Arkham Asylum: Patient Files

Black Mask

FULL NAME
Roman Sionis

OCCUPATION
Crime Lord

BASE OF OPERATIONS
Gotham City

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

HAIR
Black

EYES
Brown

HEIGHT
6'1" (1,85 m)

WEIGHT
195 lbs (89kg)

Following the suspicious deaths of his multi-millionaire parents in a fire, Roman Sionis inherited their fortune and then went on to bankrupt their company. Saved by a buy out from Bruce Wayne, Sionis came to resent and hate his rescuer. Fixated on the concept of masks, Sionis carved one from his father's black coffin and sought revenge, becoming the Black Mask. Sionis was a feared gang leader and one of the most powerful mob bosses in Gotham City, with a burning hatred of Batman.

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. 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.