Bartholomew Kuma[11] is a former Warlord of the Sea, the former king of the Sorbet Kingdom,[12] and most notably an officer, as well as founding member of the Revolutionary Army with a bounty of 296,000,000.[10] As a pirate, Kuma sailed the seas as a single-person pirate crew.[13][14] He is also the adoptive father of Jewelry Bonney,[15] daughter of his late friend and fellow revolutionary Ginny.[16] Kuma is a member of the near-extinct special race known as the Buccaneers, inherited from his late father Clapp.[17][18]

Because of the lies told to the public by the World Government, Kuma became feared as an extremely vicious pirate,[19] earning himself the title Tyrant.[6] In exchange for curing Bonney of the deadly Sapphire Scales disease, Kuma became a special type of cyborg known as a Pacifista, developed by the world renowned scientist Vegapunk.[20] Once Vegapunk finished his modifications on Kuma, the Warlord was converted into the first complete Pacifista cyborg, with the serial PX-0, and mentally died in the process.[2] Vegapunk also cloned Kuma as S-Bear, one of the Seraphim that were designed to replace the Warlords.[21]

Kuma has been enslaved by the World Nobles twice in his lifetime:[22] The first time was in his infancy until he escaped during the God Valley Incident[23] and the second time in adulthood as punishment for the two years he spent protecting the Thousand Sunny[24], which lasted until his fellow revolutionaries freed him during the most recent Levely.[25]