Brock RumlowCrossbones

A ruthless and racist mercenary, Crossbones allies himself with some of the worst the world has to offer, including Johann Shmidt, AKA Red Skull, and Hydra.

Growing Up Mean

Brock Rumlow grows up in New York's Lower East Side among various gangs. A fan of the Red Skull's brutal, hateful exploits, Rumlow establishes the Savage Crims gang. The brothers Leighton—Danny and Ricky—join up and their little sister, Rachel, wants to too. Though Brock assaults Rachel and her brothers seek revenge, including another brother named William. In the following fight, Brock kills William. With that, Rumlow goes on the run and eventually finds his way to Tony Masters, AKA Taskmaster's Academy of Criminal Arts and Sciences. He proves such a good student that he grows to become one of the organization's best instructors. 

Rumlow is selected by the violent and racist super criminal Red Skull as a minion from Taskmaster's school, but he turns out to be a Communist fake by the name of Albert Malik. This pretender sends Brock and a crew of others to attack mad geneticist Arnim Zola's castle stronghold that held the recently reborn Nazi Red Skull, now inhabiting a clone body of Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America. Following a brutal fight between the two, the Skull decides to train this man to become a formidable bodyguard. Brock agrees and is rechristened Crossbones. 

The Worst of the Worst

Brock Rumlow is a peak human specimen. Hardened on the streets of New York City only to be further honed in the ways of both combat and hatred by the Taskmaster and the Nazi Red Skull. Crossbones' hand-to-hand combat skills put him on the same level as Captain America, Frank Castle, AKA Punisher, Matt Murdock, AKA Daredevil, and the like. 

Furthermore, Rumlow has become a world class weapons expert without any form of moral compass to keep him in check. His expertise covers an arsenal's worth of weapons including firearms, rockets, knives, crossbows, flamethrowers, and beyond. For a time, he utilizes gauntlets with retractable blades. He is also an accomplished pilot and survivalist.

When exposed to Terrigen crystals, Crossbones briefly develops the ability to shoot fire-like energy from his cranial area. The power would come and go, though. During an accidental trip to a strange dimension, a fight between Crossbones and Captain America leads to the apparent dissolution of those strange gifts.

More Enemies Than Friends

In his life as a mercenary, Crossbones works with a lot of different killers and criminals, though he usually sees them as a means to an end, either for the mission at hand or a paycheck. However, he repeatedly dedicates himself to the Red Skull and his various endeavors. Taking that a step further, Rumlow finds the Skull's brainwashed daughter Sinthea Shmidt, AKA Sin, and tortures her until she remembers her true, twisted self. The pair have an unhealthy, on-again, off-again romantic relationship. Crossbones is part of organizations, such as the Assassin's Guild, Hydra, the Department of Occult Affairs, and the Thunderbolts. 

Given his disposition and career, Crossbones has made far more enemies than allies. Given his history with Rachel Leighton, AKA Diamondback, and everything he put her through as an adult, she hates him with a passion. Brock has tangled with Captain America the most as well as his close allies like Bucky Barnes, AKA Winter Soldier, Sam Wilson, AKA Falcon, and Sharon Carter. Over the years, he has also gone up against Daredevil, Punisher, Natasha Romanoff, AKA Black Widow, Angelica Jones, AKA Firestar, Wade Wilson, AKA Deadpool, the X-Men, and the Avengers.

Bad to the Crossbones

After years of training with the real Red Skull, Crossbones was sent out by his boss during the hunt for the Bloodstones. Crossbones remained mostly in the shadows and the whole thing was spoiled when the mystic gems fell into an active volcano. Wanting to salvage at least part of the mission, Rumlow kidnapped Diamondback and eventually took the hero to Madripoor where he used her as bait to draw out Captain America. The ploy worked and the two masked men fought. The villain had leveled the playing field in his favor with bear traps and other accoutrements. He even boobytrapped an entire rundown building and caught Cap there, but the hero got away and found Diamondback, who had freed herself from Brock's confines. 

