History Characters / ThePunisherMAXTheItalianMafia

* FamousLastWords: Appropriately enough the final word to come out of his mouth is a bemused, [[spoiler:"Huh".]]

[[center: [- [[Characters/ThePunisherMAX Main Character Index]] | [[Characters/ThePunisherMAXThePunisher The Punisher]] | [[Characters/ThePunisherMAXAllies Allies]] | '''The Italian Mafia''' | [[Characters/ThePunisherMAXIrishCriminalsAssociates Irish Criminals & Associates]] | [[Characters/ThePunisherMAXTheFiskCrimeRing The Kingpin's Syndicate]] | [[Characters/ThePunisherMAXOtherCriminalsPsychopaths Other Criminals & Psychopaths]] | [[Characters/ThePunisherMAXMilitaryGovernment Military & Government]] | [[Characters/ThePunisherMAXOtherCharacters Other Characters]]]]-]

* FreudianExcuse: Of the TykeBomb variety. Auntie Mo got her hooks into Nicky at a young age, turned him against his family, and coerced him into killing them so that she could take over their enterprises and become Nicky's legal guardian, which allowed her to exert further influence over Nicky. Mo had the preadolescent Nicky attend Mafia meetings, torture and kill people, etc. while she also had sex with him against his will, all in an attempt to toughen him up and ensure that he grew up to be the ultimate Mafioso. While it is unknown if Nicky was bad even before Mo got ahold of him, it is clear that she screwed him up royally and still haunts him even in present day, as Theresa hitting on him caused Nicky to have a PTSD-like flashback to being raped by Mo.

* FreudianExcuse: Of the TykeBomb variety. Auntie Mo got her hooks into Nicky at a young age, turned him against his family, and coerced him into killing them so that she could take over their enterprises and become Nicky's legal guardian, which allowed her to exert further influence over Nicky. Mo had the preadolescent Nicky attend Mafia meetings, torture and kill people, etc. while she also had sex with him against his will, all in an attempt to toughen him up and ensure that he grew up to be the ultimate Mafioso. While it is unknown if Nicky was bad even before Mo got ahold of him, it is clear that she screwed him up royally and still haunts him even in present, as Theresa hitting on him caused Nicky to have a PTSD-like flashback to being raped by Mo.

* FreudianExcuse: His deranged aunt convinced him to kill his family and her husband (framing him for the massacre) so that she could take over their syndicate and personally groom Nicky to be the ultimate Mafioso... [[RapeAsBackstory and]] [[IncestIsRelative lover]].

* HateSink: Even though his backstory is surprisingly rather tragic, he is deliberately designed to be the smuggest, horrid, and despicable human being imaginable. Making his ultimate demise all the more satisfying.

* ClusterFBomb: He drops the mother of all these (quoted above) in his second appearance. Where he curses the name of everyone from his dead family, his old comrades, The Punisher, and even the angels in the sky.

* KnowWhenToFoldEm: By the end of the issue, like Pizzo and the other surviving Cesare's, he has realized that it was a mistake getting in bed with Nicky and tell him to go take a hike.

* ThoseTwoGuys: They frequently appear together in the background. Teresa and Nicky refer to them as "the other two." It isn't even clear which man is Pete and which man is Max.

* HateSink: Deliberately designed to be the most smug, horrid, and despicable human being imaginable. Making his ultimate demise all the more satisfying.

[[folder:Lenny]]
-> '''Debut:''' ''The Punisher'' Vol. 7, #2
A Cesare mobster hoping to fill the EvilPowerVacuum at the beginning of the series.

* BigBadWannabe: At Massimo Cesare's funeral, Lenny nominates himself as the family's new leader and proposes putting a hit on Frank. He is making some progress at persuading the other mobsters in attendance to go along with him before Frank blows them all up with a rocket launcher.
* SirSwearsALot: The first three sentences Lenny utters contain five cuss words.

* KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:He inadvertently suffers one of the most psychologically tormenting deaths of the whole series. When the Punisher drags him out into an isolated forest with the intention of killing him, much like how he had done to his family as a boy.]]

