Characters / The Punisher MAX - Major Antagonist

The character page belonging to the more "troublesome" antagonists in the series. Unlike the rest of the riff raff, these guys are a cut above your usual scum and have proven themselves dangerous enough to survive multiple encounters with The Punisher.

Main Character Index | The Punisher | Allies | Major Antagonist | The Italian Mafia | Irish Criminals & Associates | The Kingpin's Syndicate | Other Criminals & Psychopaths | US Military & Government | Other Characters

Warning: Unmarked spoilers abound!

Recurring Antagonists

Nicolas Cavella

See The Italian Mafia.

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William Rawlins

Debut: The Punisher Vol. 7, #13

"You tell that Ruskie son-of-a-bitch. Rawlins is my fucking name."

An exceptionally vile and morally depraved CIA operative, who has participated in countless amounts of horrific covert operations throughout the years. He is without conscience, and will take any job as long as there's something in it for him.

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• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: True to his cowardly streak, he doesn't hesitate to beg for his life whenever he finds himself in a tight spot.
• Asshole Victim: Quite possibly the greatest example in the series. He suffers a ludicrous amount of punishment throughout the various story arcs but he's such a scum bag that he practically brings it upon himself.
• Badass Longcoat: Played with; although the coat he wears is badass. Himself however? Not so much.
• Bait the Dog: Uses an extremely obvious one on Frank in Up is Down, Black is White, while Frank is gunning for Nicolas Cavella. Fortunately for him, Frank is half-mad with rage by that point, so it almost works.
• Beard of Evil: Just in case you need to be reminded that he's a bad guy.
• Boomerang Bigot: He uses racial slurs when discussing Arabs and other Middle Easterners despite being half Arab on his mother's side.
• Butt-Monkey: It starts with an eye being gouged out, and escalates from there.
• Catchphrase: "Rawlins. Rawlins is my fucking name." Unfortunately, this bites him in the ass hard when he tells this to General Zakharov.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He has this bad. He'll fuck over anyone he's working with (or sleeping with) to get ahead or save his own ass.
• Cornered Rattlesnake: He can get his hands dirty when his back is against the wall, he is not afraid to pitifully beg for his life just to slit the person's throat and taunt him the next moment.
• Cower Power: He may act like a smugly arrogant prick but the moment he is in the presence of someone like the Punisher or General Nikolai Zakharov, he immediately breaks down and starts pleading for his life.
• Depraved Bisexual: He uses sex as a means of furthering his own agendas, be it with a man or woman.
• Dirty Coward: Catch him with his guard down and he becomes nothing but a sniveling, pathetic coward who'd sell out his own mother to lengthen his own life a few more minutes.
• Eyepatch of Power: After having his eye ripped out by the Punisher. He begins wearing an eyepatch not unlike the one worn by Nick Fury.
• Eye Scream: Frank cut out his eye while torturing him for information about Project Barbarossa.
• Greed: The definitive reason behind nearly all of his actions. He doesn't give a damn about morals or laws, so long as what he does benefits him in some way. He will gladly do it.
• Groin Attack: The Man Of Stone arc, sees him suffering multiple attacks to his groin area. Given that he's such a bastard, its kinda hard to feel sorry for him.
• Hatesink: Easily one of the most hated Punisher villains. Some of the other villains can be Laughably Evil, have Pet the Dog moments or have Freudian Excuses. All we see of Rawlins is a greedy, cowardly, backstabbing asshole.
