| “ | It ain't about that for me anymore. I just want to make them feel the pain, the loss, of everything they took from me. And make them pay for it. In blood. | „ |
| ~ Crossbones vows revenge against Captain America. |
Brock Rumlow, also known as Crossbones, is a recurring antagonist in Marvel Cinematic Universe, serving as a major antagonist in Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the opening antagonist of Captain America: Civil War, while his 2012 self appears as a minor antagonist in Avengers: Endgame. Versions of him also appear in the Marvel animated anthology series What If...?, serving as a minor antagonist in "What If... the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?" and as a minor character in both "What If... Thor Were an Only Child?" and "What If... the Watcher Broke His Oath?".
He was portrayed by Frank Grillo.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?
- While he at first seemed like a loyal S.H.I.E.L.D agent and fought alongside Captain America, it was all a façade and he was in fact working with HYDRA all along.
- As a STRIKE commander, he killed many enemies of HYDRA over the years.
- He assisted HYDRA in launching Project Insight, a program to kill million of people who are deemed threats to HYDRA (including Stephen Strange) so that HYDRA could take over the world. Even worse, HYDRA has been undercover within S.H.I.E.L.D for decades preparing for this plan including Rumlow himself. He himself is the one that personally launches the 3 hellicarriers to kill millions of people.
- He tried to kill Captain America and Black Widow because they are threats to HYDRA.
- Even after Captain America revealed HYDRA's plans to S.H.I.E.L.D over a speaker, Rumlow still tried to force a S.H.I.E.L.D agent at gunpoint to launch the hellicarriers for Project Insight while killing multiple S.H.I.E.L.D agents who tried to stop him. When Sharon Carter points her gun at Rumlow, he pretends to surrender only to scratch her arm with a knife to disarm her.
- After escaping from Sharon, he murders several more S.H.I.E.L.D agents and uses their weapons to shoot people before trying to kill Sam Wilson.
- Assaulted and injured his nurse in order to escape from the hospital.
- Abandoned his loyalty to HYDRA, even killing one of his men for saying, “Hail HYDRA” and murdered multiple rival arms dealers, as well as attacking and robbing several police stations across the country.
- Attacks the Institute for Infectious Diseases in Lagos with poisonous gas, killing everyone inside and stole a dangerous bio weapon.
- He trapped Black Widow in the back of a truck and drops a grenade to kill her with two of his own men inside, but she managed to escape from the truck while the two men died from the explosion (one of which from Black Widow using him as a human shield against the explosion).
- When defeated by Captain America, Rumlow taunts him about his best friend Bucky before activating a bomb to kill both Cap and himself with many bystanders in the area who would have been caught in the blast. Even though Cap was saved by Scarlet Witch containing the explosion around Rumlow, she accidentally blows up a building when she loses control, killing 26 people (and would have killed much more if she hadn’t intervened). This became a major plot point when the damage registered the Avengers under the government for their reckless actions, leading to the Sokovia Accords and Scarlet Witch being confined in Avengers HQ.
Trivia
- He is one of three Pure Evil villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to never be the main villain of the films they appear in, along with Arnim Zola and Dormammu.
- He is the only Pure Evil in the live-action movies to lack any superhuman attributes. Red Skull and Zola possessed longevity (albeit it was primarily Zola's consciousness that endured for decades), Malekith possessed an attunement with the Aether, Ronan the Accuser could fire a mysterious purple energy from his hammer that twists peoples' heads at 180-degree angles, Dormammu wielded the full satanic power of the Dark Dimension, Ego had the physiology of a Celestial that let him get away with nearly godlike feats, Hela could conjure weapons, Mysterio emulated the supernatural through his futuristic technological resources, and General Dreykov had a pheromonal lock that was effective against his "widows". This makes the impact and the extent of Crossbones' malevolence that much worse since he still manages to be as atrocious, vile, and heinous as the other nine PEs.
- His three What If...? versions don't count as Pure Evil due to their minimal screentime and lack of heinousness, as the three versions are never shown if they're part of HYDRA or not.
- However, the second Crossbones version hints a darker side due to complaining, albeit played for laughs, how S.H.I.E.L.D. never uses their nukes when Maria Hill desists from launching one towards Party Thor and Captain Marvel, which may be an indicator that such version of Crossbones could be just as evil as the mainstream one.
- Likewise, the third Crossbones seems to have the same role his Sacred Timeline counterpart had up to the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but given Red Skull's early death and Arnim Zola's early capture in the first season premiere, it's unclear if HYDRA still exists in the 21st century of Captain Carter's universe or not.
External Links
- Crossbones on the Villains Wiki
- Crossbones on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
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