Batman Arkham: Black Mask (Batman

Batman Arkham Collections #13

by Doug Moench, Judd Winick, Ed Brubaker

Don't miss out on this collection of chaos in Gotham City caused by the Black Mask, featuring the villain's introduction and much more! Along the way, Black Mask causes mayhem with a total city blackout, and Catwoman faces a dead villain that she was responsible for killing-the original Black Mask! Collects Batman #386-387, #484-485, and #648, Detective Comics #553, Catwoman #16 and 83, and Black Mask: Year of the Villain #1.

Genres: Comics, Batman, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Mystery, Fantasy

239 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 14, 2020

About the author

Doug Moench, is an American comic book writer notable for his Batman work and as the creator of Black Mask, Moon Knight and Deathlok. Moench has worked for DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics and many other smaller companies; he has written hundreds of issues of many different comics, and created dozens of characters, such as Moon Knight. In 1973, Moench became the de facto lead writer for the Marvel black-and-white magazine imprint Curtis Magazines. He contributed to the entire runs of Planet of the Apes, Rampaging Hulk (continuing on the title when it changed its name to The Hulk!) and Doc Savage, while also serving as a regular scribe for virtually every other Curtis title during the course of the imprint's existence. Moench is perhaps best known for his work on Batman, whose title he wrote from 1983–1986 and then again from 1992–1998. (He also wrote the companion title Detective Comics from 1983–1986.)

Moench is a frequent and longtime collaborator with comics artist Paul Gulacy. The pair are probably best known for their work on Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu, which they worked on together from 1974–1977. They also co-created Six from Sirius, Slash Maraud, and S.C.I. Spy, and have worked together on comics projects featuring Batman, Conan the Barbarian and James Bond.

Moench has frequently been paired with the artist and inker team of Kelley Jones and John Beatty on several Elseworlds Graphic Novels and a long run of the monthly Batman comic.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

An anthology of Black Mask's greatest hits so to speak. It includes Black Mask's first two appearances. He was a bit of a joke villain to begin with. Even Moench must have thought so because it was seven years between his first and second appearances. It really took Ed Brubaker to make him the sadistic, ruthless villain he remains today. That first confrontation between Black Mask and Catwoman is included here. I am surprised the issue where Catwoman finally kills Black Mask wasn't included as well, especially since his resurrection in Blackest Night is included.

[Ben Truong · Rating 3 out of 5]

Batman Arkham: Black Mask is a compilation of some of the best representative of Black Mask stories over the years centering one of the more iconic foes in the Batman Rouges Gallery. This collection features Black Mask in all his many incarnations throughout the years.

This trade paperback collects Batman #386–387, #484–485, and #648, Detective Comics #553, Catwoman #16 and 83, and Black Mask: Year of the Villain #1.

Roman Sionis as the Black Mask is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by Doug Moench and Tom Mandrake, he made his first appearance in Batman #386. The character is commonly depicted as a brutal and ruthless crime lord in Gotham City who has a fixation with masks and derives sadistic pleasure from the act of torture. Black Mask is one of the most enduring enemies of the superhero Batman and belongs to the collective of adversaries that make up his rogues gallery.

As a whole, Batman Arkham: Black Mask is a rather mediocre anthology of Black Mask stories. Story selection must have been difficult to say the least. Black Mask has a long and varied history and has been featured or cameos in many stories over many titles and it is no easy feat to pick out the best or favorite from the masses.

The thing is those measuring sticks are subjective and will never reach perfect consensus. Actually, we all can agree that in a collection like this, we could all agree on one story: Batman #386 – the first appearance of Black Mask – the rest is debatable. This anthology served its purpose – giving the reader a nice overview of Black Mask.

Regardless, I think the editors picked a somewhat nice selection, would I swapped some stories out for others – sure I have my favorites, but it is difficult if not impossible to please everyone, since everyone is different. Overall, I was happy of which stories were presented.

