Barracuda is a French adventure comic series focused on piracy. Written by Jean Dufaux, drawn and colored by Jérémy Petiqueux, it has six volumes published by Dargaud between 2010 and 2016. An English translation was later published by Cinebook. The plot describes the lives of three teenagers, Maria, Raffy and Emilio or Emilia, on a fictional island called Puerto Blanco, in the Caribbean, while pirate captain Blackdog hunts a legendary diamond.
The action takes place in the 17th century, mainly in the Caribbean. The story features three teenagers: Raffy is the son of the pirate Blackdog, who commands the ship Barracuda; Maria Sanchez Del Scuebo, wife of a slave trader called Ferrango, becomes the lover of Raffy ; Emilio, now Emilia, learns weapons under the protection of Mr. Flynn, his mentor and lover. Many secondary characters weave their intrigue around them. Aboard the Barracuda, Blackdog searches for the Kashar, the largest diamond in the world, reputed to be cursed.
Tropes in Barracuda:
- Attractive Bent-Gender: Emilo was a moderately attractive, if slightly fey, boy. After become the Wholesome Crossdresser Emilia, he is a strikingly beautiful young woman.
- Blasting It Out of Their Hands: In "Scars", Scudd sees a pirate about to throw a knife into Raffy's back and shoots the knife out of the blackguard's hand. The pirate loses several fingers along with the knife.
- Cannibal Tribe: Having led his crew to his loss, Blackdog ends up on an island populated by cannibals, the Moori, whose sorcerer, Penilla, wants to get hold of the jewel.
- The Cavalier Years: Set during The Golden Age of Piracy.
- Couldn't Find a Lighter: In "Cannibals", Fine Flame insolently lights her cigarillo from the candle besides Raffy's sickbed as she is tormenting him.
- Death Glare: Maria possess an extremely intense one. When she strips off her gown at the Slave Market and stands naked on the auction block before the crowd, she manages—without saying a word—to cow the audience so much that they fall silent and make none of the catcalls or lewd comments they made when her mother suffered her Shameful Strip.
- Decapitation Presentation: In "Scars", Maria has a covered tray placed on the table before her husband Ferrango. When she lifts the cloche, the tray holds the severed head of one of the slaves he had used to have her flogged three years earlier. She then has the head mounted on a spike outside his bedroom window, with its dead eyes staring in at him.
- Defiant Strip: After her mother suffers a Shameful Strip on the auction block at the Slave Market in "Slaves", Maria throws off the hands of the slavers as they come for her and voluntarily removes her gown and stands naked in front of the market: cowing the audience with her Death Glare.
- Disguised in Drag: When the Blackdog's pirates capture the Spanish ship, Dona Emilia dresses the servant boy Emilio in her daughter's clothes to save him from the pirates, who are killing all the men. Emilio makes a very convincing girl and is sold as a female slave. He also discovers that he likes dressing as a woman and becomes a Wholesome Crossdresser and one of the most heroic characters in the story.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Blackdog has a web of wicked looking scars crisscrossing the left side of his face (and where his left eye used to be).
- Grievous Bottley Harm: In "Scars", Raffy smashes a bottle into the face of a pirate who is taunting him for being a coward.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Everyone on Puerto Blanco refers to the Governor either as 'Governor' or 'Excellency'.
- Eyepatch of Power: Blackdog the pirate wears a tattered red silk bandana tied across his missing left eye, which adds to his fearsome appearance.
- Frame-Up: Back in London, Morkham stole Flynn's pistol and used it to murder Flynn's sister Virginia: forcing Flynn to go on the run.
- Impaled Palm: In an act of insane bravado and drunkenness, Raffy nails his own hand to a tavern table with a dagger while vowing to take on every man in the place in "Scars".
- Interrupted Suicide: In "Scars", a drunken Raffy attempts to commit Suicide by Sea, but is pulled from the water by Maria's servants after he passes out.
- Left for Dead: Flynn made the mistake of assuming that Morkham was dead after their first duel. It was only when he realised that he had lost his pistol and returned to look for it did he discover that Morkham was gone, along with his pistol.
