MEDALLION

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Criminal "mastermind"

Group Membership: Leader of Operation: Taxi War and other unidentified operations

Affiliations: Amber, Dr. Morphine, Hopkins, Jared, Mr. Badwrench, Radio Annie, Tjinder

Enemies: Phillip "Philly" Dylan, Quinteshia Lewis, Punisher (Frank Castle), Michael Sagert, Zakir Singh, Daniel Trifoso

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Hidden mansion inside the Mario Cuomo Tower, West 163^rd in New York City

First Appearance: Punisher VI#9 (April, 2002)

Powers/Abilities: He was a crazy megalomaniac seemingly suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder and unhealthy eating habits (just look at him).

(Punisher VI#11 (fb) - BTS) - At one point Medallion thought up a plan involving an Cockroach Army, but no radioactive cockroach was ever seen (OMG, he planned to collaborate with the Cockroach Conspiracy).

  At some point Medallion began to leases taxi medallions, took the drivers' money and then had them killed while he could still repossess the medallions.

(Punisher VI#9 (fb) - BTS) - Victims of this scam included Michael Sagert (in a drive-by shooting on November 17 in Long Island City), Zakir Singh (suspicious brake failure on Brooklyn-Queens Expressway), Quinteshia Lewis (strangulated and later found on Hudson River Trash Barge) and Daniel Trifoso (found slashed in his back seat in Midtown).

(Punisher VI#9) - Medallion called Amber and Jared and wanted an update on the current whereabouts of Philly because he wanted him dead tonight. He didn't care if he was seen driving Johnny Gorto. He ordered Amber and Jared to send Tjinder out with Badwrench's rocket launcher taxi to kill Philly before Medallion lost a quarter million dollars. Medallion hung up and then called Hopkins to tell him to send Mr. Badwrench to him as soon as he had arrived. During the conversations Medallion undressed.

  Only dressed with a towel Medallion welcomed Mr. Badwrench in the parlor and asked him to take off his clothes as well because he had learned over the years that betrayal required more effort from the nude. Mr. Badwrench already knew this and Medallion realized that he was repeating himself. Together the two men sat dressed only with towels on Medallion's couch and talked about Medallion's newest plan Operation: Taxi War. He didn't want any more single hits he now wanted a real war and Badwrench should be his general in this. Medallion saw a seven figure digit profit in all this.

(Punisher VI#10 (fb) - BTS) - The day after Tjinder was shot Medallion saw a cartoon in the Daily Bugle with the Punisher driving a taxi and he knew that this could mean trouble for him.

(Punisher VI#10) - Medallion made an emergency visit to Mr. Badwrench's workshop to tell him that the Punisher was seemingly after them. Mr. Badwrench showed to him the Cabattoir, a driving slaughterhouse, as solution to their problem. When Radio Annie contacted Medallion to tell him that the guy from the cartoon had just become a driver for them Medallion told her that he would send over a car for him. During this entire meeting Medallion was shaved by his blind butler Hopkins.

(Punisher VI#11) - Medallion had stayed up all night. Hopkins brought him breakfast and Medallion told him about all the trouble he currently had and how much time he needed to make a plan to take out the Punisher. During and before this conversation Medallion used his precious time to play Solitaire on his computer and he still found time to eat and drink his breakfast.

(Punisher VI#12) - Medallion called Mr. Badwrench to tell him about a change in plans. He told him to trash the taxi because they would now put everything into ambulances after he had talked to his new doctor, Doctor Morphine, about a promising idea for a plague. He was that everyone would criticize him for not finishing any of his plans, but he hoped that Mr. Badwrench wouldn't be upset. When Mr. Badwrench didn't say anything, Medallion realized that he wasn't talking to Badwrench. He flipped out because he thought it was the Punisher and that he now controlled their taxi arsenal. Dr. Morphine gave Medallion a morphine injection to calm him down. Medallion sent out an order to all his drivers to attack Badwrench's taxi on sight.

  Dressed and calmer than before Medallion told his men over radio about his new plan to gain control of New York City and beyond: Operation: Total Sickness! This new operation would start as soon as they had killed the Punisher. In that moment the Punisher inside the "Battle Cab" dropped through the skylight right onto Medallion and his men and squashed them.

Comments: Created by Tom Peyer & Manuel Gutierrez.

According to Jared Medallion thought of himself as some kind of criminal genius like Goldfinger (the James Bond foe).
Apparently Medallion also stole his idea with naked meetings from a movie with Elliot Gould.