All in all, I think Batman Arkham: Black Mask is a somewhat good selection of stories that gives a nice glimpse into the psyche of one of the most brutal and ruthless villain in Batman's Rouge Gallery – Black Mask. It is a good anthology for both the avid and subdued fan alike. However, for the newly initiated I would recommend a collection that is more substantial and cohesive.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This starts off pretty strong, then fades as the stories go more modern. Great origin issue, but not much else. It's a mixed bag when you read these compilations. They don't necessarily pick the best stories to feature. Juat the ones they deem notable of the character in different eras.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I question a lot of the choices made with putting this collection together. Some of the stories are good, but the timeline leaps from 1992 right on to Black Mask being a Catwoman baddie. Aside from the one from Under the Hood, which is always hilarious, they should've stuck with more standalone stories, or included more Catwoman ones.

[Rey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Having seen the Under the Red Hood movie, had found Black Mask to be a very interesting character.

However in this compilation. The origin as well as personality is quite poor and caricaturish. Silly actually.

Its just far too dumb to take seriously, he has no overarching purpose besides being a dumbass.

The older takes were quite outdated and abit enervating, the modern ones, just no stakes. The only moment in the whole compilation which brought out some interest was when Lex Luthor interacts with him. But thats about 2 pages from the whole. So really not worthwhile.

[Ashkin Ayub · Rating 3 out of 5]

blask mask is a fascinating character, and even this book provides all you need to know about his narrative. It contains ten comics from his first appearance in 1985 until today.

[Chris Browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well Black Mask is a character I don’t know, and it’s an interesting introduction to him but one that’s fatally flawed. By starting with two engaging “introductory” stories that actually develop properly and are of the more urban, realist end of the Batman spectrum (the one I like considerably more), the book then really struggles because 1. it includes issues with absolutely no wider context of the plots around it and 2. has an absurd and awful looking caper issue which sticks out a mile because it’s all daft and ridiculous and has Black Mask as some kind of flying baddie for reasons the book doesn’t bother to explain

Still, the best is very good - the original stories are fantastic, Moench getting the tone perfectly, with lovely scratchy art that suits the story wonderfully. In fact almost all the art is fantastic apart from the Night and the City issue which has life airbrushed out of everything and just lies, static on the page. It’s probably intended to be a primer on the character but instead is just very revealing of the issues around long running comics like Batman: the tone weirdly varies from caper to hard boiled to gothic and never quite settles at all. And there’s very little consistency in how the character is portrayed either, which again is an unfortunate response to this being the first time I’ve heard of the character. Decidedly mixed

[Jack Draper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oops, forgot to write a review for this one, not sure why, because I thoroughly enjoyed this collection of comics and looking through my reviews I realized I missed this one. I can't remember the exact date I read this it was in the last few days of 2021 though. Black-Mask one the lesser-known criminals but still known among-st Batman readers, he is still to this day pretty 'criminally' underrated. Throughout reading this collection ( which is kinda rare), you can tell the writers slightly changed the character of Black Mask, moving away from the origin story of the 90's and the 'False-Face society' theme to a Black Mask who is more of a Super-Mob Boss; despite this the writers remain true to his nature by keeping his sadistic tendencies as an integral part of his character. Out of all the comics, I enjoyed the 90's one , revolving around Roman Sionis becoming Black Mask, themes of duality and lots of writing about this, and finally the painful process of the 'Black-Mask' fusing to his face. The more modern comics were good but in these comics, it's based around another character (e.g Catwoman) and Sionis definitely doesn't get the screen time he deserves.

P.S Had to miss one of the comics out in the collection because it's included in the 'Red Hood' Comic which I have yet to read :).

P.S.S Another interesting thing to note is whilst reading the Knightfall series I realized that one of the 90's Black-Mask comics in this collection is linked to that saga, with specific reference to how letting Black Mask escape mentally weakens Bruce. (*See Prelude to Knightfall*)

[cloverina · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Batman Weeks 2024 read #4!)