• Humiliation Conga: After being held captive by Zakharov, he endures a never ending series of abuses. Such as nearly getting castrated, requiring stitches on his balls, getting kneed in his balls, and etc.
• It's All About Me: See Greed above.
• Jerkass: Loud, obnoxious, and insulting to everyone he meets, even if they're his bosses.
• Kick the Dog: He intentionally left O'Brien stranded in Afghanistan during a CIA operation years ago. Worse yet, they were married at the time. She was routinely raped and abused by her Taliban captors before escaping. In the present day, Rawlins actually mocks O'Brien for her experiences as a prisoner, referring to her as the "bukkake queen of Kabul."
• Killed Offscreen: Frank corners him in a bathroom at the Kabul International airport and cuts off half of his right arm. The very last panel of the story is of Rawlins bleeding on the floor and very afraid of what Frank has in store for him. We're never shown or told how Frank actually finished him off, but it was no doubt a very unpleasant death.
• Lack of Empathy: Everyone around him is just a means for him to get what he wants. The moment they're no longer useful, he throws them to the wolves.
• Nothing Personal: This is his go-to excuse whenever he wants something from someone with a grudge against him. He tries to make Zakharov ignore his role in the Moscow terrorist attacks by saying this.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: He's a cowardly sniveling wretch, but underestimate or let your guard down around him and he will kill you.
• Oh, Crap!: The look on his face when he realizes he just mouthed off to General Zakharov.
• One Last Job: According to the Cabal of Generals, sending a group of homegrown terrorist to hijack a commercial airliner was meant to be his last job. Turns out that wasn't the case.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: In order for us to get a glimpse of just how depraved he is, his first appearance has him dropping all sorts of of vile racial epithets directed at Arabs. Referring to them as "towelheads, sand niggers, and camel jockeys".
• Pragmatic Villainy: When sent to whack the Punisher, he very sensibly tries to snipe him, rather than try and go one-on one; it would have worked but then his ex-wife (who's still understandably pissed at him for kicking her out of a helicopter into the hands of the Taliban) shows up...
• Shadow Archetype: To Nick Fury. Cemented at the end of Up Is Down when he loses his eye.
• Slashed Throat: How he finishes off Zakharov's right hand man. He tries (emphasis on tries) doing the same thing to the Punisher, but predictably fails.
• Smug Snake: So much so that he can't help but crack wise even as Frank rips out his eye. It would almost be badass if he wasn't such a pathetic coward otherwise.
• The Sociopath: A classic example. In addition to being completely without empathy or scruples, O'Brien remembers him also being quite charming and adept at manipulating others. When that doesn't work, he switches to backstabbing them without batting an eye, such as kicking his own wife out of a stricken helicopter, rather than dumping its illegal payload.
• Stealth Insult: At one point he refers to Nicky's henchmen as his "Elite Republican Guard". Knowing that the reference would fly right over their heads.
• Would Hurt a Child: After cutting the throat of one of Zakharov's men, he steals his wallet and notices a picture of the man's son. He tells him that he'll look up his family and then rape and murder the young man For the Evulz. It's possible that this was simply a malicious taunt, but given Rawlins's track record, it's not entirely out of the question for him. Thankfully, Rawlins never makes it out of Afghanistan.
• Villains Want Mercy: When Frank finally caught up to him and cutting his right hand off with a kukri, Rawlins begs to have O'Brien here to possibly vouch him, which almost certainly wouldn't have worked as he abandoned her. Frank simply replies that O'Brien is dead.

