Most alternate realities in comic books make big changes to their comic book counterparts. We’ve already seen examples of this in the Absolute Universe. Wonder Woman was raised in Hell and fights demons on Earth. Superman didn’t have Ma and Pa Kent and is battling the Lazarus Corp and their Peacemaker Corp around the world. In Gotham, Thomas Wayne is dead, but his mother, Martha, is still alive. Bruce's current villains are Black Mask and his Party Animals and we don't know much about them.
So far, we don’t know who Black Mask is or what he’s trying to do. During a poker (in Absolute Batman No. 2), Oswald tells Bruce, "For what it's worth, the Party Animals aren't moving in on anything. As far as I can tell, these guys are just out to wreck the city." This series is only two issues in, but Oz is probably right. The Party Animals’ motivation seems to be death and destruction. However, that doesn’t mean it’s Black Mask's goal or that he’s Roman Sionis.
When Eddie (Riddler) examined the Party Animal ape mask tech and explained some of the things it does, I was reminded of Jervis Tetch, the Mad Hatter. Tetch can make headsets to control people using his hat as the controller. Absolute Black Mask walks around with a Charles Xavier-looking Cerebro helmet. Instead of a hat, the helmet could be what he's using.
Towards the end of Absolute Batman No. 1, Bruce starts to say something about the purpose of the Party Animals' helmets, but he’s interrupted when Alfred tries to kill him. Bruce was likely going to say that they’re used for making people more violent against their will. Add that to Oz calling Black Mask Roman in quotations leads this writer to think this is Roman Sionis and is really Jervis Tetch.
Bruce’s friends are all into the darker parts of Gotham City and seem to know what’s going on. If Black Mask isn’t Roman Sionis, one of them would be aware. Whoever this is was likely someone they knew growing up. Gotham feels like a small community inside a big city. Everyone knows who does what. If that’s the case, Batman will eventually know who Black Mask is. He may already know and waiting to confirm it.
Also, while I may have said it before, don’t be shocked when we see that Joker is behind everything. He has more money than he can spend and goes around the world killing people and causing chaos. Since DC Comics fans want Absolute Batman vs Absolute Joker, it would make sense for everything to lead back to him.
Joker has the funds to get Black Mask everything he needs to create the Party Animals. Joker sent Alfred to Gotham to spy on the Party Animals and stop Batman (protecting his investments). He's probably connected to Bruce’s friends from when they were kids. There’s a reason one of them laughed and said "Jokers are never welcomed here, Bruce." during their poker game. When everything is revealed, Caped Crusades will be here to report it.
Did you read Absolute Batman No. 2? Who do you think Black Mask is? Let us know on the Bam Smack Pow Instagram and Twitter.