[[folder:Don Rigoletto]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/don_rigoletto_earth_200111_3.jpg]]

-> '''Debut:''' ''Punisher Max'' Vol. 1, #1

-> ''"Gentlemen, either the Punisher dies, or '''''we do'''''"''

A high level mob boss who has decided to gather the other Dons who make up the heads of the major crime families in New York, and have them band together to devise a plan meant to kill the Punisher once and for all.

* AscendedExtra: His counterpart in mainline Marvel was a PosthumousCharacter whose only appearances were in brief flashbacks in a handful of Daredevil and Spider-Man stories.
* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:How he is ultimately killed by Fisk.]]
* TheDon: One of the more powerful Don's in New York's criminal underworld.
* EyepatchOfPower: To complete his evil mafioso image.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: His dialog is laden with all matter of racial slurs. He refers to the Irish as "micks", calls blacks "niggers", and overall shows not a care in the world for tolerance.
* SadisticChoice: Gives one of these to [[spoiler:Fisk]] after discovering his plot to overthrow him. See WouldHurtAChild below.
* WouldHurtAChild. Invoked in the most brutal way imaginable. [[spoiler:After discovering Fisk's plan to betray him. He and his henchmen go to where Fisk's family are and have them held hostage. Holding Wilson's son at knife point while his wife handcuffed. When Fisk arrives Rigoletto threatens to slit the boys throat unless Fisk drops his gun. This backfires ''horribly''. As Fisk, in a inhumanly cruel act, simply ignores Rigoletto's demand, choosing instead to kill his him and his men, which in turn causes Rigoletto to kill Fisk's son as a final "screw you" to Fisk, before inevitably being killed himself.]]

!!The Five Wives

[[folder:In General]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2066246_punisher_v5_043_05.jpg]]
Four Mafiosi (and one gangbanger) wives all made widows by the Punisher and shut out from the rest of the mafia since women have no place in the organization other than being a wife of a member.

Left with little money compared to what they had when their husbands were alive and angered over their deaths, they have decided to take it upon themselves to do what a thousand other men have tried and failed to do. ''Kill the Punisher''.

* AmazonBrigade: Subverted. With the exception of Shauna, none of the other wives have ever seen any real action before. [[spoiler:It's doubtful that even Shauna had any experience in violence at all]].
* ChronicVillainy: As Jenny pointed out, they were rich, connected, and essentially free from the barbaric psychopaths they used to be married to and didn't really love. They could have lived until the end of their pampered little lives without a care in the world, but they decided to take vengeance for their husbands, a cause that nobody, not even the surviving gangsters, ''cared about anymore''.
* DidNotThinkThisThrough: It's not so much that five women with no real fighting experience wanted to take on The Punisher a.k.a. the guy who can waste ten times their number in a single night, it's that for all their detailed schemes and schedules, their plan hinged on them ambushing Frank... and at no point do we see them train with weapons. Sure enough, when it comes time to shoot, only one of them fires off ''one'' shot. [[spoiler:Granted, they were ambushed unexpectedly by Jenny, but they still hesitated instead of shooting back.]]
** Later when they're interrogated by the police, they give a very detailed account of the events, only one very smart cop, Budiansky, asks the very uncomfortable question of why a bunch of wives of dead mob bosses would be together, in the dead of night, being shot at, with a cache of weapons found nearby.
** They later send an assassin to kill Budiansky, only they send Shauna's crackhead henchman/ex-lover, who accidentally hits Budiansky's wife instead. Oh, and Budiansky is a hero cop, so that opens up a whole other can of worms.
* MoralMyopia: The five of them can't seem to fathom why the vile, murderous criminals they married could deserve their deaths. At one point they even acknowledge that the Punisher targets monsters and psychos, approving of his treatment of the sex slavers and even thinking he went easy on them, but refer to his murder of their husbands in terms of innocent victims targeted for no reason by an amoral killer.
* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: Subverted. Although they prove to be just ''slightly'' more intelligent than the average mobster, they're not exactly any more competent or formidable than the rest of the rank and file mooks that Frank routinely kills by the shipload.

