Roman Sionis

Though born into a wealth similar to that of Bruce Wayne, Roman Sionis's life was far from the same. While Bruce had loving and genuine parents, Roman's paid him little attention and were incredibly shallow. They tried to ingratiate themselves with even wealthier Gotham families, such as the Waynes, leaving Roman practically legally neglected as a result. Because of this, he grew to resent both the Waynes and his parents, and from this resentment, eventually killed his mother and father.

Stemming from his fascination with masks and the metaphorical masks people wear, Roman carved a skull mask out of his father's ebony coffin and became the Black Mask, forming the False Face Society with similarly disenchanted and sadistic wealthy youth of Gotham to commit crimes for fun.

By the time The Batman arrived in Gotham, The Black Mask had accrued enough credit and capitol as a mobster to become the seventh ruling member of the Gotham mobs. After Batman started doing serious damage to their organizations and cleaning up the corruption within the police force and political offices, the ruling seven had no choice but to follow the guidance of The Penguin, himself once among the ranks of Gotham's wealthy, and his plan for an assassin-free-for-all on Batman. By collaborating for larger collective pot, more killers would be attracted to the high-risk assignment and presumably overwhelm Batman. What they did not know, however, was that Penguin's true plan was that he was banking on Batman. Understanding his ingenuity, Cobblepot predicted that he would gather the evidence necessary to convict all of them-- except for Sionis, as he always war his mask when committing crimes and refused to acknowledge the name Roman Sionis. This way, Cobblepot, who held the bounty sum as an unbiased party, created enough captiol to rival Black Mask.

Sionis's betting and other poor financial decisions caused his family's company, Janus Cosmetics to circle bankruptcy, and a killing blow was dealt when a maverick new player, The Joker advertised dangerous combinations of household products Janus produced. Because of this, Sionis was forced to sell out to Wayne Enterprises. And infuriated Sionis would have the Joker captured and torture him, only for the Joker to be saved by Batman and later torture him. In the ensuing torture, Joker burned Sionis's current mask (the mask of his father's coffin having been destroyed) to his face.

Over the years, Black Mask also formed an intense hatred for Catwoman and would exploit as many avenues as possible to destroy her emotionally.

Early Life
Roman Sionis was neglected from birth. His mother had a drinking episode during her pregnancy, and when he was born, he was dropped on his head...

The neglect he experienced led him to develop an intense sadistic streak, starting by mutilating and killing animals, before eventually moving on to humans.

The first human Roman killed was a bottom barrel whore, Maria Kyle, whom he picked up in the East End. After having her perform oral sex on him, he slammed her head into the dash board, bound her, and tortured her by cutting off her digits one by one and then killed her by crushing her head with the wheel of his car.

Eventually, he decided to target the desires toward the people he hated most in the world; his parents. Taking them from their sleep, Roman tied them to chairs and tortured them with a power drill and a blow torch before ultimately burning their manor down. In order to ensure it would not fall back on him, he bribed an acquaintance on the police force to ensure it would be documented as a gas leak.

He then moved from Bristol into a penthouse in the Diamond District.

The Bounty

Joker

Catwoman

Red Hood