Origin
Tiberiu Bulat was born in Romania and grew up in a world of violence and loving it. He formed his own mercenary company with himself and his son in charge and killed Muslims in the Bosnian War for profit and pleasure. His son knowing that NATO once involved in the war would end it quickly and convinced him to move to New York City and set up a forced prostitution ring. Tiberiu found that he enjoyed being a gangster and joyously murdered anyone who opposed his operation and would abuse the slaves they had for his amusement.
Creation
The Tiberiu Bulat character was created by Garth Ennis during his Punisher run on the MAX imprint.
Major Story Arcs
The Slavers
Tiberiu Bulat along with his son Cristu and Vera Konstantin run a forced prostitution ring in New York City, he and his son don’t agree with how to run the business. Tiberiu sticking to his violent upbringing prefers to murder his enemies to keep possible future enemies from trying to make a move against him in the future where as his son would rather let some of their enemies live as a warning to others. Tiberiu also enjoys doing the dirty work of killing and torturing himself which annoys his son who believes his father should take a back seat role in the organization to which Tiberiu mocks him calling him an old woman.
When the Punisher comes after their organization Tiberiu is excited having not had a worthy adversary in years and looks forward to going after Frank Castle. His son on the other hand is worried noting that to him that everyone that goes after the Punisher dies. Tiberiu gets into an argument with his son about this which causes Cristu to storm out of his house and plan to use others to make an attempt on his father’s life. Later on that night Tiberiu wakes up in his bedroom hearing intruders in his house. He kills all the intruders except for one who looks familiar to him. The intruder was a cousin of a black gang member he killed. Upon finding this out Tiberiu tortures him into revealing that a woman called him giving him information on where to find him and that his son was behind the hit. Enraged Tiberiu goes to find his son and kill him.
Tiberiu gathers men loyal to him and finds his son hiding in upstate New York but upon arriving is confronted by the Punisher. He and his men fight Frank Castle and force him to retreat. After, the battle they inspect the home his son was hiding in and find his son’s men dead inside the home. Tiberiu then goes back to New York City and confronts Vera about this knowing she was involved in the attempt on his life but not knowing whether or not the Punisher killed his son or not and leaves two men behind to watch her in case his son resurfaced. He then takes complete control of the forced prostitution ring himself.
Later on the Punisher goes after Tiberiu and catches him and his men by surprise. The Punisher killed Tiberiu’s men outside of the whore house they operated but Tiberius managed to escape inside. Tiberiu then grabbed a slave and held at knife point daring the Punisher to try anything. Frank Castle seeing he had no clear shot at Tiberiu called him a coward in Romanian which enraged Tiberiu causing him to drop his hostage and charge the Punisher with his knife. Frank easily knocked him out. The Punisher then brings Tiberiu to a basement when he was unconscious and waits to wakes up and burns him alive and films it sending the tape to the groups’ eastern European connection as a warning to stop doing business in New York City.
Other Media
Punisher: War Zone (2008 Movie)
Tiberiu Bulat’s son Cristu was arrested by law enforcement agents after being betrayed by Jigsaw. Tiberiu and his Russian mob aid the Punisher going after Jigsaw by murdering many of the members of Jigsaw’s gang in vengeance for what happened to Cristu Bulat.