Barracuda is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is an enemy of the Punisher. Created by Garth Ennis and Goran Parlov, the character first appeared in The Punisher vol. 7 #31 (May 2006). Barracuda is depicted as a cheerfully optimistic and sadistic mercenary and gangster of great physical strength and endurance who commits various atrocities such as rape, mass murder, kidnapping and cannibalism.
Publication history
The character made his first appearance in The Punisher vol. 7 #31 (May 2006), and was created by Garth Ennis and Goran Parlov.
In a panel at the 2008 Philadelphia Wizard World comic book convention, Garth Ennis stated that the basis for Barracuda was Stagger Lee, a folk song about "a large terrifying man and the terrifying things he does to people".
Barracuda was introduced in a story-arc that lasted from The Punisher vol. 7 #31 to #36. This was to be the character's sole appearance, though at the urging of his editor, Ennis had Barracuda survive the story; this led to Barracuda starring in the five-issue miniseries The Punisher Presents: Barracuda, then being killed off in a storyline that spanned The Punisher vol. 7 #50-54. Barracuda was then featured, via flashbacks to his time in South America in the 1980s, in Fury: MAX #10-12.
Fictional character biography
Barracuda was born to an African-American father and Biracial mother of Black, French and Irish descent in Boynton Beach, Florida and grew up in Boca Raton, as the eldest of two brothers and a sister. His father served in the 827th Tank Destroyer Battalion during World War II. An abusive alcoholic, his father burned Barracuda's hand on a grill while telling him to be "hard as the world itself" the night before abandoning his family.
Barracuda cared for his brother and sister for some time. His brother died and his sister became a prostitute and drug addict.
He got into a fight in elementary school where he shoved his thumbs into a classmate's eyes. After castrating a would-be attacker while in a youth detention center, Barracuda was recruited by the U.S. Army. As a Green Beret, Barracuda's A-team helped the CIA install Leopoldo Luna, a South American dictator in the 1980s. He was also responsible for drug-running in Nicaragua to fund the Contras and committed atrocities against local villages to ensure no resistance; when Colonel Nick Fury investigated, Barracuda humiliated him by making it clear that the CIA and Congress would bury any report, as it implicated too many people. The team went AWOL in Central America after that, though Fury was able to find and attack him five years later. According to his recollection, in another mission in Africa he engaged in cannibalism to prove his masculinity.
After leaving the military, he became a feared gangster. At one point he was arrested at the site of a gangland massacre. He had been snorting lines of cocaine off a severed head. He spent time in jail afterward where he struck a profitable partnership with Harry Ebbing, a corrupt and violent CEO.
Fighting the Punisher
Years later Ebbing hires him to assassinate the Punisher, who is investigating Ebbing's corporation, Dynaco (a parody of Enron). Ebbing plans to sabotage Florida's power grid for profit. The Punisher wishes to stop this plan because it would result in the deaths of many innocent people.
During his fight with the Punisher, Barracuda loses an eye and the fingers on his right hand. Although Barracuda wins the fight and could easily kill his opponent then and there, he takes the Punisher out to sea so he can watch him be killed by sharks. When the Punisher informs him that he has lost the chance to have his fingers reattached (by putting them on ice without using a plastic bag, since direct ice contact kills the nerve endings), Barracuda simply laughs at his own carelessness. He tosses the Punisher overboard, along with Horace, a local gangster that had wronged him. Barracuda thinks a great white had eaten them both. The Punisher survives and escapes by hanging onto the boat.
Barracuda becomes deeply involved with Dynaco and the affairs of the CEO's mistress and his right-hand man Dermot. The plan is to set Dermot up as the new CEO during a shareholder fishing trip. Dynaco's plans, leaked to the media, result in the CEO committing suicide. Dermot ends up talking with the Punisher over the radio. With the full backing of the shareholders Dermot states they can do what they want; the Punisher cannot touch them.