John Black is the husband of Dr. Marlena Evans and the widow of Isabella Toscano. He is the father of Brady Black (his son with Isabella) and Isabella Black (his daughter with Marlena). John originally came to Salem as "The Pawn" (The unknown man in bandages).

Patch (Steve Johnson) found him and was planning to turn The Pawn over to Victor Kiriakis, for a price, but he got away before Patch could collect. The Pawn hid out until his bandages were ready to come off. Once the bandages were removed, The Pawn named himself John Black. The name was a trigger to the mysterious man when he saw it on a memorial wall. He got a security job at University Hospital, met Dr. Marlena Evans, and the two became fast friends. As time went by, John Black began to have vauge memories of his past which seemed to be triggered by other various Salemites. Marlena decided she would help John regain his memory through hypnosis. John began to have memories that began to cause others to think he could possibly be Stefano DiMera. Eventually, Marlena saw a tatoo of a Phoenix on John's back and she too thought he could really be Stefano. However, she and John were able to find the doctor who had performed John's plastic surgery and he showed them John's before and after photos. After Marlena got a look at those pictures, she no longer thought John to be Stefano, but her late husband, Roman Brady. John's memory was still foggy and although he couldn't remember everything, he knew he loved Marlena and was convinced she was his wife. In 1986, John (now Roman) and Marlena renewed their vows.

Later that same year, Marlena was kidnapped by Orpheus, Roman's former ISA partner. Orpheus wanted Roman to help him find some stolen bonds. Bo, Hope, Roman, Patch and Kayla found clues to Marlena's whereabouts in Stockholm and went there to rescue her and bring her back to Salem. To get his revenge, Orpheus planted a bomb in the Brady house and an unsuspecting Roman watched as it blew up with his precious Marlena inside. Although all of Salem thought Marlena to be dead, she was actually alive and being held prisoner by Orpheus. Roman found Marlena, but again Orpheus was too quick for him and had put Marlena on a plane to take her away again. Roman made it to the airport just in time to see the plane, on which Marlena was aboard, explode. Roman went after Orpheus and in the struggle, Orpheus fired a shot at Roman but Olivia (Orpheus' sister-in-law) was hit instead. Roman then shot and killed Orpheus.

A few months later, Carrie Brady was drowning and Diana Colville, a college friend of Mike Horton's, happend to be near by and helped Carrie. Roman was very thankful to Diana for saving Carrie and the two found themselves instantly attracted to one another. Diana was pretending to be interested in Kiriakis in order to get information on his involvement with a valuable computer disk. Diana went to Greece to get closer to Kiriakis and to accopany him to Justin and Adrienne's wedding, Roman soon followed. While in Greece, Diana and Roman begain a romantic love affair. One day during their journey, Roman discoved a woman named Serena and that she had been mining a rare mineral that was used to make the computer disk. When Serena's warnings to Roman to stay away failed, she tried to kill him. But, Roman shot and killed her instead. Unfortunatley Diana arrived too late with the news that Serena had been her mother. Diana was going to marry Kiriakis, but Roman kidnapped her to keep her away from him. Diana escaped from Roman just in time to arrive at the Kiriakis Mansion to overhear him and Serena. Diana then discovered that Serena had survived Roman's gun shot and was plotting with Victor. Serena was the one who had really stollen the disk. Diana then began spying on Kiriakis and her mother in hopes of helping Roman. Later, Serena was kidnapped and taken to Peru. Diana went there to find her mother and pay the kidnapper's ransome, but her money was stolen and she was arrested before she could close the deal. Roman was also arrested and told Diana that Kiriakis and her mother were the ones behind the plot to steal Diana's newly acquired inheritance from her late father, Philip Colville. Justin and Adrienne helped Roman and Diana escape back to Salem where Diana moved in with Roman for protection. Diana stole a Greek icon from a museum when she learned that Serena was planning to sell it to Kiriakis in order to get back Diana's inheritance. Roman thought Diana was involved with the theft, but Kiriakis was eventually found guilty. Later, Diana told Roman that she had really been invloved and their relationship ended shortly thereafter.

Roman and Diana had a few more adventures together and once they arrived home from one of their escapades in the Bahamas, Roman began to have strange memory flashes. Roman escaped a car-bombing but was unable to recognize Diana afterward. He eventually regained his memory, but began to experience violent personality changes. While looking in the paper, Roman noticed a missing persons photo and recognized it to be himself, before the plastic surgery, but then later knew the missing man as his Kung-fu Master, Orion. He and Diana tried to locate Orion but were unsuccessful. Roman's sister, Kayla, had been honeymooning in the Orient and had received a postcard from Bo and Hope which she later showed to Roman in hopes of finding the mother of a young boy, Benji, she and Patch had found while on their honeymoon. When Roman saw the postcard it caused him to go into a trance. Roman remembered the place in the postcard from his past and decided to search the Kiriakis Mansion for answers. There, he found a file on himself entitled: John Black. During his hypnosis sessions with Kayla, she deduced that Roman/John was the victim of post-hypnotic suggestion and a trained assassin.

Later, in an attempt to find Marlena (Roman/John now thought her to be alive) and went after Stefano for he thought him to be behind it all. The entire Brady clan went to the island to help Roman. Stefano bagan to play games with them and put Roman in a trance in an attempt to get him to kill the others. Diana was able to get Roman to snap out of it, but Stefano got away and they all headed back to Salem. Once home, Roman proposed to Diana. However, their wedding was held up as there had been no death certificate issued for Marlena. Then it was delayed two other times because Caroline Brady had suffered a heart attack and then Jack discovered that a missing soldier by the name of Cal Winters was Diana's estranged husband. Cal and Roman struggled and Roman was shot and fell into a coma. While Roman was in his coma, Diana discovered that it was actually she who had shot Roman and was the true cause of his condition and she quickly left Salem. Roman later recovered and continued his work with the Salem Police Department.

History of John Black to be continued...