Barracuda (Earth-200111)

Very little is known about Barracuda's early life. Even his real name remains a mystery. From what little information has been made public, he was raised in Boca Raton, Florida, as the eldest of his siblings, two brothers and a sister. His father who was a member of a World War II tank battalion and just so happened to be an alcoholic, would often abuse Barracuda in his youth, at one point going as far as to hold his hand over a burning stove while telling him to "be as hard as the motherf_cking world itself".^[1]

Later Barracuda got into a fight at 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 attacker. Barracuda was noticed by an Army Special Forces Colonel, who was impressed by the young man's toughness and quick thinking, and recruited him as part of a special program to recruit troubled youths at a young age for military purposes. Barracuda was given full Special Forces training, as well as an excellent education. At age 20, he was sent on missions, among which he inserted a dictator named Leopold Luna in the South American nation of Santa Morricone and once practiced cannibalism while in Africa.^[2]

Contra War[]

Barracuda spent time in Nicaragua in 1984 and was part of a Special Forces unit advising the anti-communist Contras and also participating in massacring entire local villages. During his time in Nicaragua, Colonel Nick Fury visited the Green Berets to gain insight into their mission and whether or not they were operating under ethical military protocol.^[3] Fury discovered that Barracuda and the other Green Berets were part of a cocaine trafficking plot in which cocaine would be sold in the United States and the money raised from selling it would be used to fund the Contras; the Green Berets received a cut of this.^[4] Barracuda and his unit later went AWOL and was left unpunished for his crimes, including the massacre of a village where he sliced a pregnant woman open and killed her unborn child beneath his boot, as the American government would not implicate themselves with the psychopathic soldier. Although Fury would dole out his own limited punishment by beating Barracuda severely with a baseball bat five years later.^[5]

Life of Crime[]

At the age of 24, Barracuda left the Green Berets, and decided to become a gang-banger. He joined the Hood N_ggas and Killas, and later became the hardest in the hood due to his military training. Barracuda has got into many illegal street fights with rival gangs, the gang he was affiliated with were always harassed by corrupt cops and urban watchmen, which led later to Barracuda beating a Boca Raton cop to death when he was stopped by the officer for throwing Molotov cocktails at an old couple's house. He worked for wealthy businessman Harry Ebbing for a long time and the two stayed good friends.^[6]

Years later, Barracuda was hired by Ebbing to eliminate the Punisher and stop him from interfering in his criminal plans. During his fight with the Punisher involving a shark, Barracuda lost four fingers and his eye was stabbed out. Barracuda was seemingly killed by Castle after he shot him at point blank with a shotgun and left him to die in shark-infested waters.^[7] Miraculously, Barracuda survived his ordeal.

Sometime after recovering from his encounter with the Punisher, Barracuda was hired by mob boss "Big" Chris Angelone to help his hemophiliac son Oswald to kill the dictator of Santa Morricone, Leopoldo Luna, over their feud of the price of cocaine. Unknown to Angelone, Luna is Barracuda's old ally and whom he was responsible for propping Luna's regime. By the time Barracuda's arrived in Santa Morricone, he immediately reacquainted with Luna and betrayed Angelone in which he has Oswald held hostage to blackmail the mobster.^[8] But this act of betrayal was not Barracuda's true intention; instead, he planned to kill Luna and Angelone, taking over their organizations and having Luna's wife Wanda and Oswald serving as his proxies, restarting the cocaine trade between the two factions and getting an American reconstruction firm to start up work in Santa Morricone. This plot would not only allow Barracuda to garner massive wealth, but also provide him with the resources needed to take revenge on the Punisher.^[9]

During his time in Santa Morricone, Barracuda grew fond of Oswald and even openly encouraged the young man to be more assertive and outgoing. He also enlisted the aid of his former Green Beret friend and cross-dresser Fifty, who began sleeping with Luna (who remained ignorant of Fifty's true gender). However, Barracuda's plans soon began to unravel when a member of Luna's inner circle warned the dictator, who almost had Barracuda and Fifty walk into a volcano at gunpoint. Fortunately for Barracuda he avoided this fate by having Fifty reveal his genitals to Luna, causing the horrified dictator to leap into the volcano.^[10]

Despite ridding himself of Luna, the situation further exacerbated when a vengeful Chris Angelone launched a coup in Santa Morricone and led the rebels to assault the presidential palace. Barracuda managed to rescue Wanda and Oswald, but was forced to leave a mortally wounded Fifty who covered their escape via helicopter. Once in the air, Angelone boarded the helicopter and nearly had his revenge on Barracuda, only to be shot by Oswald. Barracuda thanked Oswald by patting him on the back; but Barracuda forgot about Oswald's hemophilia and his friendly pat caused Oswald to bleed to death. The helicopter soon ran out of fuel and Barracuda and Wanda were left adrift on a life raft in the middle of a ocean. With no food, Barracuda apparently sustained himself by cannibalizing Wanda.^[11]

Long Cold Dark[]

