Character Profile: Brock Rumlow a.k.a. Crossbones

If you have seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier then you have met and are possibly very curious about Frank Grillo's character Brock Rumlow.

Spoiler Alert follows if you haven't seen the movie!!!!

Brock Rumlow in the movie is an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. who is the leader of the S.T.R.I.K.E. team within S.H.I.E.L.D. His team helps out Captain America execute his missions for Nick Fury. Rumlow and his team later revealed to be HYDRA agents and Rumlow is badly injured in a fight against Falcon.

Fans of the Captain America comics probably saw this reveal coming however because in the comics Brock Rumlow is known as Crossbones, a HYDRA assassin and a regular enemy of Captain America. So who exactly is Crossbones and how might Marvel use him in their Cinematic Universe? Let us explore:

Crossbones first appeared as a part of the Bloodstone Hunt storyline and his first appearances were in #359 as a cameo and the full reveal in #360 both in October of 1989.


 Here is the first cover image of Crossbones in #362, he is on the bottom left with the crossbow.
His first feature on the comic came in #363. Both of these comics debuted in November 1989

In the comics, Brock Rumlow was the leader of the Savage Crims gang in New York. Brock fled New york and entered the Taskmaster's school for criminals. Taskmaster was a known enemy of the Avengers. After honing his skills for three years, he became a mercenary and entered HYDRA  and it was the Red Skull Johann Schmidt who gave him the codename Crossbones.  After this he became a regular enemy of Captain America until the Red Skull's disappearance at the hands of Magneto.

Crossbones then formed the Skeleton Crew from the Red Skull's remaining followers and they became a band of mercenaries who served the Red Skull.  It was in this capacity that Crossbones battled many Marvel Heroes including Daredevil, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine and other various Avengers. He has also been a member of the Thunderbolts which is a team of reformed super villains similar to DC's Suicide Squad, though he is later discharged from the Thunderbolts after he gained the ability to shoot fire at his enemies and used it against Captain America.

He is a deadly assassin who's skills rival that of Captain America. He has even been credited with the death of Captain America in the Marvel Civil War storyline.

His future in the Marvel Cinematic Universe seems likely as after suffering heavy injuries from his fight against Falcon at the Triskelion, he is seen being rushed into surgery. Also since the Winter Soldier went rogue at the end of the movie, HYDRA is going to need a new top assassin. His injuries would probably lead him to wear his usual Skull mask. Since Captain America 3 is already slated for 2016, I believe it highly likely that Crossbones will be a part of Captain America's continuing fight against HYDRA. It is entirely possible that they have Crossbones put Steve Rogers out of commission for a while and have Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier take up the mantle of Captain America similar to the events of Marvel's Civil War storyline. Crossbones would be a formidable enemy for Cap to face on screen, but would probably be missing his flame breath.

More information on Crossbones available on Wikipedia.

Another Marvel easter egg is that the S.T.R.I.K.E. team that Rumlow led was a nod to the S.T.R.I.K.E. counter-terrorism agency as the British version of S.H.I.E.L.D. and was first introduced in Captain Britain Weekly #17. More information on S.T.R.I.K.E. can be found on Wikipedia.