Rumblow's boss chewed him out for not attaining the Bloodstones and for fighting Captain America when he wasn't supposed to. The Skull then sent his lackey out to find any recently escaped super-convicts from the Vault. To that end, he snatched up The Controller and used him to pit Namor McKenzie, AKA Namor the Sub-Mariner, against the Sentinel of Liberty. Brock continued backing the Red Skull when he teamed up with Max Eisenhardt, AKA Magneto, Victor von Doom, AKA Doctor Doom, Mandarin, Wilson Fisk, AKA Kingpin, the Wizard and Loki Laufeyson, AKA Loki, in disguise. Working with The Voice, Crossbones reattained the Controller for the Skull's plans. 

Magneto had no intention of working alongside a Nazi for long and soon defeated the Skull and trapped him in an old fallout shelter. Brock put together the Skeleton Crew—the Voice, Susan Scarbo, AKA Mother Night, and Samuel Saxon, AKA Machinesmith—to find out if the Skull was being kept at the Hellfire Club. He wasn't, but on the group's way out, they ran into the Hellfire Club’s member Selene. After a dust-up, they disappeared when Cap showed up. At that point, Brock remembered Tristram Micawber from the Bloodstone fiasco and he led them to the Skull. With their leader recovered, they all retreated to Skullhouse and even facilitated the boss's wish to see his old enemy once more. 

When Red Skull began producing a drug called Ice, he had Crossbones watching his back. Things got complicated when Captain America was exposed to the substance and became overly aggressive. It didn't take long for the Nazi to send his lapdog after his major competition and one-time ally, the Kingpin. Not one to take being threatened lightly, Kingpin sent Bullseye after Crossbones and his boss which led to a brutal fight. Later, while Kingpin and Red Skull bareknuckle brawled, Crossbones mixed it up with Captain America once more. This time, Rogers defeated Rumlow with a chop to the throat. 

The Skull next tasked Crossbones and the Skeleton Crew—minus the Voice—with finding out who broke into Arnim Zola's castle and stole both the Resurrection Apparatus and the two spare clone bodies meant for the Red Skull. They were on their way to the castle when they got word that the German hero Vormund had kidnapped their Nazi boss. The trio found Vormund along with his compatriots Franz Mittelstaedt, AKA Blitzkrieger, and Zeitgeist and were quickly dispatched. The villains were set to be put on trial, but Machinesmith freed them and they got out of there with some help from Avengers facsimiles built by Zola! Shortly after, the Skull, Crossbones and Mother Night faked their deaths using the same Arnim-created technology so they could focus on bigger operations.

The Skull then ordered the Skeleton Crew to spring Viper from jail. When Crossbones questioned the idea, he was immediately dismissed. From there, Brock traveled to Manhattan to once again kidnap Diamondback and get as much information about Captain America out of her as possible. He kept her in an abandoned subway station for weeks, then moved her to the fallout shelter that the Red Skull had been kept in. He planned on turning her into another version of himself. After a month of brutal training, he gave her a new costume and allowed her to leave the bunker, but he wanted her to steal samples of Captain America's blood from Avengers HQ. 

With the blood and Diamondback in hand, Crossbones drove cross country to present his ill-gotten gains to the Red Skull, but was stunned to find it defended by Jack O'Lantern, Blackwing and Cutthroat, the last of which turned out to be Diamondback's sister. After Crossbones killed Cutthroat in self-defense, the Skull allowed Rumlow to rejoin the Skeleton Crew, but on a probationary basis. Diamondback managed to use her training to nearly escape, but Brock stopped her. When the Sentinel of Liberty finally showed up, he and Crossbones tangled once more. In the ensuing fight, which included Diamondback nearly strangling the mercenary to death, Crossbones caught shrapnel in the back and nearly died, but was taken to the Vault to get patched up. 