Following the debacle in Santa Morricone, Barracuda received anonymous aid by corrupt U.S. military generals who organized Operation Barbarossa to help silence the Punisher for his direct role in denying them their biological weapon. He was provided a lead on Frank Castle's associates, particularly retired SAS and MI6 agent Yorkie Mitchell, in which he traveled to England and tortured Yorkie and his wife in their home for information on Castle. After murdering the couple, Barracuda found in Yorkie's safe letters which revealed that Castle had unknowingly sired a daughter with deceased CIA agent Kathryn O'Brien and the baby, named Sarah, was being taken care by O'Brien's sister Barbara O'Brien in San Diego. Taking opportunity of this very valuable information, Barracuda kidnapped the baby from a daycare center while killing a worker who tried to stop him.^[12]

Barracuda later drew out the Punisher into a trap by secretly setting up a meeting between several high profile gangsters in a high rise hotel while also having the entire floor wired with explosives. The gangsters were totally unaware of the meeting as they were then massacred by Barracuda. Castle was subdued and captured by Barracuda, who had him bound to a chair. Barracuda then planned on slowly torturing Castle by showing him his daughter with intentions of killing her in front of her father while forcing him to beg for her life. However, this deeply enraged the Punisher to break out of his bounds and attack Barracuda. During the scuffle, Barracuda stabbed Castle and threw him out through a window before disappearing with Sarah.^[13]

Barracuda, along with the baby, returned to San Diego and staked out at Barbara O'Brien's residence where he confronted Castle. Barracuda had Sarah put inside his car parked in the nearby woods while using a decoy to make it look like he killed the baby in front of the Punisher in order to rile up his nemesis as before. But this time, Castle controlled his rage and saw through the deception before violently subduing Barracuda. The criminal was then tortured by Castle for Sarah's location by connecting Barracuda's genitals to a car battery. After forty-five minutes of grueling electric torture, Barracuda directed Castle to the baby's location, which was booby-trapped with a bomb. As Castle dealt with the bomb, Barracuda broke free and engaged the Punisher in a firefight before pursuing him to a nearby school. Throughout his fight with the Punisher, Barracuda completely lost his wits and sense of fear, while also losing his nose and right arm, before finally being brutally shot several times in the head with his own AK-47.^[1]^[14]

Attributes

Powers

Near superhuman strength.

Abilities

Green Beret Training: Barracuda has undergone full U.S. Army Special Forces training, and all of the courses that it includes.
Expert Hand-to-Hand Combatant: Barracuda was trained in advanced forms of hand to hand combat, and how to incapacitate or kill his opponents as quickly as possible.^{[citation needed]}
Marksmanship: Barracuda was a trained infantryman and sniper, as well as an advanced marksman. Even with only one eye, he is still a crack-shot.
Survival Training: Barracuda has been trained to not only survive, but also to thrive and fight in desert, arctic, mountain, tropical, and urban environments.
Amphibious Training: Barracuda was trained in combat swimming, combat diving, underwater combat, and amphibious assault.
Airborne Training: As well as full HALO, HAHO,LAHO and LALO jump training, Barracuda has also been taught freefall, ecstatic, paragliding, and heliborne insertion.
Medical skills: Barracuda was trained in medicine and field surgery, and has extensive knowledge of how to treat wounds.
Language/cultural Training: Barracuda was taught the language and customs of several cultures, most likely Latino and Arabic ones.
Demolitions Training: Barracuda was taught how to handle explosives in any environment, as well as under water.
Black Ops Training: Barracuda was taught various forms of stealth and infiltration tactics. He is also an experienced escapologist.^{[citation needed]}

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Hockey mask, Bulletproof Vests

Weapons

Military Explosive Weaponry (C-4, Grenades, Land Mines etc.), Assault Weaponry (Handguns, Machine Guns etc.), Heavy Ordnance Weaponry (Rocket Launchers), Hood Knives Collection (mostly switchblades), Machete

Transportation

Hot Rods

Links and References

References

[Punisher_Vol_7_53-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Punisher (Vol. 7) #53

[Punisher_Vol_7_33-2] Punisher (Vol. 7) #33

[Fury_Max_Vol_1_10-3] Fury Max #10

[Fury_Max_Vol_1_10-11-4] Fury Max #10–11

[Fury_Max_Vol_1_12-5] Fury Max #12

[Punisher_Vol_7_34-6] Punisher (Vol. 7) #34

[Punisher_Vol_7_36-7] Punisher (Vol. 7) #36

[Punisher_Presents_Barracuda_MAX_Vol_1_2-8] Punisher Presents Barracuda MAX #2

[Punisher_Presents_Barracuda_MAX_Vol_1_3-9] Punisher Presents Barracuda MAX #3

[Punisher_Presents_Barracuda_MAX_Vol_1_4-10] Punisher Presents Barracuda MAX #4

[Punisher_Presents_Barracuda_MAX_Vol_1_5-11] Punisher Presents Barracuda MAX #5

[Punisher_Vol_7_50-12] Punisher (Vol. 7) #50

[Punisher_Vol_7_51-13] Punisher (Vol. 7) #51

[Punisher_Vol_7_54-14] Punisher (Vol. 7) #54

[15] {[citation needed]}

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