Originally published July 2, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
Samuel Brace with four DC villains that Ben Affleck’s Batman has to battle…
With the much talked about Batman v Superman on the way and the equally speculated upon Suicide Squad on the horizon, the DC universe is really beginning to take shape. However, at the time of writing this, there has been very little in the way of talk regarding Ben Affleck’s first solo outing and more importantly who out of Batman’s vast rouges gallery he will be doing battle with. There are many a great option to be had and some equally obvious choices for who is most likely to appear in Batman’s first handful of outings since Christopher Nolan’s seminal Dark Knight trilogy, so lets dive in and take a look at a number of the most worthy candidates to terrorise the latest incarnation of The Caped Crusader.
Black Mask
Take a look at that face above, go on, take a look, now tell me that wouldn’t look awesome, very creepy, but so awesome up on the silver screen. Black Mask is an interesting guy, not one of Batman’s most famous villains, particularly to the causal fan who only has mainstream knowledge of Joker, Penguin, Two-Face and the like, but he is most certainly not a man to be trifled with. Also if Batman Begins taught us anything it was that second tier villains can be just as successful, if not more so, than any of Gotham’s megastars.
Roman Sionis boasts a story handmade for a cinematic venture. He grew up incredibly rich, very much like Bruce Wayne, his parents were even ‘friends’ with Wayne’s (secretly hating them), however Roman would take a very different path to the Dark Knight. As a young man, already filled with contempt and spite for his parents, the world they lived in, the world they forced him to play a part of, a series of events drove Roman to burn his parents house down, ultimately killing them. He would then, rather morbidly, smash-up his fathers ebony casket and carve his now infamous black mask, becoming one of Gotham’s most feared and respected criminals. I don’t know about you but that sounds like an origin fit for what Zack Snyder’s DC cinematic universe seems to be shaping up to be.
Black Mask also holds a personal grudge against Bruce Wayne, seeing him as a product of the same environment as himself but somehow coming out way more successful and as Gotham’s favourite son. So with a stick up his butt towards Batman’s real self, a sick and twisted back story and one hell of a mean look, Black Mask could be the ideal antagonist for WB to pit Ben Affleck’s Batman against. Without any of the baggage of previously used villains, if cast well and placed into a riveting story, Roman Sionis could become a revered opponent in the eyes of DC’s cinematic faithful, creating a new legacy for a character so often on the sidelines.
