Klaw isn't the only villain Black Panther will have to contend with in Marvel's Avengers' fast-approaching War for Wakanda expansion.
Ulysses Klaue, aka Klaw, will naturally serve as the main antagonist of War for Wakanda, given his long history as one of Black Panther's greatest enemies. However, it has long been known that the Avengers expansion would also feature a second villain. Developer Crystal Dynamics has now confirmed that the secondary antagonist is none other than Brock Rumlow, aka Crossbones.
"I think what's really fun about the sheer amount of Marvel villains on our roster is we get to really dig into what would be the most interesting twist and turn from what we've done previously," Marvel's Avengers writer Hannah MacLeod told Game Informer.
"Crossbones has some of the most iconic comic dialogue ever because he just enjoys himself so much, but he's also got some interesting tricks up his sleeve," MacLeod continued. "There's always a lot of discussion of who we think our villains should be. Klaue doesn't really get his hands dirty in the same way as other villains might, so we needed him to have a character who would have no problem with that."
Created by Mark Gruenwald and Kieron Dwyer, the character of Brock Rumlow/Crossbones made his first full appearance in 1989's Captain America #360 after making a cameo appearance in the previous issue. Crossbones is perhaps best known for his part in the death of Steve Rogers/Captain America, which happened in 2007 -- in the aftermath of Marvel Comics' original Civil War event.
Played by Frank Grillo, Brock Rumlow made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in the 2014 film Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Grillo subsequently returned for 2016's Captain America: Civil War, in which Rumlow adopted the Crossbones persona. Coincidentally, Civil War is also the film that introduced Chadwick Boseman's T'Challa/Black Panther to the MCU.
While Crossbones met his demise in Civil War, Grillo once again reprised his role as Rumlow for a cameo in 2019's Avengers: Endgame as part of a time-travel sequence. Grillo is also expected to voice the character in Marvel Studios' first animated series, What If...?, which recently premiered on Disney+.
Developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix, Marvel's Avengers is available now on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC and Google Stadia. The War for Wakanda expansion launches this Tuesday, Aug. 17.
Source: Game Informer, via The Gamer