Taskmaster
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Taskmaster is a fictional character, a supervillain in the Marvel Universe. Created by writer David Michelinie and artist George Pérez, the character first appeared in Avengers (1st series) #195.
[edit] Fictional character biography
Taskmaster is a villain with the ability to mimic the physical movements of anyone he witnesses. He trains others to become lackeys for other villains by utilizing the techniques he has learned from his observation of superheroes and participates in mercenary jobs from time to time. In the past, he has usually been on the opposite side of the law, but he was also employed by the federal government to train USAgent at the request of the Red Skull. Taskmaster doesn't serve any ideology. He will work for nearly anyone for the right price.
The man who would become Taskmaster first demonstrated unusual abilities during childhood. After watching a cowboy show on television, he found himself able to duplicate the sophisticated rope tricks he had just watched the cowboy perform. Psychiatrists, called in at the mother's request, termed the boy's rare ability "photographic reflexes." He employed his talent several times during his youth for professional gain, most notably when he became a star quarterback of his high school football team after watching one pro football game. Upon graduation, he briefly considered a career as a crimefighter, but opted instead to become a criminal, which he perceived to be more lucrative.
Taskmaster then began a program of observing the fighting techniques of a large number of costumed heroes and villains (using archival television news broadcasts). He initially used his fighting skills to execute several successful grand larcenies, but he had not properly anticipated the dangers involved. He decided to use his stolen capital to establish a center for training aspiring criminals to become polished professionals. His goal was to become a supplier for criminal organizations around the world. Designing a costume, he took the name Taskmaster and began to train a large number of thugs at criminal academies he had located around the United States.
Deciding to further explore the use of a circus as a front for his academy, Taskmaster took over yet another small outfit, and used it for many months to great success. However, while it was playing a small town in Ohio, the Thing and Vance Astrovik (who would later become Justice) assisted a government agent in foiling Taskmaster's activities. While escaping, the Taskmaster was captured by a group of FBI agents and taken into custody, but there is reason to believe that the Red Skull was behind the Taskmaster's capture, since a group of normal men were able to capture him.
Through Douglas Rockwell, the head of the President's Commission on Superhuman Activities, "Mr. Smith" (actually the Red Skull) arranged for Taskmaster to train John Walker (then known as the Super-Patriot, later known as USAgent) to become the next Captain America in order to disgrace the image of Captain America. In order to conceal the Red Skull's involvement, Douglas Rockwell had the Commission work out a deal to have years taken off Taskmaster's sentence in return for training Walker. After Taskmaster successfully trained Walker, the Red Skull arranged for him to escape from the Commission's detention center so he could continue training lackeys and other agents for the Red Skull himself.
Taskmaster's more skilled, successful, and notable students include such characters as Crossbones and Cutthroat (both henchmen to the Red Skull), USAgent, Hauptmann Deutschland, Diamondback (the one-time girlfriend of Captain America), Spymaster, Spider-Woman I (Jessica Drew) and Agent X. On the other hand, Taskmaster also trains many of his students to serve as low-rent henchmen and cannon fodder. In his early appearances, Taskmaster mentions putting intellect-reducing drugs in the diet of his students. He also routinely sent groups of his more disappointing students to serve as "sparring partners" for the Red Skull, who routinely engaged several of them at a time, killing them all. (Hauptmann Deutschland, having infiltrated the academy, used one such session as an opportunity to kidnap the Red Skull.) He has also employed other supervillains, such as when he hired Anaconda as his academy's calisthenics instructor.
Taskmaster and one of his students spent a brief period of time in the Ultraverse after encountering a superheroine of that universe, known as Siren. Taskmaster has since returned to the 616 Universe.
Taskmaster continued to train numerous villains and thugs until the Avengers began to search out and shut down some of his academies across the United States. Taskmaster began to spend more time working as a mercenary in order to make up for the loss of profit. This led him to join Agency X in missions from time to time, while continuing to teach at his academies around the world. More recently, Taskmaster is once again seen as a hired mercenary, contracted by the Committee to kill Marc Spector, Moon Knight. Here, though clearly in Taskmaster costume, he is only so far referred to as "Contingency T" and "Tasky" when talking to himself. Taskmaster was misled with information that Moon Knight was broken, desiring death and friendless. During the conflict these factors all proved to be false as Marc's ex-girlfriend and his butler came to his defense and he found the will to fight back. Despite his superior fighting abilities, Taskmaster was defeated. Moon Knight then carved off Taskmaster's mask, though left him alive.