[[folder:Annabella Gorrini]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/5101359_punisherv504307_1.jpg]]

-> '''Debut:''' ''The Punisher'' Vol. 7, #43

-> ''"We're gonna do somethin' a thousand men already failed at: We're gonna kill the Punisher. May he burn in hell forever, the motherless, godless fuck."''

The oldest of the five widowed wives and also the ''de facto'' leader of the group.

* AintTooProudToBeg: When Jenny has her dead to rights, she resorts to begging for her life.
* BigBadWannabe: She may be the leader of the wives, the granddaughter to a great Don, and know how to orchestrate a big scheme to kill The Punisher, but at the end of the day, she doesn't have the experience or conviction to ''execute'' her plans properly.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: She did love her sons, that's for sure.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Is utterly disgusted at the Slavers and the things they did to their victims. When talking about the vicious beating that Frank administered to Vera Konstantin before throwing her to her death, she states that she wouldn't have "stopped for an ''hour''."
* {{Hypocrite}}: Despite the above trope, she was perfectly fine with setting her sister Jennifer up with Tim Buccato despite knowing that he was a monstrous psychopath who had already [[DrivenToSuicide driven his first wife to suicide]]. And she was only too eager to shut her eyes to the copious amounts of horrific abuse he meted out to Jennifer throughout their marriage.
* NeverMyFault: When Jennifer has her tied to a chair, she tearfully blames all her sins on the men in the mafia, and that wives and girlfriends have no say in decisions. Which would hold more water if she hadn't done all she did just to keep her mafia wife lifestyle.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Despite being friendly with Shauna over course of business, Annabella slips and uses a racial slur against her at one point.
* SmugSnake: In ''way'' over her head. Her initial plan was actually very sound and would have succeeded if not for Jenny, but afterward, she has zero chance of success and fails to realize how bad her situation is.
* TaughtByExperience: Realizes that criminals [[BondVillainStupidity capturing Frank and putting him in deathtraps]] instead of [[JustShootHim just killing him as soon as they get the chance]] is why he keeps winning, and resolves not to make that mistake. [[SpannerInTheWorks And if it wasn't for Jennifer,]] it would've worked.
* TraumaCongaLine: She has the biggest bone to pick with Frank; his mafia massacre in the very first issue killed her grandfather, father, husband and two sons.

[[folder:Barbara "Barbi" Barrucci]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/barbara_barrucci_earth_200111_from_punisher_vol_7_43_001.jpg]]
-> '''Debut:''' ''The Punisher'' Vol. 7, #31

Wife of the late Larry Barrucci, one of the Cesare family capos who was slain in one of the earlier stories. And resident slut of the group.

* AlliterativeName: '''Bar'''bara '''Bar'''rucci.
* BerserkButton: She doesn't take too kindly to others pitying her. And is quick to tell them off, regardless of whether or not they meant any harm by it.
* CallBack: Her late husband Larry appeared ''way'' back in the very first arc as a throw-away character.
* DontYouDarePityMe: When the rest of the wives learn of her illiteracy, they openly take pity on the poor girl. "Barbi", however is having ''none'' of their bullshit.
-->'''Lorraine''': Oh shit. Barbi, can you read?
-->'''Bonnie''': Oh, you ''poor thing''...!
-->'''Barbara''': Fuck you, Bonnie, I don't want your fucking pity! I'm dyslexic, not some goddamn ''cripple''!
* DumbBlonde: She's blonde, doesn't know how to read or write, and is an overall dim individual.
* TheLoad: Would have been this for the group because of her illiteracy, except that Shauna manages to figure out a way for her to be useful courtesy of ReallyGetsAround.
* NeverLearnedToRead: It's revealed during an information gathering session that she suffers from a reading disorder. Prompting the other wives to shower her with pity. [[DontYouDarePityMe She doesn't]] [[BerserkButton take this well]].
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Openly racist towards Shauna when they first meet. Subverted a bit when she actually gets over her racism to Shauna over time, only for Annabella to be revealed as the more bigoted of the two.
* PrettyLittleHeadshots: Jennifer finishes her off with a 9mm round to her cranium. Given the series penchant for averting this trope, its quite strange seeing this played straight.
* ReallyGetsAround: Quite promiscuous to the point she trades oral sex for cab rides (even though she has enough money to pay for the fare) and uses her body to help the group's plans.
* SexForServices: After her proven illiteracy threatens to make her a liability to the group. She finds ''other'' inventive ways to make herself useful.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Larry was pretty average, but Barbi is an absolute bombshell.

