10 Most Interesting Batman Villains You've Never Heard Of
2. Cornelius Stirk
Cornelius Stirk is a troubled man who doesn't believe in "Big Pharma" and prefers to find his nutrients and vitamins outside the world of traditional family medicine. He does this by consuming the hearts of his victims, but only after he's scared them to death.
This is a man who is clearly psychotic but needs his medicine, and since there isn't a prescription drug on the market as good for the human body as his favorite feast, there's nothing to stop him. Stirk isn't just a serial killer ; he's also a meta who has the ability to make people see whatever he wants.
He uses this remarkable ability to approach people as various historical figures before switching his appearance into something truly frightening. Basically, he's Scarecrow, but he doesn't need a chemical to mess with someone's head, and he kills people for his own personal "medicinal" needs. Essentially, he operates under the delusion that he must subsist on another person's norepinephrine in order to survive, and the best way to do so is by scaring people to death.
Stirk is a relatively new addition to Batman's rogues' gallery, having been first introduced by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle in Detective Comics #592 back in 1988. He's not the most well-known Batman villain, but he does resurface from time to time.