DC has you covered when it comes to curating an eclectic rogue gallery. Not only are their well-known villains ridiculously interesting with wonderful story arcs and backstories, but even their lesser-known villains are not immune to the brilliance of incredible writing, characterization, and character design.
Cornelius Stirk, a mentally sick criminal, is one of these villains. Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle invented the character, and he originally appeared in Detective Comics Issue 592 in November 1988 as part of a two-part story that was continued in Issue 593.
This villain instills terror in his victims in order to raise their stress levels. He then removes their heart, believing that eating it will help him survive. He also possesses telepathic abilities, making him a formidable foe. Due to his dark and gritty portrayal, he is threatening, cruel, and caters to a more mature audience.
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The Origin Of The Mentally Diseased Supervillain – Cornelius Stirk
Cornelius Stirk has a terrible lust for violence. At the age of sixteen, he tried to kill one of his classmates. This was his ticket to getting confined to Arkham Asylum where his brain was studied and it was revealed that he had a marked deficiency in neurotransmitters. He was diagnosed with a severe disorder of the hypothalamus. However, none of the doctors were able to draw a link between his neurological disorder and his Psi-powers i.e. psychic powers. Stirk’s psychic power allowed him to alter his appearance in the minds of other people. He could also instill fears in others and cause them to hallucinate via telepathy.
He was heavily medicated as an inmate at the Asylum, which supposedly kept him ‘sane’. Too bad he gained control over his psychic powers and then began to control and manipulate the minds of the doctors. He convinced them to believe that nothing was wrong with Stirk and that he was completely sane so that he could be released. This trick worked out and he was released after sixteen years. Having lost the opportunity to enjoy his roaring twenties, a thirty-two-year-old Strike took his insanity to a whole new level following the release to enjoy his new life to the fullest.
This is a guy who is going to steal your heart. Quite literally. He has a thing for ripping hearts out. He leaves no stones unturned during his debut comic appearance where he replaces his medicines with an organic alternative that may make you retch.
With commotion on the streets of Gotham City, the Dark Knight is obligated to intervene. And so he does. Meanwhile, Stirk goes to the shopping mall with a shopping cart. He puts the body of a man with his heart ripped out in his trunk. Batman hears of the incident and asks a man what the perpetrator looked like but the answer he gets perplexes him. The man tells him that he looked like Jesus. Batman goes off to investigate and notices skid marks of blood that could’ve been made by shopping wheels.
He learns from other sources that a man named Ed Hunt died after going out with a drinking buddy who looked exactly like Abraham Lincoln.
Meanwhile, an Abraham Lincoln look-alike (which is Stirk using his psychic powers) attacks a man after scaring him. The body of a previously dead man is taken for post mortem with Batman present and it is revealed that he had died due to stress even before his heart had been ripped out. With his norepinephrine levels off the chart, Batman wonders what may have caused him to be THIS terrified.
Batman rounds up a list of violent offenders who had been released in Gotham over the past month. In the list, the first name is Ronald Dillon a.k.a. the Hooker. Batman decides to investigate first and learns that even though he was committing murders, he wasn’t the one behind the unromantic heart-stealing.
Stirk/Abraham Lincoln brings his latest victim to his base and ties him up. He then reveals his original, hideous face to the victim. Not only does the face scare the man to the end but his teeth in particular are horrible enough to give dentists their worst nightmares.
He scares the man, threatening to slice off his body parts such as his nose and his ears. He also kisses him with his chapped lips and his possibly horrible breath-which stresses him out even more.
Meanwhile, Batman moves to his next target after the Hooker – Cornelius Stirk. He tracks Stirk’s base and realizes that he is at the right place. The story halts at this issue and then picks pace again in the next issue.
Cornelius Stirk talks about his time in the Asylum and how the doctors thought he needed medication to be sane. But, he threw out his meds after his release because no sane man needs medication. However, he had used his psychic powers to convince the doctors that he was sane and went off the meds when he found a better alternative.
