History of Taskmaster

[Music] what's up my common comrades today we continue our black widow themed episodes by breaking down the history of taskmaster he's the main villain for the black widow solo movie and has been a fan favorite character for comic book readers for a long time now so to finally see him get some much deserved recognition on the big screen is quite glorious with that said let's see what taskmaster is all about in the good old comic books [Music] taskmaster first appeared in the avengers issue 195 in may of 1980. he was created by david michellini and george perez taskmaster is sort of a universal villain in the sense that when you think of him you don't automatically associate him with a specific hero like you associate joker with batman red skull with captain america abomination with the hulk and so on and so forth instead he served as an enemy for a ton of marvel heroes fighting the likes of captain america spider-man and even ant-man to name a few in fact he's such a skilled assassin and mercenary that he's consistently being hired by criminal organizations to train their armies and soldiers essentially every villain wishes they were as good as this guy so much so they hire him to train their people to be as good as him pretty crazy stuff but now let's take a look at his comic origin the man that would become taskmaster is tony masters we find out that as a kid he was born with the ability to mimic the movements of others after only briefly observing them by the time he was eight years old he started to hone in on this skill and discover his photographic reflexes even more to the point where he could immediately copy other people's skills and i'm talking about any movement like learning how to dive in a swimming pool off the high dive after watching someone perform it on tv and duplicating the techniques and skills from some of the nba's best players and even learning how to twirl a lasso in the air just by watching cowboys on the television once much older tony became an agent of shield while on a mission with them tony found an old scientist who was dying after being shot in the chest before the scientist died however he gave tony a syringe that contained an experimental nazi version of the super soldier serum if he injected himself with it it would enhance his already amazing photographic reflexes but also give him the ability to assimilate knowledge instantly so naturally tony was like all right i'm down for being a super soldier that can mimic anyone and injects himself with the syringe this also gave him the ability to retain knowledge after reading something just once now while the super soldier serum did give him superpowers the retaining knowledge portion didn't work out so well in fact it was quite the opposite instead of giving him the ability to absorb all knowledge he rather saw it gave him a degree of amnesia and pretty much erased his memory as he forgot who his wife was who just so happened to be his field agent partner but it didn't stop there he forgot his entire shield history having a form of amnesia tony created an alter ego called taskmaster where he worked as a mercenary for criminal organizations but with that said he also subsequently still works for shield he was essentially the best double agent there was he then started committing a bunch of successful crimes and then used his profits to start academies where he trained aspiring supervillains with crossbones being one of them now as the mercenary taskmaster he would come into conflict with the likes of captain america iron man spider-man and ant-man and the rest is history but now it's time to take a look at some of taskmaster story arcs like i said earlier taskmaster first appeared in the avengers 195 but he wouldn't get his own 4 issue limited series until 2002 simply titled taskmaster in said series taskmaster is hired by one of iron man's friends enemies sunset bane she approaches taskmaster saying stark industries is performing some research at one of its labs that i wish to see halted would you be able to facilitate this he answers yes but stark enterprises is rather high profile not to mention a well-guarded establishment a contract like that would carry a premium price say 1 million up front 1 million upon completion and a why miss bain asks why taskmaster replies hey why am i screwing with stark enterprises she says oh you don't trust me he then tells her that's my price i'm more comfortable when i have a feel for my employer's intentions she then says i understand very well it's not a secret that tony and i have always enjoyed a little friendly competition recent reports from some of my more shall we say well-placed sources indicate that stark is developing a new semiconductor technology generation beyond the most current tech available he stands to make yet another fortune and put me out of business in one stroke everyone in the field has their eyes on this much anticipated product as if my company's impending doom at the hands of this grandstanding playboy wasn't enough at this moment my intentions are divided tommy taskmaster are you familiar with the chinese triad well the triads gang syndicates have existed for years they have been primarily limited to asian communities steering clear of our territory however as the triad's power has escalated over the years so has their confidence there was even a time when i employed some of their specialists working on some of my more delicate security needs while our arrangement was mutually beneficial for a time the triads watched for the slightest signs of weakness waiting for the target they needed they did not show me the proper respect and arrogantly set their legitimate business fronts to compete directly with my own i know there's a plan in place for them to acquire stark's technology after you sabotage the project however they will never get what they want she then asked taskmaster is that a sufficient why he replies quite and while they shake hands she says good my assistant mr eisley will have your million brought to you in cash along with the data you will need to complete the assignment he then says pleasure doing business with you this leads taskmaster to pull off corporate sabotage on stark industries or enterprises which of course brings him into direct contact with tony stark where he even fights iron man in the fighting style of captain america issue 4 of this series is also where we get a glimpse of taskmaster's childhood that i mentioned earlier seeing him develop his incredible mimicking abilities then in 2010 taskmaster got another four issue miniseries at this point in time taskmaster has trained countless villains for almost every terrorist organization and criminal cartel in the marvel universe but someone started a rumor that he became a traitor and is now working