Man of Stone

AKA: General Nikolai Alexandrovich Zakharov

Debut: The Punisher Vol. 7, #15

"After all these years, the Cold War may yet be turning hot."

A brutal Russian Army general who participated in the Soviet-Afghan war and was responsible for numerous atrocities. These ranged from; genocide of civilians, pillaging of villages, and even infant homicide. These atrocities earned him the nickname, "Man of Stone". Due to the lack of emotion he expressed when committing these heinous acts. However, thanks to his connections in the Russian government, he was able to escape being jailed, and his actions where quickly covered up.

Recently he has been assigned by the Russian government to prevent the theft of a secret super virus they have been concocting.

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• Bait the Dog: In his first appearance, while there's some whispering of his reputation and he does use the We Have Reserves trope (though he WAS trying to dislodge terrorists from a nuclear silo), Zakharov in the end did stop a nuclear confrontation and showed way more patience with The Starscream than he had a right to. Later, when we see him again, we find out just how he fought in in Afghanistan.
• Bald of Evil: Much like another famed Punisher villain.
• Big Bad: One of the few villains to play this straight. While most other examples end up being tough talking weaklings who pose no real threat to the Punisher, Zakharov is one of the rare enemies who Frank takes seriously.
• Blood Knight: He's as addicted to war as Frank and Nick Fury and while he doesn't want to face nuclear annihilation he does want to expose the American involvement in the events of "Mother Russia" as a means to go to war again.
• Death by Irony: "The Man of Stone" is killed when Castle crushes his head with a rock.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In Man Of Stone, he ends executing a war journalist not because the journalist planned on having him tried for his war time atrocities. But because he wrote an unflattering book about him.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He may be a evil war criminal, but even he thinks that Rawlins is the scum of the earth.
• Expy: He's basically The Kingpin meets Col. Kurtz.
• Face Death with Dignity: One of the very few villains who plays this trope perfectly straight.
• A Father to His Men: A rare villainous example. Remorseless killers they have been, he does seem to genuinely care about their well being.
• Four-Star Badass: An evil general, but a badass nonetheless. He fought head-on in Afghanistan and his MO was putting himself in harms way to expose his enemies.
• Frontline General: He's demonstrated in his past and present military service that he prefers getting up close and personal with the enemy. As the unfortunate Mujahideen can attest to.
• General Ripper The man practically wrote the book on this trope. He was at his worst during the Soviet-Afghan War, were his monstrous actions earned him the nickname: "The Man Of Stone". His various atrocities include gathering up entire villages and forcing them off the ledge of a cliff, to callously murdering an infant while her mother screams in horror. In fact his actions were so bad that the Soviets had him fired for his actions.
  Major Yeremin: Zakharov was in Kabul throughout the eighties. He did things that — Well, suffice it to say that if he'd been left to his own devices, we'd still have Afghanistan. It's just that there wouldn't be much of Afghanistan worth having.
• High-Altitude Interrogation: After a confrontation with the SAS leaves several of his men dead, he uses this on Rawlings. He had zero intentions of letting the latter live anyway unless Rawlings came up with an epic plan under fear of death. It works.
• I Did What I Had to Do: How he rationalizes the numerous atrocities he committed in Afghanistan. He felt that only by resorting to the brutal methods that he did could the war be won and the people of Afghanistan could live in peace as a Communist nation.
• Kick the Dog: Everything he did, he did in the name of the glory of Russia... except behead that journalist who wrote an unflattering book about him, that was personal.
• Last Request: He ask Frank to find and kill Rawlins because he would continue to make the world worse "this way and forever."
• Meaningful Name: His "Man of Stone" nickname came about when he stood on a cliff while Afghan resistance fighters were hidden on the other side. He rounded up the civilians and had them killed, even throwing a baby over the cliff. The Afghans lost it and started shooting, letting the Soviet helicopters move in and eliminate them. Zakharov didn't budge an inch while they were shooting.
• Mercy Kill: After Rawlins throws him out of a helicopter, paralyzing him, Frank bashes his head in with a stone.
• My Country, Right or Wrong: The country HE wants though, not what Russia eventually became.
• Mother Russia Makes You Strong: The man is living proof of this, and he refers to Frank as a Russian who just happened to be born American.
• The Dreaded: Even to his own people. Perfectly demonstrated in his introductory appearance, when a high ranking Russian Military Officer is practically shitting himself at the sight of him.
• Pet the Dog: A very minor one, but he comforts one of his dying subordinates when Frank shows up to finish him off.
  Zakharov: Be strong, Captain. What is there to be afraid of? He is only Death.
• The Unfettered: They call him "The Man of Stone" for a reason.
• Renegade Russian: A low-key example. Its unlikely he'd ever openly move against the Russian government, but he despises The New Russia and its government, considering them traitors who threw away the sacrifices made for the Soviet Union and whored out the country for profit.
• Semper Fi: Similar to Frank Castle, he too is apart of his countries Marine branch. Albeit the Black Sea Marines
• Utopia Justifies the Means: He claimed that the atrocities he committed during the Soviet-Afghan War were done in an attempt to end the war and instill peace in the country. By carrying out such horrific acts, the enemy would become demoralized and surrender, thus ensuring that Afghanistan could become a prosperous Communist country.
• We Have Reserves: In Mother Russia he doesn't hesitate to send out wave after wave of Russian conscripts to their likely deaths in an effort to try and prevent a group of would be terrorist from taking off with an experimental super virus. It's later revealed that he never expected any of the conscripts to be successful in taking down the trespassers. All he needed them for was to sneak in his right-hand man to get the job done.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He views himself as this. He justifies his crossing of the Moral Event Horizon in Afghanistan by claiming it would have brought peace sooner if the Mujaheddin could accept that the territory was now Soviet.
• Worthy Opponent: His attitude towards Frank Castle.
  Nikolai: That was no American. It was a Russian who was born there by mistake.
  • In fact, he seems to view the Americans as a whole this way. Describing them as "clever, tenacious and enormously imaginative ".
  Zakharov: Americans are the most cunning enemies that our country has ever faced. One thing these men cannot disguise is just how good they are.
• Would Hurt a Child: During the Afghanistan wars, he personally threw a baby off a cliff
• Why We're Bummed Communism Fell: He makes no secret about his loathing for the New Russia and it government. Occasionally going off on a tangent about the "glory days" of the Soviet Union.
  Russian General: Sound like somebody misses the Cold War.
  Zakharov: I miss executing people out of hand, General.

