Young Brock Rumlow led the Savage Crims gang on New York's lower east side. After he brutalized fifteen year old Rachel Leighton, two of her brothers assaulted Brock; the elder of whom was killed. Rumlow fled, entering the Taskmaster's school for criminals, and within three years became an instructor there under the name Bingo Brock. As a mercenary, he enlisted with the communist Red Skull (Albert Malik) in Algeria, serving him as "Frag" until he was sent to invade Arnim Zola's Switzerland chateau. Ultimately the only team member to survive the assault, Rumlow there met and impressed the Nazi Red Skull; this Skull accepted Brock’s services, code-naming him “Crossbones.”
Sent to retrieve the five Bloodstone fragments of Ulysses Bloodstone, Crossbones shadowed Baron Helmut Zemo's search for them. While Zemo battled Captain America, Crossbones knocked out Captain America's pilot, John Jameson, and stole two Bloodstone fragments; when he got near the other three, the five combined to re-animate Baron Heinrich Zemo's corpse under control of the alien Hellfire Helix. Unobserved, Crossbones destroyed the Helix (worn on the corpse's forehead) with a crossbow bolt. Brock then kidnapped Captain America's ally Diamondback, using her as bait to trap Captain America; but when the Skull learned of Crossbones' involvement with the Captain, he ordered Crossbones to flee.
Crossbones recruited the Controller and Voice to serve the Skull, led the Skeleton Crew against the Hellfire Club’s Selene, and, using psychic Tristan Micawber, located the Skull after Magneto had kidnapped him. Crossbones later attempted assassinating the Kingpin, was stopped by Typhoid Mary, and battled Bullseye when the Kingpin retaliated.
Crossbones led the Skeleton Crew when they were captured by the Schutz-Heiligruppe; after Arnim Zola rescued them, the Skull faked the assassination of himself, Mother Night, and Crossbones. The Red Skull finally fired Crossbones for questioning the Skull's decision to ally with the Viper.
In New York, Crossbones kidnapped and brainwashed Diamondback by abusing her repeatedly and forcing her through a rigid combat training routine. Forcing Diamondback to steal Captain America's Super Soldier Serum treated blood from Avengers Mansion, Crossbones returned to the Skull.
When the Skeleton Crew's new leader, Cutthroat (Diamondback's brother Daniel), plotted Crossbones’ murder, Mother Night warned Brock, who slit Cutthroat's jugular. Diamondback escaped, summoning Captain America and the Falcon to capture the Skull’s operatives; Crossbones was imprisoned, but eventually convinced officials he was rehabilitating, partly by defeating the terrorist cell "Fortress" when they invaded a Denver hospital. Exploiting his jailors’ gullibility, Crossbones escaped, and was hired by Hydra to bomb New York's embassy row alongside the Absorbing Man, but the pair was stopped by Captain America. Betrayed by Hydra, Crossbones fled, wreaking vengeance on his bosses.
Crossbones was hired by New Son to assassinate Gambit, but despite allying with Batroc and Zaran, was defeated by the combined efforts of New Orleans' assassins' and thieves’ guilds; Crossbones was imprisoned in the Raft until Electro's break-in freed him. The Skull promptly rehired him, and he was aiding in re-powering a Cosmic Cube when Aleksander Lukin’s Winter Soldier assassinated the Red Skull and stole the Cube. Lukin anonymously blamed Captain America for the Skull’s death, but Crossbones soon realized the truth and began hunting Lukin. He continued to go through with the Skull's plans, running an offshoot branch of AIM, and kidnapping and brainwashing Sin (Synthia Schmidt), the daughter of the Red Skull.
The Red Skull eventually proved to have used the Cosmic Cube while dying to transfer his mind into Lukin's body. During the superhero Civil War, he orchestrated the assassination of his longtime archfoe, Captain America. The plan involved Sharon Carter of SHIELD, one of Cap's closest allies, being brainwashed by Doctor Faustus into shooting him at close range. This was supplemented by shots fired by a sniper, specifically Crossbones. He was soon captured by SHIELD. While in custody, he was interrogated by Wolverine and Daredevil, who had sneaked aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier aided by the magic of Doctor Strange.
He recently reappeared as a member of the new Thunderbolts led by Luke Cage, and was participating in the assaults on the New York fortress of the Hand. In New Guinea he breathed in the Terrigen Mist and gained some new powers.
Current Version:
Crossbones
Former Version:
Crossbones (Terrigen Mists)
