Paul's patterning of Christ after Adam is distinct, as I said. Didn't need to be overinterpreted.
Though bringing up Christus Victor reminds me one of the strangest things about Christianity is how the centrifugal part of the religion, the crucifixion of Jesus, is so undertheorised. Christians seem to have taken faith in a vague cosmic/apocalyptic/salvific importance attached to the event and worked forwards from there.
Theology of the Cross is a pretty big field - you can go to Amazon and see how many books come up when you search “a theology of the cross,” but please don’t buy books from them. A number of major modern theologians have written on the topic, including Douglas John Hall, James Cone, and Alister McGrath.
Probably the most fascinating one is the heretical Hegelian model of the cross, in which God died on the cross and became embodied in the church at Pentecost.