Roman Sionis (New Earth-Forty Three)

Origin X
Roman Sionis was born to cosmetic company owner, Charles Sionis and his wife. Moments after his birth he would be dropped on his head by the doctor. His parents would refuse to sue however to avoid having to deal with a lawsuit that could effect their reputation or their companies, and opted to just cover up the incident.

Roman would grow up in a home, where his parents cared more about their parties and their rich friends then they did of him. He would be forced to wear masks during his parents many parties, which he despised. His view of masks would change however when he was 10, after a hunting trip with his father went bad and he was bitten by a rabid racoon. His father would not bring him to the hospital at first, due to believing that he was fine, but changed his mind the next day after he developed a fever and began hallucinating. Roman would recover, but he would become obsessed with masks, due to having a traumatic experience with a creature with a permanent mask.

At the age of 21, Roman would be given a job at his father's company at the very bottom. It would take him a full year to raise through the company's ranks to become vice president. After becoming vice president, Roman would begin a relationship with a model who worked for his father's company, who he wanted to marry. Roman's parents however did not approve of the relationship believing that he would be marrying beneath him and were going to fire her and wanted him to end the relationship. Roman would pretend to agree to the discussion, but in reality would set fire to his parents home and kill them. He would then gain control of the company and marry the model.

A few years after taking over, the company had become almost bankrupt after multiple failed cosmetic lines that either didn't work well or were dangerous to the consumer was released to the public. Roman's wife would leave him during this time and he would have to get a bailout from Wayne Enterprise. After accepting the bailout he would go to his parent's mausoleum to deface his parents bodies blaming them for his misfortune, but before he could he would be struck by lightning. The lightning would scramble his already unstable mind and cause him to believe that he had been reborn. He would then return to his apartment with a piece of his father's casket to create a new mask for his life. The mask would end up looking like a black skull and he would put it on to commit crimes. He would take the alias of Black Mask and create a gang that he would call the False Face Society who would help him fight for Gotham's Underworld. His activities would bring the attention of Batman who would stop his crimes over and over again. He would regularly end up in Arkham Asylum, due to his insanity, during this same time however he would develop the ability to control the weak minded, which he thought was a property of the mask, but Batman would deduce that it was Roman's own power and the only reason he could only do it with the mask was because he believed it was all the mask. He would often escape the Asylum and would constantly would have to fight for control of Gotham with Penguin and Two-Face.