The Hero Mercs
The Hero Mercs are minor antagonists in the 2016 Marvel film Captain America: Civil War. It is a mercenary team led by Crossbones until the events of the film.
They were all portrayed by Damion Poitier, Umar Khan, David E. Brown, and Guy Fernandez.
Biography
Following the deaths of Alexander Pierce and Ultron, Crossbones severed all ties with HYDRA and formed his own mercenary team known as the Hero Mercs in hopes of getting back at Captain America and the Avengers for scarring his face.
Upon hearing of a biological agent weapon located in the city of Lagos, Crossbones assembled the Hero Mercs to steal it and sell it to the highest bidder for profit. To that end, the Hero Mercs set a garbage truck to crash at the entrance of the Institute for Infectious Diseases (where the chemical weapon is stored in), allowing themselves to raid the lab and kill many guards. This allowed Crossbones to nab the chemical weapon right before Captain America and several Avengers (including Scarlet Witch) arrived to stop them.
Though Captain America and his team managed to kill off many of the Hero Mercs, Crossbones compromised this by rounding up his remaining Hero Mercs in their armored truck before using its main gun to attack Captain America. After ditching their truck, Crossbones gives the chemical weapon to the remaining Hero Mercs, telling them to get to the airport and that he won't be joining them, implying that he's going to face death while fighting Captain America.
Obliging to Crossbones's orders, the remaining Hero Mercs ditched their gear to evade to the airport, but they are caught by Black Widow. They threatened to drop the chemical weapon into the ground that would kill themselves along with dozens of citizens, but Falcon utilized his drone Redwing into killing one of the Hero Mercs, allowing Black Widow to kill the remaining Hero Mercs and secure the chemical weapon for good.
Despite foiling the Hero Mercs' plot for good, the Avengers find themselves in hot water after Scarlet Witch foiled Crossbones's suicidal attack on Captain America that resulted the accidental deaths of 26 aid workers, much to their distraught. This event allowed Helmut Zemo to utilize his successful plot of driving the Avengers apart in revenge for his family's demise at the battle against Ultron in Sokovia.
Trivia
- Despite being unnamed in the film, the mercenaries were listed as "Hero Mercs" in the cast listings during the credits.
- One of the Hero Mercs was played by Damion Poitier, who briefly played Thanos in The Avengers before being replaced by Josh Brolin.
