Villains of Captain America: Winter Soldier
 

In the second of the Captain America movies put out by Marvel Studios in the 21st century, we encounter several villains who make life quite miserable for Cap, Nick Fury, Black Widow, and their allies.  But who are these villains, and what is their past and origins in the Marvel Comics mythology?
 
Let's take a look--And yes, there are some spoilers here if you have not seen the movie yet...


Batroc--The first of our bad guys is (in the movie), a former French special forces soldier turned mercenary/pirate named Georges Batroc, played by former Ultimate Fighting champion Georges St-Pierre.  Batroc in the comics is a French criminal with amazing physical abilities in gymnastics and martial arts.  He is a master of Savate (French kickboxing), but possesses no super-powers.  Batroc has a unique sense of honor, and longs for the day when he can defeat Captain America (whom he admires in a weird sort of way), in a fair fight.  In the Marvel Comics Universe, Batroc has joined with other villains in loose alliances usually referred to as Batroc's Brigade.  In the Marvel Universe, Batroc is a former soldier in the French Foreign Legion and a martial artist who hire himself out to the highest bidder, including, (in his first comics appearance), HYDRA.

Batroc is a character conceived by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the Marvel Silver Age, and first appeared in Tales of Suspense #75 in 1966 (Tales of Suspense is the title that Captain America appeared in before he got his own comic book).
 
Crossbones--In the movie, Frank Grillo plays Brock Rumlow, a SHIELD agent who is secretly working for HYDRA.  Rumlow is a master of hand-to-hand combat, and is a ruthless opponent of Captain America and the Falcon in the movie.  We see him survive at the end of the film, but he appears to be heavily scarred from the fighting.  In the comics, Crossbones wears skull and crossbones iconography (hence the name), and is best known as a henchman/hitman for Cap's archenemy, the Red Skull.  He figures prominently both the "Winter Soldier" and "Death of Captain America storylines. 
Crossbones is a character created by Mark Gruenwald and Kieron Dwyer and first appeared  in Captain America #359 (cameo) and made his full first appearance in Captain America #360 (1989).
 
Arnim Zola--A Swiss scientist, Zola's first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is in Captain America: The First Avenger, as a lackey of the Red Skull.  He appears in Captain America: Winter Soldier, as an electronic apparition inside a computer system.  In the comics, Arnim Zola is a Nazi scientist who managed to transfer his consciousness into an android (as well as other machines).  In this sense, the movies stick with the original intent of the character.  In the second Cap film, Zola reveals that he is the mind behind many of HYDRA's technical abilities and is the one who converted Cap's friend Bucky Barnes into the Winter Soldier. He is played by Toby Jones in the movies.

Arnim Zola first appeared in Captain America #208 (1977), and was created by Jack Kirby.  While his appearance was in the mid-1970s, his past was ret-conned by Marvel to show him creating a villain from the 1960s, the Hatemonger.
 

Winter Soldier--The Winter Soldier is Cap's primary combatant in the second Captain America movie, and is played by Sebastian Stan.  The Winter Soldier, as revealed at midpoint in the film, is really James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes, Cap's childhood friend, who was believed to have died in the first Captain America movie.  Roughly following the storyline of the now-classic "Winter Soldier" storyline, we see Bucky found by the bad guys and converted into a Soviet assassin who is cryogenically frozen for years at a time, only being revived to carry out assassinations.  His mind is periodically wiped, thus not retaining any knowledge of his past as a hero or as Captain America's friend.  In the comics, after overcoming his programming, Barnes returns to being a hero, even assuming the mantle of Captain America after the supposed death of Steve Rogers (the real Cap).

Winter Soldier was created by Created by Ed Brubaker & Steve Epting. and first appeared in Captain America #1 (2005).  As Bucky Barnes, he first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (1941), and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby.
 
Alexander Pierce--Played by Robert Redford, Pierce is a top leader in the World Security Council, and had a hand in placing Nick Fury in charge of SHIELD.  As revealed later in the film, Pierce is a member of HYDRA and is the man giving orders to the Winter Soldier and to Brock Rumlow.  While there is a Marvel Comics character named Alexander Pierce associated with SHIELD, he is a good guy, and does not appear to be the same character played by Redford. 

Baron Wolfgang von Strucker--At the conclusion of the new Cap film, in one of the two after-credit scenes, we see two evil-looking types walking around a secret base/laboratory  talking about how HYDRA (which they are clearly a part of) is bigger than the relatively small part taken out by Captain America and company in the movie prior to the end-credit scene.  The leader of this facility speaks with a German accent, and wears a monocle.  In Marvel Comics, one of Nick Fury's and Captain America's main HYDRA foes is a Nazi war criminal named Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, leader of HYDRA.  The HYDRA leader in this scene is clearly Strucker.  As they walk through the facility, we see that he is in possession of the scepter used by Loki in the Avengers movie, and he is talking about subjects of various experiments that did not survive, and then he points out two who did survive, whom he refers to as "The Twins."

In the comics, Strucker's first appearance was in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #5 (1964).  Strucker was a Nazi war criminal who appeared as a major foe of Nick Fury and Captain America in the comics.
 
 
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