For the next six months, Crossbones worked with Dr. Carolyn Lepre first at the Vault and then at Colorado Memorial Hospital on a rehabilitation program. They arrived shortly after a terrorist organization called Fortress showed up. Lepre went to deal with the criminals leaving Crossbones the perfect opportunity to break free. Instead of escaping, though, he confronted Fortress and told them to scram, knowing that saving Dr. Lepre would seem like evidence of his progress and hopefully lead to his freedom. He was still in jail, though a normal one, when a dying Captain America showed up to inquire about the Red Skull's latest plans, but Rumlow either didn't know anything or didn't squeal about what he did know. 

Brock eventually got himself out of lockup and began working as a freelance mercenary. Hydra hired him and Carl Creel, AKA Absorbing Man, to set a bomb, but Captain America encouraged Crusher to stop the explosion after Brock ran off. Having failed and not earned the million dollars he had been promised, Rumlow got in on the action of killing Remy LeBeau, AKA Gambit, but failed to collect the price on the Cajun's head. 

When Red Skull planned on destroying huge parts of major cities to fuel his Cosmic Cube, he put Crossbones in charge of the Manhattan operation. Brock did not set off his bomb, but did find out about his boss' death. Wanting to set a fitting tribute, Brock called the others and told them to set their timers. Without giving away his true identity, the Russian Aleksander Lukin gave Cap's location to Brock a few days later and he brutally attacked the Star-Spangled Avenger looking for revenge. However, Cap was distracted by strange memories and Crossbones left him in the middle of the street, wanting more of a challenge. 

Crossbones then managed to find and free Sinthea Shmidt from the secure military re-education facility where she had been brainwashed and kept. Though she did not initially understand or listen to him when he tried telling her who her true father was, Brock eventually broke her and got the real Sin back. Together they went on a crime spree that brought them to a town called Pilsburg, Iowa which happened to be atop a huge, secret Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) facility. Taking advantage of the ensuing S.H.I.E.L.D. raid, they made off with one of the agents and tortured him until he told them that Lukin had ordered the Skull's death. 

The deadly duo made their way to the outskirts of London and had a plan to kill Lukin that failed. However, they soon discovered that the Red Skull had been inhabiting the Russian's brain and agreed to work with him. The villains began plotting to destroy Captain America, using his surrender at the end of the Super Hero Civil War as the perfect time for an attack. For his part, Brock shot the hero with a sniper rifle from a nearby building, but it was a mind-controlled Sharon Carter who blasted him three times at close range. Rumlow was spotted and chased by Bucky Barnes and Falcon. He jumped out of the chopper to fight them both, got knocked out, and taken in by S.H.I.E.L.D.

Thanks to some assistance from Stephen Strange, AKA Doctor Strange, James Howlett/Logan, AKA Wolverine, and Daredevil paid Crossbones a visit while he was imprisoned about the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. They found out that Rumlow's mind had been toyed with so that he literally did not know anything about what he did or who he was working for. This memory loss was later confirmed for S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, by Professor Charles Xavier, AKA Professor X. With that, Stark scheduled a transfer for Rumlow to the Raft, but Sin sprung him with help from her new Serpent Society. 

Brock and Sin got back to the Kronas building in time to throw down with Barnes, who wanted revenge for Rogers' death. The former Winter Soldier made short work of the pair, but was felled by a secret code word uttered by Lukin. Before long, Barnes escaped captivity and became the new Captain America. Crossbones didn't have to wait long to fight this new shield-slinger. He even managed to hurt Cap pretty badly, but he wasn't expecting to take several rounds in the chest, which led to another jail sentence for Rumlow, this time at a HAMMER facility. When he found out that Sin had been placed in the same jail, Brock broke a guard's neck and ran for her. He found Sin, but was gassed shortly after. 

After some illicit behind-the-scenes moves by HAMMER's Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin, Crossbones and Sin were freed and got back with Red Skull who had inhabited one of Arnim Zola's robotic bodies. They then worked with Doctor Doom in Latveria to first find Captain America's time-lost body and then place the Skull's consciousness inside of it. When the inevitable battle with the Super Heroes came, Rumlow commanded a Super-MODOK Squadron. Still, Steve Rogers managed to take his body back and the collected heroes destroyed the Skull's robot body. 