Barracuda

Run. Run while your legs are still attached.

Debut: The Punisher Vol. 7, #31

"I'm Barracuda. Thing most muthafuker's find out a little too late.

A monstrous mercenary hired by corrupt businessman Ebbing to eliminate the Punisher and stop him from interfering in his criminal plans.

Very little is known about Barracuda's early life. Even his real name remains a mystery. What is known is that he was raised in Boca Raton, Florida, as the eldest of his siblings. His father, who happened to be a violent alcoholic, would often abuse the young Barracuda, at one point going as far as to hold his hand over a burning stove while telling him to "be as hard as the motherfucking world itself".

Sometime afterwards, a young 'Cuda got into a fight at his elementary school during which he gouged the eyes out of his opponent; as a result, he was sent to a juvenile detention center. There, he castrated a would-be rapist. His actions caused him to be noticed by an Army Special Forces Colonel, who was impressed by the young man's ruthlessness and lack of morality, and recruited him as part of a special program to recruit troubled youths at a young age for military purposes. It was here that Barracuda was given full Special Forces training, as well as an excellent education. Grooming him to become the monster that he is today.

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• Abusive Parents: His mother is never mentioned, but we get the audio version of a flashback while he's passed out in Frank's trunk, where we find out that Barracuda's dad was insanely abusive, and Barracuda spent most of his life looking for the bastard. He failed, and has spent his life ever since taking out his anger at the world.
• Affably Evil: Genuinely friendly, optimistic and happy 99% of the time. But will also kill you without blinking.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Very much shown to be this instead during his appearance in Fury: My War Gone By, him even lampshading that he is going to turn on the "Barracuda charm" in order to try and get Fury to finish the investigation quickly.
• Alternate Self: While he appears to have no counterpart in the main 616 Universe, alternate versions of Barracuda do appear in Punisher Noir, Space: Punisher, and Eminem/The Punisher.
• Arch-Enemy: His one of the fiercest and durable enemies that the Punisher has ever come across. Proving extremely resilient to whatever punishment Frank dishes out to him. He's almost like an evil mirror version of Frank in a way.
• Ax-Crazy: He thoroughly enjoys his acts of extreme, sadistic bloodshed and slaughter, to the point that he makes other members on this page look fairly well off by comparison.
• BFG: His preferred firearm of choice is a Vietnam era M60 lmg. Which happens to be another similarity he shares with Frank
• Badass in a Nice Suit: Pictured above is 'Cuda in Long Cold Dark, sporting an M60, Slasher Smile, and a snazzy looking suit.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Always optimistic and cheerful even when killing people. His response after Frank smashes the fingers off his right hand and sticks a knife in his eye?
  Barracuda: Oh, it is on now, motherfucker. It is on.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: During his Establishing Character Moment when he fires away with his M60 to take out some petty crooks you can see the whites in his eyes have gone entirely black.
• Blood Knight: He's far crazier about bloodshed and warfare than Frank ever was. And unlike Frank he makes no effort to hide his sadistic tendencies.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: He lampshades this in The Punisher/Eminem crossover
• Breakout Character: Survived multiple encounters with Punisher and had his own spin-off miniseries.
• Catchphrase: "I'm Barracuda. Thing most muthafuckers find out a little too late."
• Card-Carrying Villain: One of the more extreme examples in the series. Which is saying something.
• Chainsaw Good: In Fury: My War Gone By, it is revealed that during his time doing wet-work in Nicaragua, one of his favorite methods of executing members of the government was via chainsaw.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: An even greater example than Frank Castle. He possess freakish amounts of strength, is able to withstand ungodly amounts of punishment, and has overpowered The Punisher on more than one occasion. Suffice it to say, thanks to his near superhuman levels of strength, he wouldn't seem out of place in a superhero story.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: He will betray anyone if he thinks it will benefit him.
• Cool Car: He drives a badass Ford Mustang in Long Cold Dark.
• Double Standard: Rape, Male on Male: In his miniseries, his sexual dominance over a male inmate is played entirely for Black Comedy.
• The Dragon: The role he played during his employment to Harry Ebbing. That is until his wife gave him a better offer.
• Elites Are More Glamorous: He used to be a Green Beret and held the rank of Sergeant Major in the U.S. Army.
• Expy: Word of God says he was inspired by the folk character Stack O' Lee, specifically the version in Nick Cave's "Stagger Lee". 'Cuda sings a few verses of it in #55.
• Evil Is Hammy: Easily the most flamboyant and over the top of all the villains.
• Eye Scream: Loses an eye in the first few minutes of his first skirmish with Frank. It doesnt even slow him down.
  • In a flashback, we see him deal with a schoolyard bully by gouging out the young man's eyes. This results in him being sent off to a juvenile detention center.
• Fingore: During a heated battle with the Punisher, he gets his fingers chopped off with an axe. To which he responds with amused excitement.
