Civil War: Who is Crossbones?

Captain America: Civil War is coming to theaters on May 6, and the film will be revolving around the well-established characters of the Marvel cinematic universe. One of the characters making an appearance in the film is the villainous Crossbones, most noted as one of the characters involved in the death of Steve Rogers in the 2006 comic series, Captain America. Who is Crossbones though? From what we know, how does the theatrical version differ from his comic book counterpart?

Frank Grillo plays Crossbones, who you may remember as Brock Rumlow from Captain America: Winter Soldier. In that film, Rumlow is a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was secretly working for Hydra. When the tide turned and Hydra revealed themselves, Rumlow was one of the top men, fighting the battle on the ground. He was inside the Triskelion building when a Helicarrier crashed into it at the end of the film. However, he was pulled out, alive, with burns and injuries to his face and body. Now, he's back but in a very different costume.

Brock Rumlow, also known as Crossbones, had a very different origin in the comic book. He was never a part of S.H.I.E.L.D. nor was he a direct member of Hydra, but he was affiliated with one of their off-shoot groups. He was a leader of a small gang in New York, who idolized Red Skull and everything he did (Red Skull cheated death a lot in the comics at the point). Rumlow joined a school for criminals run by the infamous Taskmaster. After training and a few fights, Red Skull sees the potential in him and makes Rumlow his personal bodyguard, giving him the name Crossbones.

Crossbones' biggest moment came from a post-Civil War comic: Captain America #25. Crossbones fired off one of the shots that ended up killing Steve Rogers. This was all a part of a larger plan by Red Skull, but Crossbones' mind had been erased, so not even Charles Xavier could get any information out of him.

After those events, Crossbones, who was normally accompanied by his girlfriend Sin (Red Skull's daughter), found himself involved in minor plots here and there but he hasn't had the same impact on the Marvel universe since.

There is obviously a big difference in the look between the two characters. The outfits are similar: Both have a mercenary look to them and the Crossbones logo is on the character's chest in the film version. In addition, the film version has these metal contraptions over his fists, as seen in the picture at the top of the page. We know these are removable as there have been shots of the character without them on. This will help Crossbones in hand-to-hand combat and add an extra punch while fighting Captain America.

However, the big difference, from what we've seen in the trailers, is that it seems that Crossbones either has his own group or is part of a group of mercenaries. Take a look at a screencap from the first trailer.

In the background, walking with his gun at his side, is Crossbones. He appears with these other gunmen, but he's always behind all of them. This leads us to believe that he's most likely in charge of this mercenary group, but the question remains: "Are they affiliated with either Hydra or Captain America's supposed dead foe, Red Skull?" Considering that Baron Zemo is also a part of this film, Crossbones could be teamed up with him as well. It seems like Marvel has taken the same liberties with this character as they have with everyone else. They took a comic book character who was a little over-the-top and grounded him for the big screen.

We'll have to wait until May 6 to find out more when Captain America: Civil War comes to theaters. Want to know more about the film? Check out GameSpot's review.