Vera Konstantin

Origin

Vera Konstantin is a Romanian who is romantically involved with Cristu Bulat. She and Cristu came up with the idea of creating a forced prostitution ring during the end of the Bosnian War. Unlike Cristu, she figured out not just the business idea of sexual slavery but how to make it work. She came up with the idea of "rape them to break them." Which she explained to Cristu that rapping and beating the kidnapped women they had would make them more controllable since they would be too scared to try and escape or lash out at them since they would be to afraid. Together the two of them along with Cristu's father Tiberiu Bulat formed the forced prostitution ring.

Creation

The Vera Konstantin character was created by Garth Ennis during his Punisher run on the MAX imprint.

Major Story Arcs

The Slavers

Vera and Cristu find out that the Punisher killed one of their men who were selling drugs on the side, and the possibility that one of their prostitutes left the scene with the Frank Castle. After a brief discussion the two of them decide to use their police informant to get the NYPD to go after the Castle before Frank could put the pieces together and find out about their organization. Vera then goes on running the business as usual when she gets a call from Cristu telling her that he's thinking about killing his father. Vera later on gets another call from Cristu saying that he has made up his mind and is going to kill Tiberiu.

Vera aids Cristu in trying to eliminate his father by contacting the cousin of a gang member that the Punisher killed and giving him Tiberiu's location in the hopes they would succeed in killing him. The plan failed and Tiberiu killed the assassins and gives Vera a call to let her know that he is alive and well. Vera then calls Cristu who realizes his father knows that he tried to kill him and tells Vera that he would deal with his father. The next day Tiberiu shows up in Vera's office and lets her know that he encountered the Punisher going after Cristu and that he is not sure if he is still alive or not. Tiberiu also lets Vera know that he is aware of her aid in his assassination attempt but lets her live hoping if his survived he would try and contact Vera.

Sometime after Tiberiu leaves Vera hears a noise in the part of her office where Tiberiu stationed guards and goes out to see what it is. She is terrified to find the Punisher waiting for her. The Punisher then grabs her and lets her know that Cristu told him everything about their business. The Punisher then brutally slams Vera against the windows in her high rise office. Mocking her and making her feel helpless just like the women she tortured brutally in the forced prostitution ring as he slams her repeatedly against the windows. Vera begs the Punisher to stop which he doesn't and finally throws with enough force to bend the frame of the shatterproof glass sending Vera falling several stories to her death outside the building.