• Foil: Ennis wrote him specifically to be the Punisher's. Like Frank, Barracuda was trained as an elite commando, honed his skills on the battlefield, and lost a great deal of his humanity there. Once they returned home, he found he couldn't re-adjust to civilian life. But where Castle lost his family and found his war on crime, Barracuda signed on for another tour of duty, this time in Nicaragua, where the corruption gave him the chance to go completely wild; Frank hides his basic human decency and warmth behind a cold and humorless exterior, while Barracuda hides his psychopathy behind a humorous grin.
  George Hatherly: Hey, if you can make money from narcotics and use your war for cover-why not use that to pay for your war? And you know what you get then? You get Barracuda.
• Freudian Excuse: His father abused him, and claimed he did it to "toughen him up". He succeeded.
• From Camouflage to Criminal: Went from being a trained Green Beret to a full time Mercenary.
• Genius Bruiser: He has shown exceptional cunning and intelligence several times. He's basically a smarter version of the Russian.
  • It's shown in Fury: My War Gone By that he led a CIA drug operation during his time in the military and managed to make Fury powerless to do anything about it.
• Gone Horribly Right: As a boy he was repeatedly abused by his sadistic father in an effort to "toughen him up". The most extreme example came when he forcibly put his hand on a grill while telling him to be "as hard as the motherfucking Earth itself". Lo and behold, it came true.
• Glass Eye: He gets one after losing it to Frank.
• Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: He wears a jaunty looking yellow one on his trip to kill Yorkie and his wife in England.
• Hero Killer: He ends up killing Frank's longtime ally Yorkie, at the very beginning of Long Cold Dark. Further cementing his villainy.
• I'm a Humanitarian: At one point, he recounts a tale of while on a mission in Africa he engaged in cannibalism to prove his masculinity to an African warlord.
  Barracuda: After we took down his brother for him, on accounta some ol' family bullshit, chiefy had the muthafucka cooked for dinner... Turned him into a kinda jambalaya-looking thing, all of the rice an' shit. Whole tribe had to take a taste.
• It's Personal: Originally he took a very business savvy approach to his job, that is until Frank blasted him in the face with a shotgun and fed him to a pool of sharks. From that point on, it became personal.
• It's Raining Men: Along with his Special Forces training, he was also given HALO and LALO jump training.
• Kick the Dog: You already know he's a piece of work, but when his second arc opens with him killing Yorkie, Frank's old SAS war buddy, it rather reaffirms the point. Then of course the rest of the arc revolves around him kidnapping Frank's hitherto-unknown daughter so he can torture her to death in front of her father.
  • In Fury: My War Gone By he is responsible for the war crime of him having had a village burned down for seemingly no real reason, worst part being him cutting open a pregnant woman's stomach and stomping on the baby. Later he kicks the dead baby at Hatherly, making him completely lose faith in the military and end up dying feeling all he did was pointless.
• Laughably Evil: He has no moral standards whatsoever, but his unfailing friendliness and his hilarious pattern of speaking make him a joy to see.
• Loves the Sound of Screaming: This is the main reason behind why he kidnapped Frank Castle's daughter. He wanted to hear Frank cry out in agony, but knew that a hardcore individual like him wouldn't be fazed by torture. So he went for an alternative method. Kidnap his daughter and force him to watch as he tortures her.
  Barracuda: So you go ahead an' scream, homes. You beg. You plead. Screaming is music to my muthafuckin' ears.
• Made of Iron: Holy shit YES. Let's see, loses an eye and most of his fingers during his first fight with Frank, which barely phases him. Has his head bashed in with a metal pipe, thrown to the sharks and shot point blank range, and ends up surviving. Shot several times in the chest, had his nose crushed with a pair of pliers, tortured for 45 minutes with electric shocks to his testicles, has AN ENTIRE ARM CHOPPED OFF WITH AN AXE and Frank still has to blow his head apart with an AK-47 and burn the remains to put him down for good.
• Major Injury Underreaction: He takes Frank chopping off his fingers and stabbing his eye in stride. Which is not to say that he's not sore about it.
• More Dakka: His weapon of choice is a M60 machine gun.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast
• Neck Lift: In Long Cold Dark, while receiving some first aid from a talkative associate, his associate makes the mistake of dropping some callous remarks that strike a little to close to home for Barracuda. Prompting 'Cuda to violently lift him up by the neck with such force that he accidentally snaps the poor guys neck.
• No Kill like Overkill: Frank finally overcomes him by working on him with a fire-ax, burying it in his chest, then unloading an AK-47 into his head, practically disintegrating it.
  Frank: Barracuda was dead when you shot him to bits and shot the bits and burned them. Anything less just left that nagging doubt.
• Noodle Incident: His past military operations, specifically his time spent doing wet-work in Nicaragua is treated as such. It isn't until Fury: My War Gone By that we finally get to see what he was up to.