- Made a Slave: Maria, Emilio (who is disguised as a girl at the time) and Maria's mother Dona Emilia are captured by Blackdog and sold to slave dealer Ferrango who sells them on. Emilio is brought by Mr. Flynn, Dona Emilia by monks, and Ferrango keeps Maria as his personal property.
- Master Swordsman: The series is full of characters who are experts with a blade, but Flynn is almost universally acknowledged as being the finest swordsman in the Wretched Hive of Puerto Blanco.
- Mineral MacGuffin: The MacGuffin that everyone is seeking (but especially Blackdog and his crew) is the Kashari diamond: the largest in the world , known for never having left anything but death and desolation in its wake.
- Not-So-Safe Harbor: Puerto Blanco is a small island in the Caribbean, free from the control of any of the colonial powers, that is a haven for prates, slavers and smugglers.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted. Maria's mother (who is a major character in the first volume) is Dona Emilia, and Emilio adopts the name Emilia first when he is Disguised in Drag and keeps it when he becomes a Wholesome Crossdresser.
- One-Word Title: Not only the series as a whole, but also each of the individual volumes, which are (in English): "Slaves", "Scars", Duels", "Revolts", "Cannibals", and "Deliverance".
- Open Shirt Taunt: In "Scars", Raffy corners Maria and aims a pistol at her chest. She responds by ripping open the bodice of her dress to expose her breast and begging him to shoot.
- Outlaw Town: Puerto Blanco is a small island in the Caribbean, free from the control of any of the colonial powers, that is a haven for prates, slavers and smugglers.
- Painted-On Pants: The Governor wears black leather pants that cling to her extremely shapely legs and ass like a second skin. It's a miracle that she can walk at all.
- Pirate: Piracy is a major theme of the comic and many of the characters at pirates. However, for the most part, these pirates are not romantic rogues, but ruthless seagoing murderers.
- Pride Before a Fall: Maria starts as a haughty young noblewoman, still in her teens, but in the first volume she is captured by pirates and sold into slavery. She is thoroughly demeaned and defiled, when she hits rock bottom, she resolves to take back control of her destiny, and begins her totally ruthless climb back to the top.
- Shameful Strip: When Dona Emilia is being sold as a slave in "Slaves", the crowd demands to see what they're buying, so the slavers rip her top off.
- Slave Market: Puerto Blanco is a Not-So-Safe Harbor on a small island in the Caribbean, free from the control of any of the colonial powers, that is a haven for prates, slavers and smugglers, so it is no surprise that it has slave market. It is run by the slave dealer Ferrango, who later falls under the thrall of Maria, one of his slaves.
- Suicide by Sea: In "Scars", a drunken Raffy attempts to kill himself by laying face down on the beach allowing the incoming tide to wash over him. It becomes an Interrupted Suicide when Maria's servants pull him from the water after he passes out.
- A Taste of the Lash: In an effort to break Maria to his will, Ferrango has her stripped to the waist and flogged so brutally that it tears up her back and almost kills her. It does not break her and, if anything, only strengthens her resolve.
- Third-Person Person: The Governor's assistant Tar always refers to himself in the third person.
- Troubling Unchildhood Behavior: At the start of the story, Rafi is already a seasoned killer despite being no more than 13 years old. When they attack a ship, his father Blackdog demands that Rafi kill two men for every one he does, and Rafi complains that it is not a hard enough challenge. He is also a seasoned enough drinker that he can down an entire bottle of rum and experience no more than mild drunkenness.
- Two-Faced: The evil pirate captain Morkham had his right cheek laid open by a sword slash from Flynn during a duel. A bungled job of stitching left him with the entire right side of his face puckered in by a wicked scar.
- Vehicle Title: The comic named after Blackdog's ship, the Barracuda.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Emilio, now Emilia, is a servant on the Spanish ship carrying Dona del Scuebo and Maria. He cultivates a troubled identity. Dressed as a young girl, he is sold as a slave to Mr. Flynn, who teaches him how to handle weapons and then becomes her lover. Emilia learns that he is being chased by a villain named Morkam. Morkam having killed Flynn, Emilio inherits from his mentor and decides to avenge him.
- Woman Scorned: Fine Flame is a prostitute who is deeply in love with Raffy, who rejects her. Humiliated, she wants revenge: she helps the Spanish to take control of Puerto Blanco and became governor, using Raffy as bait.
