Rachel Cole (Earth-616)

Just hours after Rachel Cole's wedding to surgeon Daniel Alves, a gang war erupted, resulting in the deaths of twenty-nine people at their wedding reception, including her new husband.^[1]

Severely injured, Rachel awoke in the hospital when she realized her whole family was dead. Her only companion was Daily Bugle reporter Norah Winters, who was following the massacre, the Exchange's involvement, and the Punisher's crusade against them. Over the next three months, Rachel went through rehab and developed a close friendship with Norah. However, she had been using their friendship so that she could secretly use her notes on the Exchange to plot her revenge.^[2]

Eventually, she went to an Exchange meeting of managers and supervisors and silently took out everyone in the building using the skills she developed as a Marine sergeant. There, she encountered the Punisher, out to deliver his own brand of punishment to the Exchange.^[3] Since both of them wanted to destroy the Exchange, they formed an alliance.

Omega Effect[]

During a mission, they heard from a Black Spectre agent that Daredevil was in possession of the Omega Drive, a data drive containing information on numerous criminal organizations. They confronted Daredevil and tried to take the drive from him, but he and Spider-Man did not want them to use it for killing,

Instead, Punisher and Rachel agreed to help Daredevil and Spider-Man destroy it since it meant they would get to fight crime for a night, the only rule being that they could not kill anyone. Their plan nearly succeeded until Rachel turned on them and stole the Omega Drive so that she could use it to exact her revenge on the Exchange. In the end, Daredevil convinced her to return the drive, after which she abandoned them.

She soon returned to the Punisher, who had recently learned that her reasons for hunting the Exchange were tied to her sentimental feelings toward her husband. Thinking that she would not be effective and would act on emotion, Frank forced her to burn her wedding photo.

Bringing Down the Exchange[]

Rachel and the Punisher later infiltrated an illegal weapons auction and stole one of Dr. Octopus' tentacles and used it as bait to get close to the Exchange's leader, Stephanie Gerard, who believed she was one step ahead of them. However, when Rachel met with Gerard in her office, Frank destroyed the bulletproof and blast proof windows protecting Gerard with a bullet tipped with the adamantium found inside Dr. Octopus' tentacle and filled the room with gas, giving Rachel a chance to strangle Gerard to death.

However, Gerard's business and romantic partner Christian Poulsen witnessed her murder and called the police before going on a murdering rampage, which he blamed on the Punisher in his call, while Rachel and Frank attempted to flee the building. When the police arrived, two were killed by Poulsen, but they were convinced that the Punisher was responsible. As Rachel and the Punisher confronted Poulsen, Detective Walter Bolt lead a team into the building to stop the killer, but the gas-filled room obscured everyone's view and Rachel killed Bolt by mistake.

Despite escaping, the shooting was pinned on them and they had to separate. But Rachel was so overcome with guilt over Bolt's death that she called Norah Winters and confessed everything to her, including the fact that the Punisher is innocent, knowing that her phone was tapped by police, and put herself in the open for snipers to kill her. While the Punisher knocked the snipers out, Norah and Bolt's partner Detective Oscar Clemons, who believed her innocence, tried to bring her to safety.

But she wanted so badly to be killed that she threatened to shoot Clemons to give the snipers reason to fire. But when she attempted to shoot, she realized that Frank removed the firing pin and fell to the ground in tears, damning him for letting her live before being brought into custody.^[4]

Facing the Death Penalty[]

She was imprisoned on Ryker's Island and potentially faced lethal injection. Black Widow, disguised as a woman working for the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, attempted to get her to give up the Punisher's potential whereabouts so that his testimony could save her from the death penalty. But Rachel still wished to die and refused to help her.^[5] Eventually, she was found guilty on all counts.^[6] As she went to court for sentencing, Frank returned to break her out.^[7]

Shortly thereafter, aided by Wolverine, Frank helped her escape the pursuing Avengers while he was subsequently captured. She was later seen in Los Angeles continuing Frank's mission.^[8]

War On the Streets[]

After the Punisher was hunted by Mayor Fisk and the newly reformed Thunderbolts in the streets of New York City, Rachel joined forces with other vigilantes like Moon Knight and Night Thrasher to aid Castle in his crusade to stop Zemo.^[9]

Military training in her days as a Marine sergeant

Various high-powered firearms.