13 Feb Black Mask Enters the DCU

While the box office was a bit light on opening weekend for the DCU’s latest film, Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, Margot Robbie’s second outing as anti-hero Harley Quinn has maintained a Certified Fresh rating from critical aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, and fan response has been overwhelmingly positive–which should predict a longer life in theaters than the initial box-office would seem to predict. It’s worth mentioning that most of the films nominated for Oscars this past Sunday were still in theaters and four of the films vying for Best Picture have grossed over $100 million making this particular weekend a poor choice for opening a genre film (in hindsight). Even opening at number one, Birds of Prey represents a diminishing return on the Suicide Squad franchise with the worst start for a DC Comics adaptation since Jonah Hex in 2010. Still, the global opening weekend receipts ($33.5 domestically and $48 million worldwide) have managed to cover the $80 Million budget, so if the film can maintain a gradual drop-off that keeps it booked for ten weeks it should prove to be legitimately profitable.

Whether or not Birds of Prey sputters out or turns into a sleeper hit, these characters will live on in the DCU for a long time to come. Robbie will be reprising her role in James Gunn’s reboot of The Suicide Squad (aka Suicide Squad 2) next year, and with a Gotham backdrop, there is a very good chance that Birds of Prey legacy characters Cassandra Cain (an eventual Batgirl), Huntress (a former Batgirl) and Detective Renee Montoya (a staple in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy) will eventually re-emerge, and possibly as soon as Matt Reeves’ The Batman reboot. But the biggest point of speculation revolves around when Black Mask will reappear.

Even writers and bloggers critical of the eighth installment in the DC extended universe have been quick to praise Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn and Ewan McGregor’s turn as Batman villain Black Mask. Long a fan favorite, Black Mask is an important part of several story arcs within the Batverse, and with Hush rumored to be the source material for Reeves’ upcoming Batman film with Robert Pattinson (and the confirmed castings of Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman, Colin Farrell as Penguin and Paul Dano as Riddler), there has been massive fan speculation that Black Mask will be appearing as well. Hush and Black Mask have similar origins and it wouldn’t be unprecedented for a massive plot alteration to involve the swapping of one for the other. For one, it would build a back-audience for the Birds of Prey franchise, but it would also simplify a rogues gallery that already has way too many minor characters. If anyone could master the tonal change between the Takashi Miike-esque ravescape of Birds of Prey and the likely brooding, gothic temperament of The Batman, it’s Ewan McGregor who went from Trainspotting to Pillow Book to Brassed Off to Nightwatch to Velvet Goldmine in the course of only 18 months. But with Arkham Asylum undoubtedly in the pipeline following the billion-dollar, Oscar-wining success of Todd Phillips’ Joker movie, it’s a foregone conclusion that Black Mask will be back, and key comics with the character have already started to skyrocket.

Black Mask‘s first appearance and origin was in Batman #386, back in August of 1985 in a story written by Doug Moench–who’s run on Marvel’s Shang-Chi: Master of Kung Fu is an integral part of the MCU’s Phase 4) and drawn by Tom Mandrake, whose co-creation Mister Terrific is already a major part of the Arrowverse on The CW.

We’ve also got a page of Harley Quinn original art work! Here is a page of preliminary pencils by Sean Murphy from Batman: White Knight #2 page 15. A beautiful rough montage of Harley and Joker imagery from one of the most consequential pages in the entire series! Quite affordable, too, since published splash pages from the award-winning, fan-favorite series have been known to sell for upwards of $10,000! This, by comparison, can be purchased for a tenth of that.
Click the image to buy now.