Did David Ayer Just Reveal Who Gotham City Sirens’ Villain Will Be?
After directing crime movies like Street Kings and Fury, last year David Ayer contributed to the DC Extended Universe helming Suicide Squad. While the third DCEU entry wasn't critically well received overall, it did quite well for itself commercially, taking in over $745 million worldwide. For overseeing such a massive financial hit, Warner Bros and DC brought Ayer aboard to direct the upcoming Gotham City Sirens last December, and now he may have just revealed that a notorious Gotham City mob boss will be the movie's main villain.
That, folks, is Roman Sionis, better known as Black Mask because...well, you can see why. Keep in mind that for now, this picture in no way constitutes as an official reveal that Black Mask will be Gotham City Sirens' main antagonist. That said, David Ayer doesn't tweet that often, so when something enigmatic like this comes up, it's best to pay attention. Don't forget that it was also in a tweet that Ayer confirmed that Catwoman and Poison Ivy would join Harley Quinn as the co-leads, just like in the Gotham City Sirens comic book series from years back.
Introduced in 1985's Batman #386, Black Mask treads the fine line between the regular organized crime rampant in Gotham City and the colorful freaks that are increasingly common in the streets. In his original origin, Roman Sionis was raised by wealthy, uncaring parents, and when Roman was an adult, his mother and father forced him to break off a romantic relationship because the woman was working class. Angered, he burned down his parents' mansion with them in it, but because he didn't have any business expertise, he bankrupted his family's company with bad product and also lost his fiancee. Broken and furious at how much he'd lost, he turned to crime and became Black Mask, subsequently starting the False Face Society. In the older comics, his black mask was just a normal face covering, although in the New 52, Roman can use it to control the members in his gang who are wearing the specialized masks he gave them. Roman is also a skilled fighter and firearms expert.
Outside of the comics, Black Mask has appeared in the animated projects The Batman, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Batman: Under the Red Hood and Batman: Bad Blood. He also served as one of the main antagonists in the video game Batman: Arkham Origins. It's worth noting that the Fox series Gotham featured a man named Richard Sionis who wore his own unique mask, but he was never officially labeled Black Mask.
We'll keep you apprised on how Gotham City Sirens is progressing as more news comes in, but for now, let us know what you think about Black Mask potentially being the movie's main antagonist in the comments below.
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Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.