He then kills the man and then takes his heart out, puts him in a shopping cart, and places his heart on a stove with some other hearts. He tastes the fluid in the hearty dish because he’s clearly as sane as the doctors said he was. Basically, he believes that he does not need the medicines prescribed to him by the doctors and that all he needs for survival are the hearts and fluids of human beings who die in a state of fear. That’s his medicine.
He then tries to dispose of the body when he is spotted by a cop. Stirk immediately uses his psychic powers to make the cop think that he is an attractive woman and seduces him.
Meanwhile, Batman finds the hearty soup and is sick to the stomach. Stirk (who is now posing as a woman), brings the man to his place and they are confronted by Batman. By the time Batman realizes who Stirk is, he is already shot in the leg which hinders his movements, obviously. He pins Batman to a board and during this panel, we get to see an interesting mirror dynamic being spoken about.
During the very beginning of the previous issue, he is told by a child that he looks scary. Batman tells the child that he only looks like this to scare the criminals. Meanwhile, Stirk looks and acts the way he does to scare regular people because in his mind, fear is the spice and seasoning to his heart soup. So in this panel, Stirk is excited to have two masters of fear in the same room.
He tries to scare Batman and pokes at his weak spot. He unmaks him and makes him revisit the murder of Dr. Thomas and Martha Wayne. Stirk makes him think about how he felt as an innocent boy who watched his parents get murdered for no reason. He threatens to kill an innocent man in front of him to add to that fear. However, Stirk has clearly underestimated Batman, who has control over his fear and can choose to acknowledge or ignore it at his own will.
Batman breaks free and attacks Stirk. He overpowers him and takes him back to the Asylum. In the end, Stirk has to confront a new fear – the dark shadow of a bat looming.
The Appearances Of Cornelius Stirk In Various Story Arcs
With a personality like that, Stirk is easily an eccentric character who is capable of contributing a lot to a plot, making it darker and darker. As a result, he has appeared in several story arcs.
The Last Arkham
The Last Arkham has a four-part storyline, where Cornelius Stark makes a very brief cameo during the beginning. Here, Arkham’s new director, Jeremiah Arkham uses barbaric methods to cure Stirk of his insanity and hypothalamic disorder. Stirk refuses to go on medication or take them and Jeremiah orders two of his subordinates to beat him up brutally using clubs. The medicines are then forced down his throat.
Knightfall
In the Knightfall storyline, Stirk pairs up with our favorite crazy Batman villain, the Joker. They attempt to kidnap Commissioner Gordon but Stirk tries to kill him instead. This is against the wishes of the Joker. Meanwhile, Gordon hallucinates Stirk to be Batman while Stirk tries to kill him using a knife. Right then, Batman appears and stops Stirk while Gordon is still in fear. In the end, he is taken to his wife who admits him into a hospital.
Road to No Man’s Land
He makes several cameos here, which is a prequel to No Man’s Land. Here, he offers to eat human hearts instead of his medication, as we see during his debut. He is also seen watching a gladiator match between Pinhead and Killer Croc. In the end, he is released from Arkham Asylum alongside every other inmate by Jeremiah Arkham but under one condition: they can never return to Gotham City ever again.
The Widening Gyre
In this storyline, Strike returns after the Infinite Crisis and he is back on his old habit. Batman being Batman, comes to stop him. He is rendered unconscious and once again, bound in Stirk’s hideout. Robin comes to rescue Batman. He also defeats Stirk who is sent back to custody. Constantly losing battles and ending up at the Asylum or with the police means that one should let go of their love for heart soup but Stirk is clearly not sane enough to understand that.
Cornelius Stirk In The Gotham TV Series
Cornelius Stirk makes his non-comic appearance in the live-action American crime drama television series named Gotham. He is seen during Season 2, in the episode ‘Wrath of the Villains: A Legion of Horribles’.
Actor Kameron Omidian portrays his character. He stays true to the comics with his cannibalistic personality as he appears chained in a cell in Arkham Asylum alongside Edward Nygma.
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