The whole “who even was this guy/gal?” is good tho.

One change I’d make, if it’s not out of line – the origin story being a face smudged with any kind of black material is not gonna play well from a racial sensitivity perspective. I would more generally avoid the disguise being makeup-based – improvised or otherwise – but would maybe go with an improvised disguise of another sort. Perhaps take some inspiration from the present time and consider contemporary face coverings?

And it’s interesting that Caneghem, a member of that conspiracy, is throwing shade at its self-description here.

I really like this kind of legacy characters, like Lee Falk’s Phantom, but I think this Black Mask guy is even better, because (if I’m reading this correctly) each Black Mask adds his/her experiences to a communal pool that future Black Masks can use. Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie created a legacy character named The Cobweb that’s not quite but kind of the same concept, albeit in a humorously kinky vein. That’s too bad, because it was a interesting idea and it could have been explored in a more serious manner

As for today’s comic, I wonder who is more frustrated: Ardaic, when he sees the Gastonian Heads of House behaving like kids who can’t wait to stampede out of school for the weekend? Or maybe Archmage Caneghem, faced with Dean Reynolds’ naivete?