8 Changes That Would Have Improved Captain America: Civil War

In contrast to keeping Rhodes alive, the film doesn’t waste any time killing one of the really awesome villains that it was exciting to finally see. Crossbones is a cool-a*s character, and it was frustrating to see him removed from future films so casually – especially after the amount of build-up he was given in the Winter Soldier.

Marvel desperately needs interesting villains, and there is no better example of this than in Civil War. Daniel Bruhl does a perfectly fine job of playing Baron Zemo, but his entire scheme and character felt very clichéd. The film could have had much more fun and delved more deeply into the psychological motivations of the protagonists by incorporating somebody like Crossbones, whose very lack of humanity stands in polar opposition to that of the heroes. His very existence (and ideally the inevitable reign of terror he then unleashes) could have become a key part of Iron Man and Captain America’s ideological battle. In a way, Crossbones could have been Steve Rogers’ burden, in the same way that Miriam Sharpe is Tony Stark’s. He could have been their Joker, revelling in escalation and chaos.

Additionally, in the comic book world, Captain America and Crossbones have a rich history over the past 27 years. Crossbones, in fact, was responsible for helping to assassinate Captain America in the Civil War aftermath so his inclusion in the story would have been both fresh, but appropriate for the characters involved as well.

Hopefully, we get to see an unleashed Crossbones in the future (as Frank Grillo still has hope), but it seems like this would have been a great opportunity for him to be incorporated meaningfully.