The nude meeting was inspired by the film "The Long Goodbye" with Elliot Gould.
  Elliott Gould played private eye Philip Marlowe.
In the second encounter, Augustine demands that all the men undress in front of the patched-up Jo Ann Eggenweiler (One of these men was played by future governor Arnold Schwazenegger).
--Per Degaton

Operation: Total Sickness should've become bigger than the great Drew Carey. I don't think it was a coincidence that Medallion looked a little bit like Drew Carey.

It occurred to it might be mildly interesting if these two Mulder/Scully "homage" pairs were actually the same couple (see Sculder & Mully. Jared Sculder and Amber Mully. I don't recall how "thoroughly" Blastfurnace killed Sculder and Mully, but if they survived, they could've quit the FBI and eventually gone to work for the Medallion.
--Ronald Byrd

Profile by Markus Raymond.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Medallion should not be confused with:

• any other medallion or fat guy

Amber and Jared have no known connection to:

• anyone else with these names

Dr. Morphine has no known connection to:

• Morphine, head of Skin and Bones Club @ Ghost Rider III#55
• any other characater with a similar name

Phillip Dylan has no known connection to:

• Dylon Cir, of the Lunatic Legion @ Avengers I#364
• any other characater with a similar name

Hopkins has no known connection to:

• Steve Hopkins, student at ESU @ Spectacular Spider-Man II#30
• Claire Hopkins, SHIELD agent @ Nomad II#3
• Detective Hopkins, discovered Clan Akkaba in 1897 @ X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula#1
• any other characater with a similar name

Radio Annie has no known connection to:

• Radio Head, Delta City villain @ Fight Man#1
• any other characater with a similar name

Tjinder has no known connection to:

• any other characater with a similar name

Amber & Jared

(Punisher VI#11 (fb) - BTS) - Jared and Amber were a couple that had been working for Medallion for some time.

(Punisher VI#9) - Medallion told them to get Tjinder to kill Philly. Amber and Jared happily delivered the assignment to Tjinder.

(Punisher VI#11) - Amber and Jared followed the Punisher, who was driving the Cabbatoir, through the city in another cab. When Jared told Amber that he just had to push a button to start the Cabattoir and kill their target, Amber was surprised how easy this would be. Jared then talked with Amber about Medallion's current scheme. He thought about getting a new job because Medallion was second rate. They kissed at a red light and then continued to follow the Punisher to Queens.

  They lost him at "Happy Nappy Diaper Service". When the Punisher didn't get out of the diaper laundry after one hour, they put on masks and went in themselves. They threatened a security guy with their guns to get inside and nearly puked when they smelled the used diapers (they should've put on gas masks). The Punisher already waited for them and kicked them into a tank with used diapers. He disarmed them and asked them who their boss was. Jared wanted to tell him the truth, but Amber told him that it was Mr. Badwrench and then gave him his address. The Punisher whacked them over the head with his guns to knock them out.

  When they regained consciousness they left the diaper laundry shortly after killing the security guard, who wanted to call the police. Back in their taxi they saw the Punisher slowly passing them in a cab. When Amber realized that the Punisher was driving their cab, Jared had already activated the Cabattoir, which slaughtered Jared and Amber.

--Punisher VI#9 (Punisher VI#9, #11

Dr. Morphine

He became Medallion's doctor in the middle of the Taxi Wars. After talking with Medallion a little bit about an idea for a plague, Medallion decided to change his plans. He now wanted to invest all his money into ambulances instead of taxis. Dr. Morphine told Medallion to calm down while Medallion told Mr. Badwrench over phone about the plan change. When Medallion realized that it wasn't Mr. Badwrench on the other side of the line he flipped out and Dr. Morphine had to give him a morphine injection.

  When the Punisher crashed with Badwrench's "Battle Cab" into Medallion's HQ, Dr. Morphine stood right next to Medallion and was seemingly squashed along with him when the taxi dropped onto them.

--Punisher VI#12

Phillip "Philly" Dylan

(Punisher VI#9 (fb) - BTS) - Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday Philly brought the mobster Johnny Gorto home from strip clubs. One night the Punisher beat up Philly and put him into the trunk of his own taxi before becoming the new driver.

