No, he did not get his name from the board game. Introduced in Marvel Two-In-One #52 (1979) by Steven Grant and Jim Craig, William Cross was a former CIA agent and cousin to Darren Cross, who wanted to use his training to earn a profit. He would team up as a spotter to Marc Spector, who he caused shot an innocent woman. He would later become romantically involved and engaged with Rozalyn Backus, who helped him with his tech until he ran off with the tech and faked his own death, framing her for murder. He would resurface as Crossfire, becoming a mercenary for hire and would lose his left eye and 85% of his hearing in one of his operations.

He would re-encounter Marc Spector, then Moon Knight, when the villain planned to take control of all superhuman, including the Thing. Thing and Moon Knight defeated Crossfire and destroyed his mind-control device. He later learnt that Hawkeye was working for his cousin’s company and captured the archer and Mockingbird. He used his brainwashing device to have the pair fight, which resulted in Hawkeye losing much of his hearing. Hawkeye would escape and defeat Crossfire, who was arrested and sentenced to prison. In prison, he arranged to be rescued by the Death-Throws, but since he had no money, they used him to lure Captain America and Hawkeye. The Avenger duo defeated them, and Cross was sent back to prison.

He would later put a bounty on Hawkeye, which many would try and claim, but he was defeated by Hawkeye. After Hawkeye and Mockingbird were married, he would follow the couple to Moira Brandon’s house. She would be made an honorary Avengers after she helped the pair defeated Cross. He was later hired to kill Agent X and would be one of many that was recruited by Lucia von Barda to kill Nick Fury, after the Agent sent a team to assassinate her. He would be sent to the Vault, where he would team up with the U-Foes to try and escape but was stopped by his former fiance. He was sent to the Raft and was one of many to escape the prison when Electro broke Sauron out of prison. He teamed up with Mandrill, Controller, Mister Fear and Corrupter and began a gang war against the U-Foes until they were stopped by the New Avengers and sent back to prison.

He and his Death-Throws were later hired by RAID to attack London, but they were defeated by Union Jack and Sabra. He was believed killed when he fell off London Bridge. He re-surfaced and joined Hood’s Gang of supervillains. They would fight against the Skrulls in the Secret Invasion and when the gang attacked New Avengers, he would fight Hawkeye and Mockingbird. When Hood planned to use a Zombie Virus to take over the world, Cross protested that the teamed up with Hood because they didn’t want a world conquering scheme. He would team up with other villains and took down their former leader, as well as the New and Dark Avengers. After helping with Siege, he return to being an arms dealer and fought against Hawkeye and Mockingbird again. He would severely injured Mockingbird’s mother and Hawkeye captured the villain after he beat him into an inch of his life.

He and a few others would later be hired to help take down Purple Man’s Villains for hire and would remain loyal when the rest of the villains abandoned the team when they learnt that Misty Knight had hired them. He later joined Max Fury and the Shadow Council’s team of Master before moving to Bagalia, where he was later seen being paid off by Nick Fury Jr. to allow Taskmaster out of prison. He would return to Hood’s gang after it was learnt that Doom was trying to become a hero. He would also help his cousin Augustine Cross to revive his father, Darren Cross and would battle Ant-man.

While a little-known character, Crossfire has been requested by fans for a while. He would receive a figure as part of the Quantumania wave.