• Only in It for the Money: To a large degree, but revenge is also a huge motivator for him. But most of the time, it's money and he'll do just about anything for it. He will also do just about anything to you if you don't pay him. "I kill a motherfucker, I expect to get paid. I kill a whole buncha of motherfuckers, I expect to get paid on time, not still be waiting for my money a week later.'' The person he was speaking to ending up getting fed to a Great White Shark.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: To the point that the government's files on him just call him "Barracuda", with no indication that it's an alias.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Most of the time. Barracuda is chipper, upbeat, and genuinely friendly. Even while he's committing repulsive acts of sadism. Its those moments where he stops smiling that you should be afraid.
• Pants-Positive Safety: In Long Cold Dark, he holds his Glock in his trousers. Considering that he's a Green Beret vet, he really should know better.
• Pet the Dog Subverted. In The Punisher Presents Barracuda, 'Cuda seems to display a genuine fondness and concern for Oswald, the hemophiliac son of the mob boss who hires him. He nicknames the kid "hemo", enjoys talking to him and spending time with him, encourages him to be more assertive and outgoing, and does not hesitate to risk his life to save Oswald during a gunfight. However, after he accidentally kills Oswald, he seems upset...for like a second, before getting annoyed that he won't get the money.
• Plot Armor: The only reason why he survives the end of his first arc; Frank has him dead to rights and inexplicably shoots him in the chest, instead of in the head like he usually does.
• Pragmatic Villainy: During the Fury: My War Gone By story arc featuring him, he lets Fury live because his death would bring more attention to their CIA-sponsored Drug operation.
• Pride: This is the main reason he decides to get payback on the Punisher. He could have easily gone his separate ways after he survived a shotgun slug to the face. But his pride just couldn't let it go.
• Prison Rape: His miniseries makes it very explicitly clear he was the aggressor. Whats worse it that this is entirely Played for Laughs.
• Psycho for Hire: A truly monstrous and sadistic example. Even when he was still in the Army, he was little more than a glorified killer who took delight in slaughter.
• Rasputinian Death: Over the course of several fights, Frank stabs him, gouges his eye out, knocks out his teeth four times, cuts off the fingertips of his right hand, strangles him with barbed wire, shoots him point blank in the groin, chest, and face with a shotgun, tosses him into shark infested waters, blows him up with a claymore, fractures his skull with a wrench, bites off another one of his fingers, breaks his arm, bites a chunk out of his face, stabs him again, hooks up a car battery to his testicles for an hour and a half, shoots him with an M60, breaks his nose, tears off said nose with pliers, cuts off his arm with an axe, shoots him in the throat and finally shoots his head to bits with an AK-47, then lights the bits on fire just to be sure.
• Real Men Wear Pink: He'd much rather listen to sappy love songs than gangster rap.
• Scary Black Man: He's 7 feet tall. He's a former Special Forces soldier. He's incredibly violent, sadistic and an all around sociopath. Yeah, he's pretty scary. What's more he appears to be aware of his reputation and uses it to scare the crap out of Dermot & Si.
  Barracuda: Yeah I could use some white boy pussy. They do.
  Dermot & Si: O_O
  Barracuda: Nah I'm just fuckin' with ya'll!
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: In his spin-off miniseries, after all the trouble to get rid of both Luna and Big Chris, Barracuda momentarily forgets about Oswald's haemophilia and thoughtlessly slaps his back, causing him to bleed to death in seconds.
• Slasher Smile: His default expression. In fact he rarely if ever goes a single panel without breaking out one of these at least once. Heck just look at the image above!
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: His casual attire consist of a sleeveless black tank top.
• Sociopathic Soldier: Used to be a Type 2 as shown in Fury: My War Gone By.
• Threatening Shark: One of his favorite methods of disposing of his victims is throwing them in a pool of sharks and watching them get eaten alive. Of course this comes back to bite him in the ass when the Punisher returns the favor.
• Unstoppable Rage: During his climactic battle with Frank, he completely loses all sense and rationale, going into a blind unstoppable fury.
  Frank: Something had snapped. It might have been all those kicks to the head — or the burns — or just the torture — but he'd gone somewhere else, the kind of place you don't come back from. This time — he was the one with the madness on his side.
• Unwitting Pawn: Averted. In Long Cold Dark, he mentions that he learned of Yorkie's whereabouts from an email he received from an unknown source. At which point Frank mentions that he's being used. To which 'Cuda retorts with; Haw! Fool, I been used since I walked into a recruiting office in seventy five!
• Villainous Breakdown: As the Hannibal Lecture and Freudian Excuse catch up to him at the worst possible moment, Barracuda completely loses his wits and sense of fear, turning into a blood-crazed lunatic.
• Worthy Opponent: He obviously begins to view Castle this way, after the latter managed to outsmart him in their previous encounter.
• Would Hurt a Child: This is ultimately what pushes him beyond the Moral Event Horizon. In Long Cold Dark he kidnaps Frank's infant daughter with the intention of torturing her to death in front of him.
  • But it gets even worse. We later learn in Fury: My War Gone By, that he kicked a decapitated child at Nick Fury just to prove how little the US uniform meant to him.

