Unwilling to blame himself for his failures in life, Sionis broke into the cemetery where his parents were buried; seconds before he could unlock the Sionis crypt, however, a lightning bolt struck him, blasting the door open and hurling Sionis headfirst into a nearby stone. Sionis took the incident as an omen of his "rebirth", and entered the crypt, smashing his father's ebony casket with the stone. From the shattered pieces of the casket, Sionis carved a mask that symbolized his new identity: the crime lord Black Mask.