Crossbones

A ruthless mercenary who has operated as the right-hand man of the Red Skull as well as a member of the Skeleton Crew, Serpent Squad and, surprisingly, Thunderbolts.

Not much is known about the early life of the man that would become Crossbones. As a young man, Brock Rumlow was the leader of a small New York gang. There he encountered a young Diamondback, she wanted to join his gang and he used his size to overpower her and rape her. When she came home her two brothers saw what happened to her and went after Brock for revenge. One of the brothers was killed by Crossbones with a throwing knife and the other left the family in shame to eventually become the mercenary Cutthroat.

As he grew and became more a part of the criminal underworld he began learning about the Red Skull and looked up to him as a god-like figure. After joining Taskmaster's school for criminals, Crossbones worked his way up the ladder and quickly became a teacher. While observing some of his fights, the Red Skull instructed Taskmaster to bring Brock to him. Sometime later he began working for Albert Malik, the man who was claiming to be the Red Skull. He was hired to take a team of mercenaries and break into a castle belonging to the actual Skull. After avoiding defenses and showing some skill with a bow and arrow, a blob-like monster proved to be the ultimate threat. All but one other mercenary was killed and they were taken prisoner by the Skull and Arnim Zola. Brock was interrogated by the Skull and he revealed who his employer was and his dedication to the Red Skull. Rather than kill him, the Skull challenges Brock to a fight in order to test his new body that had been cloned from Steve Rogers. Exhausted from scaling the mountain to get to the castle, Brock is beaten but the Skull sees the evil in him and offers him training and a spot as his new bodyguard. He also gives him his new name, Crossbones.

Powers & Abilities Originally, Crossbones had no powers. However, Crossbones once developed powers as a consequence of Terrigenesis (exposure from the radioactive mist of the Terringen Crystals). These powers allow him to generate intense heat and fire them as beams at his enemies. However, the power vanished when his Thunderbolts teammates showed up. It may have been a subconscious reaction to keep his new powers secret or he may have just exhausted the power.

He possesses peak human strength, speed, and stamina. Daredevil once said Crossbones was difficult to predict in combat due to his high metabolism. He is a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant, being able to go toe-to-toe with Captain America on multiple occasions. Crossbones was trained in combat by the Taskmaster; quickly advancing and becoming a teacher of combat at Taskmaster's school for criminals when he was just a teenager. He is also rather quick for a man of his stature. We've seen him dodge gunfire on various occasions, and Bullseye even remarked on his speed once. Crossbones is an excellent marksman with guns, crossbows, and throwing knives. He was able to tag Troll in the ear while she was lunging. He is experienced with torture and brainwashing methods. For instance, he once effectively "reprogrammed" Sin and almost did the same with Diamondback. Brock is an expert pilot, and has a very high degree of pain tolerance. We've seen him remain silent when an arrow stabbed him in the gut and he recently told Sin it'll "take more than a few bullets and missiles to stop me." He is tough enough to have laughed off Captain America's attacks.

Weapons Various firearms (preferred Weapons: Colt M1911's or Berrettas) and a bowie knife. He also uses a collapsible wrist crossbow, a wrist spike, spring-loaded stiletto blades in his gauntlets, explosives and poisoned knives.