After the fall of HAMMER and the villains' Siege of Asgard, Luke Cage was made the leader of the Super Villain rehabilitation program known as the Thunderbolts. However, its overseers demanded that the incarcerated Crossbones be put on the team. He was expected to perform certain tasks and was injected with nanites that could incapacitate him and the others if need be. Brock failed a loyalty test and experienced the tiny tech's capabilities first hand. For missions, he was outfitted with non-lethal ordinance. 

After a fairly successful mission against Trolls, the T-Bolts were sent to investigate some Terrigen crystals. While fighting monsters, Brock was exposed to the mists. Later, during a fight with Hand ninjas under Shadowland, Brock developed the ability to shoot some kind of energy stream, possibly fire, from his facial area, though he could not consistently access the new power. 

Concerned that the program was about to fold, T-Bolts Crossbones, Ghost, and Cain Marko, AKA Juggernaut, made a move that sent them, Cage, Captain America, and Iron Man to another dimension. There, Rumlow did manage to use his new powers against Rogers, but the Sentinel of Liberty took him out, but his face was mangled by his own new power. Afterwards, he was bandaged and returned to his cell, no longer a part of the team. It was theorized that his newfound power had been burnt out in that strange place. 

Rumlow remained in the clink until an unnamed government agent approached him about finding a kid in a place called Hazar. He agreed and soon found himself hunting down a kid in a place overrun by monsters. Brock saw himself in the young boy, but still pushed him out of a helicopter so that the government wouldn't be able to experiment on him and his immunity to the monster virus they introduced to the isolated city. 

When one of Cul Borson's hammers crashed into the Raft, Rumlow took the opportunity to escape, using everyone around him to do so. He mixed it up a bit during Sin's turn as Skadi, though he did not work directly with her. During this time, he shot Gravity and also fought Firestar, Eugene Patilio, AKA Frog-Man, Delilah “Dee Dee” Dearborn, AKA Geiger, and Ben Reilly, AKA Scarlet Spider. He ran off, though, after Gravity got back up. 

After Sin was partially transformed into Skadi wielding an Asgardian hammer and nearly destroyed the world alongside Cul Borson, she wanted to track the hammers down and reacquire them. She hired her old flame Crossbones to get every bit of info on their locations as possible. With the aid of a kind of Asgardian divining stone, Brock managed to find Mokk's in Paris and get it back to his new boss. He and Sin then went underwater to grab Nerkkod's hammer, which led to a brief battle with Namor. Still, they swam away with the prize. Later, he led the Department of Occult Affairs on a raid of the Raft to snatch Skirn's bludgeon. 

Next, Brock and Sin hit Project: Pegasus for another weapon. While Sin and the DOA distracted the Avengers, Crossbones snuck to the holding facility where Wolverine was waiting. The mutant would have killed the Nazi sympathizer had Daimon Hellstrom, AKA Hellstorm, not blasted Logan and healed Brock with Hellfire because he wanted to chat with Sin. Once back at their base, though, Rumlow had a crisis of conscience when he realized that his lady wanted to destroy the entire world. After she entered her endgame, he passed some magical information along to Doctor Strange in hopes he could use it to stop her. He then left with Sin's body while her mind inhabited a version of the Destroyer. He took her to the Dunwich Catacombs where she awoke after Samantha Parrington, AKA Valkyrie, defeated the Serpent's Destroyer and became the head of the DOA. 

Later, Crossbones agreed to work for Otto Octavius, AKA Doctor Octopus, during his bid to blow up the world. He was charged with keeping an eye on the Jerusalem missile site where he shot Sabra. When that plot failed, he and the DOA went on a hunt for Hellmarks, including the one on Mania. She had Flash Thompson, AKA Agent Venom, at her back who got into a knock-down, drag-out fight with Crossbones that nearly resulted in the mercenary's death. 

When a $10 million price got put on Deadpool's head, Crossbones had no intention of going after him until the Merc with a Mouth walked right in front of his car. The two fought, but Wilson hit him with a horse and then tied his adversary into a hot air balloon. When Rumlow came back for revenge, Wilson beat him nearly to death to send a message that he should not be trifled with. After healing up, Crossbones escaped from prison, but was quickly tracked down and re-captured by Shang-Chi. 

