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Barracuda is a fictional American comic book character owned by Marvel Comics who appears in that company's Marvel Universe as a villain who opposes The Punisher. He is an over-the-top African-American gangster stereotype with incredible strength, endurance and fighting ability. He shows an incredible sense of optimism and "glass half full" thinking, profane humour, and a tendency to backstab and betray anyone if he thinks he can get a good deal out of it. He first appeared in Punisher vol.3 #31
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Publication history
Although his first appearance was in the Marvel MAX series, Punisher, his first full appearance was the following issue #32. After a six-issue story arc in The Punisher, Barracuda was launched in 2007 as an eponymous 5-issue mini-series in the MAX title Punisher Presents: Barracuda.
Fictional character biography
Fighting the Punisher
Barracuda was a Green Beret whose A-team helped the CIA install Leopoldo Luna, a vicious South American dictator in the 1980s. Other missions he's been on are unknown, except for one in Africa where he engaged in cannibalism just to prove his masculinity. After leaving the service, he became a feared gangster and spent a stint in jail. It was here he first began a profitable partnership with a corrupt CEO (taking out two men who were threatening him) and years later he was hired by him to take out the Punisher, who was investigating the corporation. The vicious battle caused Barracuda lose an eye and some of his fingers, he still almost killed Frank Castle, whom he threw into the ocean where a Great White Shark was prowling. However, he hadn't checked that the Punisher was dead and began instead to betray his employer to his ambitious junior executive Dermot & wife Alice. This led to him being killed and left for dead (as they didn't want him betraying them), and he got revenge by helping the Punisher kill all of the corporation. The Punisher repaid him by shooting him pointblank and leaving him in shark-infested water. He was assumed dead, but it was revealed in the solo miniseries that Barracuda had grabbed the back of the Punisher's boat and let it drag him to safety.
Miniseries
An undetermined amount of time later, Barracuda is approached by Chris Angelone, an Italian Mafia boss. Angelone has been feuding with Leopoldo Luna about the price of cocaine, so he has decided that his 20-year old hemophiliac son Oswald will kill Luna with Barracuda's assistance, not knowing Barracuda is an old ally of Luna's. Barracuda immediately betrays Angelone and has Luna take custody of Oswald to blackmail the gangster. He also betrays Luna by sleeping with his wife Wanda and then calls his old cross-dressing Green Beret buddy Fifty for backup (who Luna begins sleeping with, not knowing Fifty isn't a woman). This is all part of a plan to gain the money he needs to get revenge on the Punisher. He announces to Luna's inner-circle that he intends to kill the dictator & put Wanda in his place, kill Angelone and put Oswald in his place, restart the cocaine trade between the two factions and get an American reconstruction firm (represented by an accountant he knew in prison) to start up work in Santa Morricone. One of the circle reveals this plan to Luna and he invites Barricuda & Fifty on a helicopter trip to the local volcano, planning to kill them; Barricuda salvages the situation by getting Fifty to show off his penis, causing the dictator to leap out of the helicopter to his doom. Meanwhile Angelone, angry at being betrayed and humiliated, has been trying to launch a coup in Santa Morricone and successfully swings part of the army to his side. Barricuda and Fifty have to fight their way into the presidential palace to grab Oswald & Wanda and then flee back to the helicopter, but Fifty is gunned down in the second half of the plan and he remains behind to cover their retreat. (To his face, Barricuda seems stoically upset about his but grins & calls his old comrade "dumbass" when out of earshot) They escape in the helicopter and when Angelone (who'd grabbed the landing gear) rises up to get his revenge, Oswald shoots his father dead. He and Barricuda celebrate his becoming a "hardcore motherfucking gangster!". Barricuda then gives Oswald a friendly pat on the back, which due to his hemophilia kills him - right as it turns out the helicopter has too little fuel and no compass. Barracuda and Wanda are left floating in the Pacific Ocean in a boat with no food or equipment, and it is strongly hinted he's going to happily cannibalise her.
Long, Cold Dark
While formulating a plan to get his revenge on the Punisher, Barracuda receives information from an unknown source that leads him to the home of Yorkie Mitchell, Castle's British friend and former SAS and MI6 agent (retired after the Punisher's Man of Stone story arc.) After interrogating and killing Yorkie and his wife, Barracuda stumbles across some startling and very useful information; unbenownst to the Punisher, he has a very young daughter, the result of a tryst between him and now deceased agent Kathryn O'Brien. The baby is in the care of O'Brien's sister and brother-in-law in La Jolla, San Diego, California.Barracuda travels to La Jolla and kidnaps the child from a day care center, killing a worker in the process. Barracuda returns to New York in order to draw the Punisher into a trap. He secretly sets up a meeting between several criminal organizations in a highrise hotel, knowing full well that such a meeting would attract the Punisher. Barracuda is not at this meeting himself; in fact the criminals are totally unaware of who set up the meeting in the first place. Frank, who is hiding in the ceiling, plans to strike amongst the confusion when he realizes that the entire place, including his own location, has been wired with explosives. Barracuda then steps off an elevator into the meeting and massacres the entire group (with intentions of taking over their businesses once he has finished with the Punisher.) Frank joins the fray in order to escape the explosives and is easily captured by Barracuda, who escapes with an unconscious Punisher to a nearby building via zipline. When Frank awakes, he finds himself bound to a chair. Barracuda gloats to Frank about his plan and reveals his daughter to him. A manically enraged Frank breaks his bonds (and his wrists) and viciously attacks Barracuda, nearly choking him to death and biting off his left cheek. Barracuda regains the upper hand by stabbing Frank in the side with a large knife and tossing him through the window of the multi-storey building. Frank lands on the hood of a police car and is subsequently arrested and hospitalized for his severe injuries. After seeking treatment for his own injuries, Barracuda disappears with Frank's daughter.
Powers and abilities
Physically, he is the Punisher's equal, if not better than him. He has incredible endurance as he took a shotgun blast to the gut at point blank range. He is just as resourceful as seen by his near survival at hands of the Punisher by grabbing the side of the boat which brought him to safety. And despite missing an eye, losing his fingers, and being shot several times, he is still fights and continues pressing forward as if he had improved endurance of a meta-human. Still his most fearsome asset is his personality. Where the Punisher could be considered a soulless person embodying hate, vengeance, and who wants to die but refuses to let it happen, Barracuda is quite the opposite. He loves life, and the pleasures in it. More importantly, while he is a ruthless killer, he loves what he does but in an apparently non-sadistic way. He would never go out of the way to hurt anybody, unless they hurt him, insulted him, or were an obstacle to his goals. He is the kind of killer who would stop and take time to smell the roses... literally. These qualities create an opponent which could easily be described as the closest thing Punisher has had to an archenemy since Jigsaw.
Collections
Barracuda's appearances have been collected in a number of trade paperbacks:
- Barracuda (tpb collects Punisher MAX #31-36, 2006, ISBN 0-7851-2023-8)
- Punisher Presents: Barracuda Max (tpb collects 5-issue mini-series, September 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2465-9)