with steve rogers aka captain america so of course once this rumor starts going around a one billion dollar bounty gets put on his head which means every costume mercenary assassin and villain group pretty much is going after him we're talking hydra ultimatum the sons of the serpent again almost every villain and organization in the marvel universe is like yo this guy's gotta die we're talking about one billion dollars for taskmaster's head all i'm saying is if i had the skills i'd be tempted to take off his head so the series deals with taskmaster fighting hordes of his past psychopathic students everyone he's trained now thinks he's a traitor and is out to kill him so while fighting them off he simultaneously is trying to figure out who framed him but this also means he has to figure out who he is because remember like i said earlier he has amnesia and has forgotten all of his past which is kind of ironic that he has photographic reflexes but his memory sucks at one point in time taskmaster worked for agency x a group of mercenaries which included several other mercenaries in the marvel universe such as deadpool it was around this time he was sent on a mission to kill moon knight but he was given bad information which caused him to fail the mission that mixed with the fact that moon knight scared taskmaster when he appeared to be immune to pain so moon knight defeated taskmaster but left him alive after this deadpool would free taskmaster from his imprisonment to have a fight with him while potential mercenary contractors watch on by the end deadpool comes out victorious deadpool then thanks taskmaster for letting him win but taskmaster tells deadpool i didn't let you win the truth is you're that good you've always been that way which won't get you a cup of coffee until you figure out how to be a professional so if you ever wondered who the better mercenary was deadpool or taskmaster now you know skipping some stuff here and there we have finesse she also has photographic reflexes just like taskmaster and he admits that while he can't be certain he's more than likely finesse's father which she also suspects suspecting this might be his daughter he tells her the way his abilities work is that every time he picks up a new technique it pushes non-combat-oriented memories out of his mind forever so taking on new fighting techniques means it pushes non-combat related memories out of his brain essentially the more he mimics people the more of his personal life he forgets now let's jump to the most recent taskmaster series from 2020. in this series taskmaster has murdered maria hill of shield or at least that's what the entire marvel universe thinks because of this now the greatest spies are attracting taskmaster down and won't stop until he's dead trying to clear his name taskmaster sets out on a globe spanning adventure it's another espionage story that takes taskmaster around the world where he's trying to figure out who set him up and along the way he even ends up in wakanda and okoye is there pretty cool now with that said we're well aware we didn't cover every single taskmaster story arc there is there's a bunch of story arcs with him with deadpool a bunch with him in the avengers in his early days there's just too much to cover we just wanted to give you a good overview of some of his more significant story arcs and or our favorite ones with that said onto powers and abilities taskmaster's main ability is what he calls photographic reflexes which means after he sees someone perform an action he can copy it perfectly he often uses this ability to copy the fighting styles and skills of several of the heroes and villains in the marvel universe he even mixes these fighting styles up turning them into his own fighting style to give you a short list of people whose skills and fighting styles he's copied you have deadpool hulk iron fist the punisher spider-man captain america black knight daredevil scarlet witch thor and the list goes on but here's the kicker in a crossover event between dc and marvel he copied and learned the skills of batman with that said it isn't known if he retained batman's fighting styles in the marvel universe i'm going to assume he did it with his amazing mimic abilities he can only mimic people's skills to the extent that his body will allow him to let me give you an example so you know what i mean taskmaster can copy the way daredevil moves to avoid danger but he can't copy his radar he could also copy the way spider-man fights but not his super strength once more he can copy deadpool's fighting style but he can't mimic his awesome healing factor all i really need to say is he can copy the fighting style in a way a person moves but he can't mimic their superhuman abilities in the same vein his copying skills don't give him the understanding of how to use said skills properly for example he could watch someone play an extremely difficult piano piece and would be able to mimic it perfectly but wouldn't be able to read the sheet music something that's kind of funny is taskmaster once said he finds moon knight's fighting style extremely annoying because moon knight would rather take a punch than avoid it because moon knight taskmaster can also mimic someone's voice almost perfectly with only a few hours of practice being the mercenary in assassin he is he uses this ability to break voice-activated locks then we have weapons and equipment taskmaster uses a variety of weapons to mimic different fighting styles so he carries a sword shield billy clubs and even a bow and arrow that way he can mimic people like captain america black knight daredevil and hawkeye with all that said though even though he's not the number one mercenary in the marvel universe he's easily someone you do not want to find yourself in a fight with as for good taskmaster reading recommendations check out the 2002 taskmaster mini series the 2010 taskmaster mini series taskmaster the right price taskmaster anything you can do and the brand new 2020 taskmaster series that should be enough to get you all started and that's going to bring today's episode of aaron to a close but if you liked today's video be sure to check out this one right here and if you like all of our videos be sure to subscribe like and comment it helps the channel grow but other than that i'll see you guys next time when i talk about all things comics you

Channel: Variant Comics

Views: 383,162

Rating: 4.9548254 out of 5

Keywords: Taskmaster, black widow, mcu, marvel, marvel comics, marvelk studios, history of, origin, who is taskmaster, who is, taskmasters powers, powers and abilities, story arcs, reading recommendations, variant, variant comics, comics, comic books, red guardian

Id: QLmgoVX2WAA

Length: 11min 1sec (661 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 07 2021