Black Mask is the name of a DC Comics comicbook character associated with the Batman series. He first appeared in Batman #386 (August, 1985) and was created by Doug Moench and Tom Mandrake. Roman Sionis was born into one of Gotham City’s elite families, dropped on his head moments after birth. His family was wealthy, but his parents were distant. His father was friends with Thomas Wayne, and he knew the young Bruce Wayne, who would grow up to become Batman. The young Sionis had no friends, but he and Bruce were civil with each other. One night, Sionis burned down his family's mansion, killing both of his parents. Barely out of his teens, he inherited the family fortune, as well as the family's business Janus Cosmetics. But Sionis wasn't good with business and he began squandering his money, running the firm into the ground. Eventually, he only had one chance to bail the company out; a new face paint make-up. He was so sure of it he had his own girlfriend, the model Circe, act as model for the product. Unfortunately, the make-up had not been properly tested, and it horribly disfigured Circe and anyone else who had tried it. The company in ruins, Sionis was financially saved when his childhood acquaintance Bruce Wayne bought the company. Sionis was not grateful, seeing this as "losing face." Enraged, he went to the family mausoleum and broke his father's ebony coffin lid. Sionis had always been obsessed with masks, and the old idea that when a person dons a mask, they become someone else. He took a large piece of the coffin and carved a mask from it, becoming Black Mask. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mask_%28comics%29