Roman Sionis (Earth 1)

**Roman Beauvais Sionis** was the wealthy owner of the Black Mask Club while operating as the frightening crime lord known as the **Black Mask**. He was one of Joker's biggest rivals in Gotham City.

## Roman Beauvais Sionis

### Affiliation

Janus Corporation (formerly)Black Mask ClubBlack Mask's criminal organization

## Appearances

### Appears in

CatwomanThe Gotham City SirensThe Birds of Prey

He became an enemy of Oracle, Cassandra Cain, and the Birds of Prey, who was caught in an explosion and his mask is seared to his face.

## Biography

### Early life

*"Family is an illusion! Do you know what my family gave me? Nothing! I know what everyone says, "here comes Roman Sionis, he was handed life on a silver spoon, gin and tonics at five, I'll have the duck!" Blah blah blah. Fake! But, look at me now."*
―Roman Sionis to Mr. Keo[src]
Not much is known about Roman's early life, except that he came from the wealthy Sionis family, whose name is plastered on "about half the schools and hospitals in Gotham." While Roman himself claimed that he wasn't born into privilege and had to work for everything he has, the fact that he was cut off by his family due to excessive spending and poor business sense says that Roman is likely not the most unbiased narrator of his own life. But Roman was defeated many times by The Batman.

### Meeting Victor, Black Canary, Barbara Gordon, and Harley

At least 15 years, he met up with Victor Zsasz and funded crime boss Stefano Galante's power-grab, which resulted in the murder of the entire Bertinelli line (sans Helena Bertinelli, who managed to escape). Since then, Roman has been building a criminal empire for himself in Gotham's East End, unifying crime families and keeping those under his sway out of jail.

At some point, he met Dinah Lance and gave her a job singing at his club, taking her off the streets and earning her (reluctant) loyalty. He calls her his "little bird," thanks to her alias Black Canary.

Black Mask eventually came to meet Barbara Gordon, Jim Gordon's daughter and also meet Harley Quinn, but while he came to deeply loathe her for being every bit as malevolent as he was and hence a worthy threat, he did not initially harm her significantly because he feared her lover, the Joker. Harley had done all sorts of things to get on his nerves, from petty to harmful, including: pronouncing espresso as "expresso," having a vagina (being a woman), voting for Bernie Sanders (implying he is right-wing), peeing in his Brita, calling him "Romy," sticking gum under his table, stealing his remote, calling him "Queef Richards," selling a family heirloom, spoiling movies, stealing his limelight, leaving a floater (not flushing the toilet), not laughing at his joke, forgetting to use a coaster, trashing his bathroom, leaving the toilet seat down, puking on his carpet, breaking a window, eating his lunch, crashing his Rolls-Royce, ripping a loud one (farting), causing a ruckus, graffitiing his car, and torching his paintings.

### War With Catwoman

Sionis was part of The Penguin and Rupert Thorne's business but learned that Catwoman is robbing him, so he kills her roommate, Holly Robinson. In rage Selina located Black Mask's warehouse and destroyed every warehouses and killed all of his men to lure Black Mask out of hiding. Black Mask called Selina to meet him to his club, The Sionis Jazz Club. Selina arrived at Sionis' club and went inside and meet with Roman Sionis in person. Selina demands Sionis of why he did his, Sionis told Selina that he is part of Cobblepot and Thorne' business and after she defeated every crime lord in Gotham and has a plan to took something from Selina, her roommate and friend, Holly Robinson. Sionis order his men to kill Selina but Catwoman and Ryan fought back and defeated Sionis and his men. Selina pointed her claws at Sionis' face and said, "I will take pay back on you Roman by destroying her operation... It's War!!!!!!!!" Selina and Ryan left the club with Roman angry there. Selina continues as Catwoman and her payback with Ryan by her side.

### Learning about the Bertenelli Diamond

While Harley Quinn was celebrating her newfound emancipation from the Joker, Roman was looking to bring more Gotham crime families into the fold. He proposed a merger with the Golden Lions but was turned down by their leader, Mr. Keo, who refused on the basis that the Lions are a family business, and have been for nearly a century. This infuriated Roman, who went off on a tirade about how his own family supposedly never did anything for him, and how he hadn't had the world handed to him "on a silver spoon" as most people believed. Though Mr. Keo remained unswayed, Roman asked him to sleep on it and meet him again in two days to revisit the matter.

Later that night, after Harley broke his driver's legs, he ordered Zsasz to find him a new one. He and Harley also shared a tense moment where Harley admitted she knows Roman understandably detests her, and thanked him for "firing" his now-useless driver on her behalf. It only served to deepen his disdain for her and fuel his later decision to have her rounded up and shipped back to him once he learned she was no longer under the Joker's protection.

In the early hours of the morning, he watched from his penthouse while Dinah Lance saved an inebriated Harley from being abducted by two men. After getting a good look at her fighting skills, he ordered Zsasz to go promote her from his singer to his driver.