[[folder:Lorraine Zucca]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lorraine_zucca_earth_200111_from_punisher_vol_7_43_001.jpg]]
-> '''Debut:''' ''The Punisher'' Vol. 7, #31

Wife of the late capo Paul Zucca. She's one of the better educated members of the group.

* InformedAbility: She's stated to be one the more intellectual members of the crew but she never gets to demonstrate this.
* TheGenericGuy: She has close to zero characterization, and no special traits that separate her from the pack.
* SmugSnake: Tends to think a ''lot'' of herself because of her education, which the others really rankle at.

[[folder:Bonnie De Angelo]]

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2066149_punisher_046_04.jpg]]

The most naive member of the group who speaks in a vewy distinct and wather ''cute'' speech pattern.

* DamselInDistress: Invoked by the widows who pretend she's a human trafficking victim to lure Frank into a trap. Barbie's so innocent that despite being a horrible actor it almost works despite her story not adding up in any sense.
* ElmuhFuddSyndwome: Her most distinct feature.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: None of the others particularly like Bonnie, her death going completely unmourned and Annabella even joking that she won't mind too much if Bonnie is collateral when they open fire on Frank.
* PuppyDogEyes: This ends up working against her, as the other widows think this feature, combined with her cute speech pattern, makes her the perfect damsel in distress.
* TokenGoodTeammate: Definitely the least villainous widow, she just wants revenge on Frank.
* UglyGuyHotWife: Her 'Roly-Poly Pudding' Artie was big, fat and not very attractive. Bonnie is a super-gorgeous, slender redhead who genuinely adored her husband.

[[folder:Shauna Toomey]]

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1327068_st.jpg]]

-> ''"My name is Shauna Toomey. My man was John James Toomey. Anyone got any more bullshit to say, they can suck my muthafuckin' dick."''

By far the most street savvy and lethal of all the widows.

* YourCheatingHeart: She was sleeping with Curtis, one of her husband's assassins, years ago.

* DidNotThinkThisThrough: It's not so much that five women with no real fighting experience wanted to take on The Punisher a.k.a. the guy who can waste ten times their number in a single night, it's that for all their detailed schemes and schedules, their plan hinged on them ambushing Frank... and at no point do we see them train with weapons. Sure enough, when it comes time to shoot, only one of them fires off ''one'' shot. [[spoiler:Granted, they were ambushed unexpectedly by Jenny, but they still retreated in a completely disorganized mess instead of shooting back.]]

* AmazonBrigade: Subverted. With the exception of Shauna, none of the other wives have ever seen any real action before. [[spoiler:It's doubtful that even Shauna had any real experience]].

* DidNotThinkThisThrough: It's not so much that five women with no real fighting experience wanted to take on The Punisher a.k.a. the guy who can waste ten times their number in a single night, it's that their inexperience caused them to create a plan that ''sucks'', and when it comes time to take action, they find that they can't even pull the trigger.

* AmazonBrigade: Subverted. With the exception of Shauna, none of the other wives have ever seen any real action before.

* TerribleTrio: The crew was originally made up of Nicky (the leader), Pittsy (the muscle), and Ink (the brains). After Pittsy and Ink are killed off in the first arc, Nicky decides to bring in Theresa Gazzera. Who just so happens to be Pittsy's sister.