The Eight Generals

AKA: Generals Bobby van Abst, Bradley Landers, Don Kent, Jake Farmington, Joe Vraciu, John Archer, Kurt Perino, and Paul Vertraeus

Debut: The Punisher Vol. 7, #13

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• Armchair Military: Both Frank and Fury note none of them have ever seen combat. This does not stop them from trying to tell Colonel George Howe, who is tasked with capturing Frank, how to do his job.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: The all use their position and contacts to service their own interests.
• Hatesink: War profiteer, racist, zero empathy toward the people they send to die and all of them combined don't have half of Rawlins' backbone. They are the personification of everything wrong in the U.S army high command.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Cowardly opportunists they may have been, they did have a point when they mentioned that sending a man like The Punisher to a nuclear missile silo isn't conductive to a quiet operation.
  What the fuck is wrong with you, Fury? What kind of demented asshole puts the Punisher in a missile silo?!
• No Name Given: Their names aren't all that relevant to the story, and only in the tenth arc is the ringleader named; Kurt Perino. The tape Rawlins was forced to make in the fourth arc names the other seven as well; Jake Farmington, Bobby Van Abst, John Archer, Paul Vertraeus, Joe Vraciu, Bradley Landers and Don Kent. All Fictional Counterparts Ennis had a beef with.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: The general who'd come up with the terrorist plot after getting his face wrecked by Nick Fury. Characters in the story (especially Rawlins) repeatedly bring up his humiliating beating and he reacts predictably in each case (i.e. sniveling).
• Politically Incorrect Villain: Perino refers to Howe after a phone call with him as "He's wonderful, isn't he? Almost white". Later, when Howe already had doubts about the whole operation, calling him a "fucking stupid black fuck" when he reported Frank had escaped was not the best choice.
• Pretty Little Headshots: How they meet their end. Eight bullets for eight targets - Frank does not mess about.
• Smug Snake: A cabal of them.
• War for Fun and Profit: They had Rawlins train a terrorist cell simply for the thoughts of having their own suicide bomber (Rawlins explained that they had no goals ready for them when they tasked him for it, stupidly believing terrorist would stay on standby) and set up operation Barbarossa solely so they have something cool on their resumé for when they go to better jobs.

Wilson Fisk

See The Kingpin's Syndicate

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