I skipped the War Games/War Crimes stories and Under the Red Hood to avoid spoilers. Starts off extremely strong with Doug Moench's stuff, continues to be excellent with some Brubaker Catwoman, and then falls off completely with a Blackest Night tie-in that makes me question all the people who told me Blackest Night was great. Truly uninteresting, bad writing. The missing context just makes it worse.

But, it's safe to say, the rest is top-notch, and I finally got a little bit of Black Mask knowledge under my belt. Nocturna and pre-crisis Jason were already calling to me, but now that I know how good Moench's writing is, I HAVE to read his run. But it's uncollected... I have 40 issues worth of purchasing ahead of me.

I'm also convinced I need the Catwoman of East End omnibus now.

Highly reccomended!

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual Rating: 3.5 stars

A decent collection of stories about Black Mask! The first issues that introduced Black Mask were surprisingly the best ones of the lot. Have to say Roman Sionis hands down has the funniest origin story I have ever read, dude was dropped on his head as a baby by the doc who delivered him and then subsequently attacked by a raccoon at age 12! BEST VILLAIN STORY EVER XD

Things kind of pattered out as you reached closer to the end, the more recent issues didn't have the same wow factor as the first ones that introduced the character. I will say the inclusion of the interlude of Batman: Under the Red Hood was a stand-out choice, phenomenal writing with a truly hilarious and crazy iteration of Black Mask.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

The problem with almost all of these Batman Arkham collections is rather simple. No matter how much they CLAIM to give you the best stories featuring said villains, many of which have really long histories, you don't really get much. Especially as the collections go on and on but wind up scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Black Mask was an attempt to do 'the dark reflection' type villain. Like Bruce, Roman Sionis is a son of the Gotham upper class. Where Bruce had two loving parents, depending on which continuity you're in Roman Sionis's parents were at best absentee and at worst extremely abusive people. Whereas Bruce's parents were murdered by a random stranger, Roman Sionis murdered his own parents. While Bruce was a typical kid who was traumatized by the loss, Roman Sionis was a sociopath who got off on traumatizing others.

While it would have been a clever for a one-off villain, turning him into evil edgelord Batman didn't work. It doesn't work with the other characters they've tried turning into that either. (Prometheus, The Wraith, The Batman Who Laughs, etc.)

While one or two of the stories in here are actually pretty good... you can't really count them because we only get one or two chapters of the arc. We don't get the full story. So the whole book is sort of a waste of time.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collects Batman (1985) issue #386, Detective Comics (1985) issue #553, Batman (1985) #387, Batman (1992) #484-485, Catwoman (2003) #16, Robin (2004) #130, Batman (2006) #648, Catwoman (2010) #83, Black Mask: Year of the Villain (2019) #1, Batman Villains: Secret Files and Origins 2005 issue #1

This is a collection of selected Black Mask stories ranging from his origin story, all the way to the recent "Year of the Villain." I liked the earliest stuff best.

[Aidan Brack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the idea of these collections showing the development of iconic Batman villains, but this one is uneven with several multi-issue stories and a few isolated sections of bigger tales. The second half, however, is much stronger and showcases the character well.

[Toaster Man · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few of these collected issues I had read previously, but a large amount of the Black Mask material was unknown to me. The entire section with spoiler was disgusting, but the rest of his character is that of an amusing homicidal maniac.

[Kaylee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of stories about Roman Sionis, AKA Black Mask. As you can tell from the cover image, Black Mask is a pretty cruel and violent villain. In fact, the mask he wears was made out of his own parent's coffin wood. I think I have read "Faces of Death" (Batman #485) before, but I couldn't tell you exactly where. My top 2 are "All They Do Is Watch Us Kill, Part One" (Batman #648), which features the Red Hood, and "Looks Can Kill" (Black Mask: Year of the Villain #1), where it seems Bruce Wayne has another childhood "friend" who resents him. Perhaps Hush and Black Mask can meet sometime and vent?