When his deal with Mr. Keo fell through, he rounded up Keo, his wife, and their daughter, and expressed disappointment at his choice not to join him. Shushing his sobbing wife and daughter, he told Keo that he'd hoped they could be family and thought he'd given him a great pitch. He had Zsasz peel off his face and slit Mrs. Keo's throat, after which Zsasz asked him what they should do about the Keo family's daughter. While initially, Roman figured the first two bodies were enough to send a proper message, he changed his tune once he realized the daughter blew a snot bubble while thanking him for his mercy. Disgusted, he went back on his word and ordered Zsasz to peel her face off as well, tossing away his gloves before dancing out of the warehouse, where Dinah waited as his getaway driver.

The next morning, he shared breakfast with Zsasz, who told him that yet another gang had capitulated to them afterword of the Keo family's murder got around. He also shared the news of the Crossbow Killer's newest victims, Rossi and four other members of his crew. The news upset Roman, who had to be soothed with a shoulder massage from Zsasz until Dinah arrived for her morning assignment. Though Zsasz wanted to send her away because she was late, Roman refused and began to show off a vast array of his personal belongings, including a Chokwe mask from his time in Congo-Kinshasa, a pair of shrunken heads from the Shuar of Ecuador, a series of acupuncture models unburied from the mountains in an unknown location, and a large statue of himself.

Roman learns from Zsasz that Harley Quinn and the Joker broke up.

He also told Dinah to go pick him up the newly located Bertinelli diamond, urging her to bring Zsasz with her on the way. This would turn out to be a mistake, as Zsasz would later have the diamond pickpocketed from him by Cassandra Cain.

### Hiring Katana

Roman hires Katana, a member of The Suicide Squad to get Cassandra Cain from The GCPD Station but he instructed Zsasz to set a $500,000 bounty on Cassandra's head, making both her and Barbara into the two biggest targets in Gotham City. Dinah, who had been Renee's informant for some time, quickly called her from the bathroom of Roman's club to inform her that there was a price on Cain's head. Assassin after assassin went after the pair, only to be killed and countered at every turn.

### The Attack

After being informed that they'd escaped capture, Roman became violently angry, a mood exacerbated by the loud laughter of one of the nearby patrons of his club. Though it was simply an ill-timed reaction to a joke told by one of her friends, Zsasz told Roman that the woman, Erika, was indeed laughing at him. In response, Roman ordered her onto the table, where he forced her to dance for him. Calling her dress "fucking hideous," he ordered one of her friends to cut it off of her with a steak knife, delighting in her obvious distress. He then stopped Dinah from leaving the club, first asking her to reassure him that she would never betray him, then making her dance with him.

### Defeated by The Birds of Prey

Things came to a head as Barbara took Cain to The Boarders of Gotham. Black Canary was ordered to drive Zsasz there and in the process betrayed Black Mask by warning the detective Renee Montoya of what was coming. Rather than leave things simply to Zsasz, Black Mask assembled a small army, headed by himself, and upon their arrival, the battle began. Barbara Gordon convinced Renee Montoya, Katana, Dinah Lance, Cassandra Cain, and the Huntress, newly joined to their group, that they needed to work together if they were to have any chance of defeating the forces aligned against them.

In a fierce fight, they battled through the Black Mask's forces but found the Black Mask waiting for them, now in full costume. He and his minions managed to capture Cassandra Cain and a chase ensued. Things came ahead at the Founders Pier, wherein a final confrontation, Black Mask met his match. While Babs was fighting him, Cassandra Cain planted a grenade and Babs threw it at a tank and causes an explosion along with Sionis. Babs and Cain escape from the explosion.

### Revenge

Black Mask survived the explosion but his mask is seared to his face and decided to get revenge on the ones who did this to him.

## Relationships

### Allies

* Black Mask's criminal organization - subordinates
	+ Victor Zsasz † - enforcer, right-hand and best friend
	+ Carlo Rossi †
	+ Happy †
* Galante crime family
	+ Stefano Galante †
* Sionis' chauffeur † - former driver
* Sprang Bridge Soldiers
* Lords of the Avenues
* Gotham City Hunters
* Mercedes gang

* Oswald Cobblepot / Penguin - business partner

* Rupert Thorne - business partner

### Enemies

* Bertinelli crime family
* Joker's gang
	+ Joker - rival
* Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn
* Golden Lions
	+ Mr. Keo † - indirect victim
* Birds of Prey
	+ Barbara Gordon/Oracle
	+ Dinah Lance/Black Canary - former subordinate and driver turned enemy
	+ Helena Bertinelli/Huntress
	+ Renee Montoya
	+ Tatsu Yamashiro/Katana - formal bounty hunter turned enemy
* Cassandra Cain - Almost Killer
* Mrs. Keo † - indirect victim
* Miss Keo † - indirect victim
* Gotham City Police Department
	+ Patrick Erickson
	+ Tim Munroe
* Aguilar - personal healer
* Erika

* Selina Kyle/Catwoman - enemy

* Holly Robinson † - victim

* Ryan Wilder - enemy