Nicky's right-hand women, and unbeknownst to him, his long time admirer. A vulgar and foul tempered women.

* FatBastard: as the name implies. Played with in that he actually is disgusted by Cavella's past and wants nothing to do with him at first, but after decades of living in fear of the Punisher and having peers slaughtered by him, feels enough dark satisfaction at the descreation of Frank's family to decide to give Nicky a chance after all.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Unlike Tony Pizzo, he never appears after '' Up Is Down And Black Is White'' and it's likely he was among the many off-screen casualties of the various mob wars that followed (by the time of 'The Widowmaker' it's mentioned that the Cesare's have lost their subsquesent five bosses to either rival gangsters or the Punisher), was arrested by the police or pulled a ScrewThisImOuttaHere.

* MoralMyopia :The five of them can't seem to fathom why the vile, murderous criminals they married could deserve their deaths. At one point they even acknowledge that the Punisher targets monsters and psychos, approving of his treatment of the sex slavers and even thinking he went easy on them, but refer to his murder of their husbands in terms of innocent victims targeted for no reason by an amoral killer.
* MoreDeadlyThanTheMale: Subverted. Although they prove to be just ''slightly'' more intelligent than the average mobster, their not exactly any more competent or formidable than the rest of the rank and file mooks that Frank routinely kills by the shipload.

* NeverMyFault: When Jennifer has her tied to a chair, she tearfully blames all her sins on the men in the mafia, and that wives and girlfriends have no say in decisions. Which would hold more water if she hadnt done all she did just to keep her mafia wife lifestyle.

* TheBrute: The muscle of the widows, and the most aggressive and violent. But subverted in that she's still something of a BoisterousWeakling who talks a lot of game but hesitates when it comes shooting people herself or having some of her husband's gunmen do it for her while claiming she did the deed herself.
* ScaryBlackWoman: See above.

* PuppyDogEyes: This ends up working against her. As the other widows think this feature combinations with her cute speech pattern make her the perfect damsel in distress.

* BerserkButton: She doesn't take to kindly to others pitying her. And is quick to tell them off, regardless of whether or not they meant any harm by it.

* DumbBlonde: She's blonde, doesn't know how to read or write, and an overall dim individual.
* NeverLearnedToRead: It's revealed during an information gathering session, that she suffers from a reading disorder. Prompting the other wives to shower her with pity. [[DontYouDarePityMe She doesn't]] [[BerserkButton take this well]].

* AndShowItToYou: He boast that he'll rip out Frank's heart and show it to him. What's more, later on his fight with Frank shows that he ''meant it.'' He was trying to grab a fistful of entrails from Frank's gaping wound.

* BadassGrandpa: The guy looks like he's in his sixties but he's easily the most badass member in Nicky's crew. In fact at one point he comes damn near close to actually choking the ''life'' outta Frank. Had it not been for Microchip intervening, then he very likely would have killed Frank. The next time the two meet he's got Frank reeling, prompting Frank to think fast or be beaten to death.

* MadeOfIron: Quite possibly the most extreme example of this trope in the series, to borderline ImplacableMan levels. The man is beaten, stabbed, shot at, has his eyes gouged, his fingers broken and ends up getting [[spoiler:impaled on a steel fence. Through sheer hatred and incredible strength of will, he keeps on going. It's only after he gets his face blown off by a shotgun slug that he finally succumbs to his wounds.]] Although not before freaking Frank the hell out by taking a few more steps in his direction.

* PintSizedPowerhouse: He punches ''well'' beyond his weight, and is one of the few characters in the entire series to give Frank a run for his money, and came damn near close to actually killing Frank on more than one occasion. Not only that but he is every bit as [[MadeOfIron durable]] as he is strong.

* PreAsskickingOneLiner: ''"Lets fucking GO you FUCK!"''

* BerserkButton: Being born in the East Coast it should come as no surprise that he takes his clam chowder ''[[SeriousBusiness very seriously]]''. For example, when he orders New England clam chowder, he expects it to be made like it is in New fucking England!