Lanterns may be dealing with dead aliens and missing power rings, but the series is already connecting itself to the wider world of the DC Universe. James Gunn and Peter Safran promised an interconnected DCU across movies and TV projects. That doesn’t always mean another superhero has to walk through the door. The new Lanterns season trailer gave fans plenty to dig through, from new clues about the mysterious Manhunters to our first look at Laura Linney’s Guardian. With all of that happening, it would be easy to overlook John Stewart simply walking through a mall. Over his shoulder, however, there is a shop with a name that will be very familiar to DC Comics readers. The Batman-connected Easter egg hints at the existence of a character that’s been in the canon for forty years, but it raises some interesting questions about another project that’s up next on DC Studios’ calendar.
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In the trailer, the shop behind John Stewart is Janus Cosmetics, a company with direct ties to Batman villain Roman Sionis, aka Black Mask. The Sionis family name has already been spotted elsewhere in the DCU. Set photos from Clayface, the next DC Studios movie headed our way this fall, also featured signage for Sionis Industries, the parent company of Janus Cosmetics. That puts the Sionis business empire in the shadows of two very different branches of the eclectic DC stable. Neither mention so far confirms Black Mask is already lurking in Gotham, but his family’s business interests are a key to the characters’ origins, and possibly the key to Clayface‘s as well.
Could Black Mask’s Origin Connect to Clayface?
Roman Sionis and Janus Cosmetics both debuted in 1985’s Batman #386, created by writer Doug Moench and artist Tom Mandrake. The issue saw Sionis inherit and nearly destroy his family empire by rushing an untested waterproof makeup to market that left customers horribly disfigured. After losing control of the company to the Wayne Foundation, Sionis eventually became the Gotham City crime boss Black Mask, a character that would become pivotal to storylines like War Games and Battle for the Cowl. A previous live-action incarnation saw Ewan McGregor portray the character in Birds of Prey, a film not in James Gunn’s list of movies that carried over from previous DC cinematic universes. Janus Cosmetics is inseparable from Black Mask’s origin, but its history of experimental cosmetics and disfigurement bears more than a passing resemblance to one of the most famous versions of Clayface.
Created by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff, Matt Hagen debuted as the second Clayface in 1961’s Detective Comics #298. In the book, Hagen gains his shapeshifting abilities after discovering a mysterious radioactive substance in a cave, but Batman: The Animated Series famously reinvented him as a disfigured actor using Renuyu, an experimental cosmetic produced by the Daggett Company. An overdose of the product transformed him into Clayface. Based on the horror film’s trailer, Matt Hagen’s origins in the DCU are set to use a version of the BTAS origin, but it appears Janus Cosmetics may be the makeup company Hagen turns to in his desperation to regain his face.
James Gunn has described this world building as part of making the DCU feel connected rather than forcing every project into an ongoing story. Sometimes that means Nathan Fillion’s Guy Gardner bouncing between Superman, Lanterns, and the upcoming Mister Miracle. Other times, it’s the appearance of background lore being laid out across multiple projects without an actor even acknowledging its presence. Whether all of this leads to Black Mask running a crime family in Gotham remains to be seen, but we’re guessing Big Belly Burger will still kill more people.
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