Hype for the Margot Robbie produced Birds of Prey movie have been gaining momentum recently with the report that the film has found its big bad in the one and only Black Mask. Granted, that name is probably a lot less immediately recognizable to you than, say, the Joker or Mister Freeze. Never fear, though. That`s what we`re here for: to tell you everything you need to know about the villain Black Mask.Introduced back in 1985, Black Mask is the criminal alter ego of one Roman Sionis, the son of two wealthy Gotham socialites and heir to the Janus Cosmetic company fortune. In his first incarnation, Roman had your fairly standard comic book villain schtick--shady parents, high society drama, a helping of childhood trauma--but it was spiced up with a fun thematic twist: Roman was obsessed with masks, both literal and metaphorical.His obsession stemmed from the combination of his parents` glitzy public personas juxtaposed against their abusive home life (the masks they wore in public versus their private faces) and the extremely on-the-nose family business of cosmetics. He grew to resent everything about the lack of authenticity represented by these different types of masks and became increasingly unstable in the face of what he came to understand as hypocrisy. Things really came to a head when his parents tried to force him to break off a relationship he`d sparked with a young model named Circe, which caused him to fly into a manic rage. Naturally, he set his family`s home on fire with both his parents trapped inside.With dear old mom and dad out of the picture, Roman inherited Janus Cosmetics and promptly drove it into the ground with a series of rookie mistakes and rash decisions. Desperate and humiliated by his failures, Roman spiraled even deeper into madness until he finally broke for good. He was struck by lighting (because why not, right?) while visiting his family`s crypt and the moment (and, you know, everything else) inspired him to carve a skull-like mask ...
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