(Punisher VI#9) - Philly remained in the trunk while the Punisher killed Johnny Gorto. At a scrapeyard the Punisher disposed of Gorto. He cuffed Philly to the taxi and told him to be quiet or else he would be run over by the cab. Philly told the Punisher that the only reason why he was driving around Gorto was because it protected him from being killed. Philly was now afraid that he would die, but the Punisher promised only to kill him if he continued to work with mobsters. He didn't care if Philly told the police or Gorto's gang because they already knew what he was doing. Philly asked the Punisher for protection, but with a smirk he suggested to Philly to call the police. The Punisher gave Philly a ride back to town and Philly just wanted to get the taxi back to the garage and then get a new job at Burger King. Philly and the Punisher then talked about why Philly thought somebody wanted to kill him and the came to talk about the four murdered cabbies since November. Suddenly their taxi was attacked by another taxi with rocket launchers.

(Punisher VI#10) - Philly was pulled out of the burning taxi by the Punisher. When the Punisher returned from stopping their attacker, Philly was already dead.

--Punisher VI#9 (Punisher VI#9 (fb) - BTS, #9-10

Johnny Gorto

(Punisher VI#9 (fb) - BTS) - Johnny Gorto was member of a criminal organisation. Murder and racketeering was normal to him. Each Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights he sneaked away from his bodyguards and his family to go to strip clubs. There he liked to beat up girls. The taxi driver Philly brought him home on a regular basis.

(Punisher VI#9) - One night Gorto was picked up by Philly's taxi, but the driver was somebody else. When Johnny realized that it wasn't Philly he pulled his gun, but the Punisher was quicker and shot him in the head first. The Punisher then drove to a scrapeyard where he disposed Gorto's corpse.

--Punisher VI#9 (Punisher VI#9 (fb) - BTS, #9

Hopkins

(Punisher VI#9) - Medallion called his blind butler Hopkins in the pantry and told him to bring Mr. Badwrench to the parlor as soon as he arrived.

  Hopkins welcomed Mr. Badwrench with a Mint Julep and told him to meet Medallion in the parlor. Unfortunately he couldn't tell Badwrench if Medallion was wearing any clothes. Badwrench drank the Mint Julep before joining Medallion in the parlor.

(Punisher VI#10) - Hopkins drove (he is blind, but I'm sure the taxi had a cool navigating system) Medallion in his limousine taxi to Mr. Badwrench's workshop. Hopkins shaved Medallion while he talked with Mr. Badwrench about their newest problem the Punisher.

(Punisher VI#11) - Hopkins brought breakfast to Medallion and asked him if he hadn't slept. He regretted that Medallion currently had so much trouble and left to give Medallion the time to plan the destruction of the Punisher.

(Punisher VI#12) - Hopkins witnessed as Medallion flipped out because somebody seemingly got to Mr. Badwrench and he was sure that it was the Punisher. He tried to calm down Medallion without any effect.

  After Medallion had been squashed by the "Battle Cab", Hopkins entered the room and asked if everything was alright. The Punisher kept quiet and waited until Hopkins stood right in front of his gun.

--Punisher VI#9 (Punisher VI#9-12

Radio Annie

Radio Annie worked for Medallion as dispatcher. One day after Philly and Tjinder were killed, the Punisher came into her office to become a taxi driver. Annie recognized him from the Daily Bugle cartoon (Bugle reporter Artis Lee wrote an article about racist drivers because the Punisher didn't stop for him the night before) and gave him papers he had to fill out. She also asked him for his driver's license. Afterwards she informed Medallion that the guy from the cartoon was in her office to become a driver, that she had hired him and that he needed a car. Medallion was ready to send him a very special car: Mr. Badwrench's Cabattoir.

--Punisher VI#10

Tjinder

(Punisher VI#9 (fb) - BTS) - Back home (I suppose in India) Tjinder was a linguist at a big university. Then he came to the United States and became a taxi driver in New York City. He drove ten to twelve hours a day on six and sometimes even seven days a week to pay back Medallion the money he owned him for receiving a taxi licence (he cleared 22.000 dollar the year before).

(Punisher VI#9) - Tjinder was visited by Amber and Jared. In Medallion's name they delivered the assignment to kill Philly to Tjinder, who was shocked that he had to do this.

  Tjinder took Mr. Badwrench's rocket launcher taxi and soon found his target. He shot Philly's cab.

(Punisher VI#10) - The Punisher left Philly's taxi and shot at Tjinder's cab. Tjinder crashed the taxi into a shop and it exploded with Tjinder still in it.

--Punisher VI#9 (Punisher VI#9 (fb) - BTS, #9-10

images: (without ads)
Punisher VI#10, p16, pan3 (main image)
Punisher VI#12, p20, pan1 (head shot)
Punisher VI#11, p7, pan4 (Amber)