Brock didn't stay locked up for long. When a South American crime lord captured an injured Punisher, Crossbones' boss paid the highest amount for him and the mercenary went to collect. However, Castle broke out and ran into the jungle, but was ultimately grabbed by Rumlow. After the mercenary escaped he ran directly into Black Widow, who incapacitated him and sent him back to jail. 

After some trouble with Elektra Natchios, AKA Elektra, and the Assassin's Guild, Brock got out once again and found his place in the Assassin's Guild. Crossbones got back together with Sin to join up with Helmut Zemo, AKA Baron Zemo's Hydra located in Bagalia. When Sam Wilson showed up as Captain America, Brock was sent out to find him. Rumlow got close to killing this new Captain America, but he was saved by an undercover Misty Knight, who knocked Brock out cold. Soon after, he was called by the Ruby of Cyttorak and fought Firestar again, but was teleported away by Megan Gwynn, AKA Pixie.

Crossbones was left to guard an operation that involved getting a S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist onto a decommissioned helicarrier and setting up his latest experiments, with the big brain none the wiser that he was really working for Hydra. Sam Wilson made short work of Rumlow and delivered him to S.H.I.E.L.D. for incarceration. Maria Hill put him in Pleasant Hill where his mind and body were re-written so he thought he was your average small town denizen until Baron Zemo and the others figured out the con and decided to break out. Crossbones nearly beat the then-elderly Steve Rogers to death, but Kobik—the living Cosmic Cube—gave him his youth back and also reprogrammed his very being to be secretly loyal to Hydra, which she was manipulated into doing by her best friend: the Red Skull. Crossbones met up with the Red Skull clone possessing Professor X's brain and evacuated with Sin driving the getaway ship. 

With the help of Crossbones and Sin, the Red Skull began amassing a fanatical, devoted Hydra army. This did not sit well with the Hydra-dedicated Captain America. Still, when that shield-slinger killed the Skull, Crossbones remained loyal to Hydra. 

After the eventual fall of the false Captain America, Rumlow took a variety of jobs. He was back working for Zemo alongside Taskmaster and Ghost when Punisher got his hands on a War Machine armor and sought revenge for being duped into working for the evil Captain America during Secret Empire Hydra. Zemo gave Brock an armor upgrade of his own to take on the threat. They got the Punisher out of his armor and Rumlow was a trigger-pull away from killing Castle, but was stopped by Bobbi Morse, AKA Mockingbird, Bucky Barnes, Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, and Natasha Romanoff, AKA Black Widow. Not long after, Crossbones was stabbed by Deadpool when he answered Bella Donna Boudreaux's call to kill the Merc with a Mouth for the Assassin's Guild. 

It didn't take long for Crossbones to get back to Sin and help establish a Neo-Hydra island base in the Pacific Ocean. They made their first big move when Claudine Renko, AKA Miss Sinister, revealed that Quentin Beck, AKA Mysterio, could make Old Man Logan think he was attacking villains when really he was going after—and killing—heroes. Though Brock didn't like dealing with an illusionist and a telepath, he followed Sin's lead when she wanted to test the idea out in Times Square. However, Mysterio switched allegiances and told the heroes where the base was. When they attacked, the illusionist and Miss Sinister made the Neo-Hydra agents think they were seeing Old Man Logan and fired, but it was actually Crossbones. Both he and Sin were taken into custody after the conflagration ended with a question looming about whether Rumlow would even survive. 

Meanwhile, Crossbones joined up with Bullet, Alexsei Sytsevich, AKA Rhino, Wilbur Day, AKA Stilt-Man, and Bullseye to bring chaos to Hell's Kitchen. When Daredevil got on the scene, Brock managed to shoot him in the leg. They may have even killed the hero had Kingpin not smashed Rumlow in the face with brass knuckles. The Man Without Fear then took down the mercenaries with skill and precision. 

But no matter how many times Crossbones gets put down, he's too mean and awful to stay down for long.