The Birth: At birth, the doctor dropped the baby on his head. Although the baby survived, a scar had been carved, not on his person but in his psyche. The baby grew up to become Roman Sionis; President of Janus Cosmetics. His hatred against society grew as he lost face again and again in front of them. This eventually led him to assume the identity of Black Mask. Batman #386 (August 1985) introduced this new villain for the eighties.

The Alter Ego: Black Mask's real name is Roman Sionis, son of the Late Charles Sionis, the President of Janus Cosmetics. Apparently after his transition to the Black Mask, his real identity vanished and from that time on he was called only 'Black Mask'. This was naturally inevitable since the personna of Black Mask and Roman Sionis were one and the same, unlike the other 'costumes' whose alter ego differed a lot in comparison to the masks they occupied.

The Legend: Black Mask's origins lay partly in the fact that he was dropped on the head as a baby. Right from birth he was metally challenged, though he seemed to grow like any other boy. The first thing that Roman saw after being born was a mask - the doctor's surgical mask. Then came his fall.
At twenty-one, he was brought into the family business, starting right from bottom and making vice-president in a month. At about this time he got friendly with a model, Circe, whom his parents strongly objected to. After his parents untimely mysterious death in a fire, he became the head of Janus Cosmetics. He then launched the new face paint cosmetics which was a financial disaster. Soon after that Janus unveiled it's water proof cosmetics which in the begining drew a lot of cash. But as it caused a horrible skin rash, it pulled the company into another financial crisis. In this heat Circe dumped Roman. The Wayne Foundation did bail them out but now Bruce Wayne controlled the company with Roman Sionis as a figure head. It was these circumstances that led to the surfacing of Black Mask from Roman Sionis. He founded the False Face Society; a gang which looted the city. His personal hatred for Bruce Wayne also grew in the process.
The compounds used in the water proof cosmetics were stolen along with the bonding agent and then duplicated. In a concentrated form, these compounds could kill a man as the poison was absorbed through the skin pores. This compound became Black Mask's trademarked weapon of terror, along with the masks that all the gang members wore.

Batman #386