When the Civil War broke out, Taskmaster was hired by the government and enrolled into a team of Thunderbolts given temporary amnesty by the government to take down Captain America's Secret Avengers.
Taskmaster appears in Cable and Deadpool #36. In order to regain his reputation as a mercenary, Deadpool frees Taskmaster from his imprisonment in order to have a showdown with him while potential merc contractors watched from their captive position in a nearby prison. Taskmaster is again referred to as Tasky by Deadpool, and a fight ensues between him and a manacled Deadpool. He mentions his professional ethics, but this simply comes down to deciding to simply maim his opponent rather than kill him. In the end, he is defeated by Deadpool, who fails to impress his kidnapped audience. After being thanked for letting him win, Taskmaster tells Deadpool "The truth is... You're that good. You've always been that good. Which won't get you a cup of coffee until you figure out how to be a professional..." This is the last we see of him.
In the final issue of Civil War, Taskmaster was among the Thunderbolts battling the secret Avengers in New York. He attempts to kill Susan Storm, only for Reed Richards to take the bullet. Enraged, Susan manipulates an invisible force-field around him, causing an implosion and knocking him out. He was sent to the Negative Zone Prison with the other 'Major-League' members of the Thunderbolt army such as Lady Deathstrike, but was apparently freed by Deadpool while enroute to the portal.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Taskmaster possesses a unique form of photographic memory that ties directly into his muscle memory, giving him an ability he refers to as "photographic reflexes." This ability enables him to watch another person's physical movements and duplicate them without practice as long as it is physically possible for an ordinary human to accomplish. This ability appears to be an innate talent; Taskmaster is not a mutant and is not known to have been granted superpowers by any other source. Taskmaster is not able to duplicate the superhuman powers of others, and his ability is limited only by the fact that he does not have superhuman strength or other superhuman attributes. He is capable of emulating the styles of, among others, Daredevil, Wolverine, Captain America, Elektra, Spider-Man, the Punisher, and Deadpool. In addition, he is a very capable marksman, able to emulate Bullseye's perfect aim, as well as that of the Punisher and Hawkeye.
Taskmaster's power to duplicate the abilities of others is purely dependent on sight, and restricted to physical motions. For example, he could copy a virtuoso pianist's performance by watching him play, but would not gain the ability to read sheet music. As a child, he almost drowned when he perfectly duplicated another swimmer's dive, forgetting that he had not yet learned how to swim once he hit the water.
Taskmaster has had his scientists duplicate versions of a variety of weapons used by Marvel characters, which he can use with nearly as great facility as their respective owners. In the past, he carried duplicates of Daredevil's billy club, Hawkeye's trick arrows and bow, and Captain America's shield. He also carried a sword, a lasso, and a Colt .45 semi-automatic pistol. He has recently been seen throwing "crescent darts" during his bout with Moon Knight, in imitation of Moon Knight's fighting methods.
Taskmaster's character was considerably revised in a 2002 UDON-created miniseries, which itself led into repeated appearances in the UDON drawn series', Deadpool and Agent X. Most visibly, he wore a costume apparently modeled after tactical body armor, with the addition of a skull mask, replacing his pirate-themed garb. (In his recent appearances in Moon Knight and Civil War, Taskmaster has returned to his old costume.) Taskmaster also ceased carrying an arsenal of duplicate weapons. Instead, his armament now consists primarily of a pair of semi-automatic handguns and a katana, which he wields with the fighting style of the Silver Samurai. He also carries a prototype wrist-mounted device, stolen from S.H.I.E.L.D., which can spontaneously create simple shapes out of solid energy, saving him the trouble of weighing himself down with many weapons. He is fond of using the device to create copies of Captain America's shield and Spider-Man's webbing. Taskmaster also used a holographic device to disguise his appearance and impersonate others.
In addition, he has revealed new abilities. First, given observation and practice (with the aid of a voice-match recognition device), he can duplicate the voices of others. More importantly, after watching video footage of fights filmed in double-time, he learned how to perform his own actions in double-time. Since he does not have a superhuman physique, he can only use this ability to provide short bursts of superhuman speed lasting a few seconds, or he risks seriously injuring himself. He even discovered, in a confrontation with Sunset Bain, that he can catch bullets after watching one of her bodyguards do it.
