10 Massively Underrated Batman Villains
They may not be The Joker but they shouldn't be discarded...
In his 74 years of adventures, the Batman has encountered a great many weird and wonderful foes. Some of these colourful enemies were quickly forgotten about following their first duel with the Dark Knight (and sometimes, that was for the best). Other miscreants however, continued to plague Batman over the ensuing decades, re-emerging time and time again with their half-baked M.Os, dorky costumes and often-bizarre motivations. Of these villains, some caught on, some did not. They werent as scary as The Joker, perhaps, or maybe they lacked the sex appeal of Catwoman or Poison Ivy... Whatever the reason, these delightfully mad antagonists became the second stringers in Batmans rogues gallery, emerging only once or twice every couple of years instead of on a monthly basis. The villains featured here range from the ridiculous to the genuinely threatening, but here are ten lesser antagonists that, I think, are due a comeback.
Created by writer Alan Grant and artist Norm Breyfogle in 1988, Cornelius Stirk was a cannibal who believed that only by eating the terror-stricken hearts of his victims could he stay alive and/or remain sane. A short, troll-like man with almost no hair and a mouth full of mismatched, blunted teeth, Stirk was a classic Breyfogle design. In addition to his cool look, Stirk possesses a low level superpower that can encourage his victims to see him as a trustworthy or even alluring figure. In the past, he has masqueraded as a beautiful Woman, Batman himself and even Abe Lincoln! Of course, nobody in Gotham thinks anything at all is amiss when a dead former President walks towards them brandishing a butcher knife, but hey, thats comics. The character was used fairly extensively in the 1990s, featuring prominently in the landmark stories Knightfall and The Last Arkham (amongst others) but he seems to have fallen out of favour with DC writers in recent years. This is probably because the later Grant/Breyfogle creation Mr. Zsasz became the Batmans most prominent serial killer villain and the 'fear' gimmick had already been used by Scarecrow for many years beforehand.
10. Cornelius Stirk
Created by writer Alan Grant and artist Norm Breyfogle in 1988, Cornelius Stirk was a cannibal who believed that only by eating the terror-stricken hearts of his victims could he stay alive and/or remain sane. A short, troll-like man with almost no hair and a mouth full of mismatched, blunted teeth, Stirk was a classic Breyfogle design. In addition to his cool look, Stirk possesses a low level superpower that can encourage his victims to see him as a trustworthy or even alluring figure. In the past, he has masqueraded as a beautiful Woman, Batman himself and even Abe Lincoln! Of course, nobody in Gotham thinks anything at all is amiss when a dead former President walks towards them brandishing a butcher knife, but hey, thats comics. The character was used fairly extensively in the 1990s, featuring prominently in the landmark stories Knightfall and The Last Arkham (amongst others) but he seems to have fallen out of favour with DC writers in recent years. This is probably because the later Grant/Breyfogle creation Mr. Zsasz became the Batmans most prominent serial killer villain and the 'fear' gimmick had already been used by Scarecrow for many years beforehand. 