling to his death. |
Game Over Lines[]
Arkham Origins[]
| “ | I was hoping you'd at least live long enough to see what I've got planned for this place... | „ |
| “ | With you out of the way, Gotham's mine for the taking. And sooner than I thought. | „ |
| “ | That's it?! All this build up and he falls over like he's made of sticks?! What an anti-climatic ending! | „ |
| “ | What?! The party's already over?! But I was just getting warmed up! | „ |
| “ | I didn't think it would be this easy... Oh well, live and learn. | „ |
| “ | Unkillable?... not quite! | „ |
| ~ To Deathstroke. |
| “ | Not your best day Deathstroke... Now hurry up and die! | „ |
Arkham City[]
| “ | No one goes up against the Black Mask and lives. | „ |
| “ | What? Did you think you could beat me? Me?! | „ |
| “ | First you fall, then Gotham. | „ |
Arkham Knight (Red Hood Story Pack)[]
| “ | Is this some kind of joke! Trying to run me outta Gotham! Get this schmuck outta here! | „ |
| “ | Bring me the hood. The rest... do whatcha want. Just don't make a mess. | „ |
| “ | Do me a favour and die already! I got a business to run. | „ |
Gallery[]
Images[]
Arkham City[]
.png "Black Mask (Arkham City).png (46 KB)")
Arkham Origins[]
.jpg "Black Mask (Arkham Origins).jpg (521 KB)")
Arkham Knight[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
- Black Mask started out a pretty bad boss to his men, where most side with the Joker after he promises better pay; with some even stating that he didn't pay them well or respect them. By Arkham City, a thug can be heard wishing to seek him out for employment, stating Sionis treated his men well; showing Roman learned to pay and reward his men to ensure loyalty.
- Ironically Oswald Cobblepot (Gotham) would similarly gain loyalty from Frankie Carbone (Gotham)'s men by increasing their low pay.
- This is by far the most sympathetic adaptation of Black Mask for three main reasons:
- In the comics and DC Extended Universe, he's a raging misogynist who gets off on abusing women and even disfigures his ex-fiancée's face in the former work. Here, he seemed to have genuinely loved his girlfriend Tiffany, mercy killing her so the Joker wouldn't burn her to death and even keeping a photo of her in his wallet to remember her by (which can be found in the Blackgate expansion game). Even Batman expresses a modicum of sympathy for him because of it.
- In the comics and The Batman, he tortures and kills his own henchmen for petty slights. Here, while more violent than in Under the Red Hood, the worst he does is kill a henchmen who got wounded by a warehouse explosion in the official trailer and bug goons during non-canonical predator missions. Some henchmen also remained undyingly loyal to him even after Joker took over his whole empire, almost a quarter of those who joined but then tried to leave Joker died, and others were simply too scared to do so.
- Overall, he's nowhere near as sadistic or brutal as is to be expected from the character. In the comics, he blows up a community center full of innocents, forces a woman to watch him torture her husband to death before force-feeding her his eyeballs and tortures the teenage Stephanie Brown until death. Black Mask does no such thing here.
- Black Mask is voiced by Nolan North in Arkham City, who also voiced the Penguin in the Arkhamverse series.
- In Arkham Origins, Black Mask was voiced by Brian Bloom. Bloom reprised the role in Arkham Knight.
- Brian Bloom had previously voiced Ultraman in Justice League: Crisis of Two Earths. Like that character, Brian Bloom's rendition of Black Mask gave him a slight Mafioso accent.
- In Arkham Origins, Black Mask was voiced by Brian Bloom. Bloom reprised the role in Arkham Knight.
- There is speculation that in the Red Hood storyline, the Black Mask who got killed wasn't actually Roman Sionis, but another body double.
- Black Mask has used body doubles in the past, as seen in Arkham Origins. In addition, in Origins Batman states that Roman has always been paranoid, and the second interrogated henchman confirmed that Black Mask knew Red Hood was after him.
- His mask differs from the one worn by Black Mask in Arkham City. As his City mask is supposed to be burnt into his face, a change of masks seems odd to say the least. Considering that Jason didn't see Black Mask at least during the events of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City or even before while being absent planning his revenge against Bruce, it's understandable why he could have not noticed this detail.
- Black Mask begs for mercy, which is very unlike Roman's character. For comparison, in Arkham Origins, he threatened the Joker despite being tied up and betrayed by his own (armed) henchmen.
- Black Mask's role in Arkham Origins, serving as Gotham City's most powerful crimelord with many city officials on his payroll until his powerbase is destablized by the arrival of Batman and supervillains, mirrors the role of Carmine Falcone in the comics.
External Links[]
- Black Mask on the DC Wiki
