Comic Book / Taskmaster (Marvel Comics)

(aka: Taskmaster)

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Taskmaster is the title of several Marvel Comics series starring Tony Masters, the costumed villain better known as Taskmaster, a character created by David Michelinie and George Pérez, first appearing in The Avengers (1963) #195 (dated May, 1980).

A former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Masters has the unique ability to copy the movements, and, therefore, skills of those he witnesses, which he calls "photographic reflexes". Though he occasionally uses his abilities as a mercenary and assassin, he prefers to operate behind the scenes, operating as a consultant and training instructor for anyone who can afford to pay for his services.

The character has appeared in three self-titled miniseries, one in 2002, one in 2010, and one in 2020.

A loose adaption of the character made their debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, starting with Black Widow (2021). This version is a Gender Flipped Canon Foreigner named Antonia Dreykov. The character returns in Thunderbolts* (2025).

Taskmaster provides examples of:

• Guns Akimbo: Taskmaster shows a fondness for doing this with pistols in the mini-series. Somewhat justified by him copying the moves of most other gunslingers in the Marvel Universe, who are almost always doing this themselves.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Taskmaster mentions that he feels sorry for security guards, since they're usually underpaid, and prefers not to kill them if possible.
• The Faceless: When Taskmaster is defeated and his mask is stolen, we see him only in silhouette, and then from behind, before he retrieves his mask and makes sure the ones who took it aren't going to be telling anyone.
  • One issue actually does show him without the mask on... in a flashback to when he was twelve or so.

• Amnesiac Dissonance: It's revealed that the villain Taskmaster's photographic reflex ability comes at the cost of his personal memories. When he's able to remember who he was (a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent named Tony Masters), and that he's married to the woman who was tagging along with him in the adventure (who is also a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent), he regrets all the bad things he has done as Taskmaster. Sadly, in order to protect his wife Mercedes, he has to use his ability to its limit by combining every move he had learned along with copying the fighting style of the guy attacking them in order to defeat him, causing him to forget himself again.
• Amnesiac Lover: It is revealed that Taskmaster's ability to copy other peoples fighting styles comes at the price of his personal memories. He eventually remembers that he used to be a SHIELD agent and the waitress that has been tagging along with him is really his wife and also a SHIELD agent. Sadly, to save her he copies the fighting style of the guy who's attacking them, thus causing him to forget her again, leaving Mercedes alone once again. She even implies that this isn't the first time she has managed to make him remember her.
• Argentina Is Nazi-Land: Taskmaster ends up in a small South American town and is surprised to find the entire village dressed as Hitler (yes, even the women and children). The villagers are apparently waging endless war on each other trying to take over each other’s houses and constantly backstabbing the other villagers who ally with them. Turns out it was caused by a solution created by the same people who made the hatemonger that was dumped into the water supply. The solution was meant to quickly input Nazi beliefs into people to resurrect the Reich, but when it was spilled into the water supply, it ended up making everyone think they were Hitler.
• Black Helicopter: The miniseries references this trope with the Black Choppers, a motorcycle gang comprised exclusively of aliens doing the arcane bidding of an unrevealed conspiratorial organization.
• Downer Ending: The miniseries ends with Mercedes successfully getting him to remember her... only for him to sacrifice those memories again to save her from the villain of the story. The worst part is she implies this isn't even the first time this has happened and that he's remembered and forgotten her dozens of times.
• The Faceless: Averted. Unlike in the previous series, Taskmaster spends the opening of the first issue out of costume, and his face is fully shown.
• Hidden Depths: The miniseries reveals that Taskmaster's Wild Card status is the result of him being too heroic to fully commit to being a villain, but hates himself too much to be a hero because he feels immense guilt for leaving his wife when he lost his memory of her but doesn't remember what he actually did, and has convinced himself it's an unforgivable sin.
• Identity Amnesia: The series reveals that Taskmaster suffers from this because of his photographic reflex ability. When he finally does remember who he was (A SHIELD agent named Tony Masters, oddly enough a name he used as an alias in the Agent X days) and that he has a wife named Mercedes Merced, he loses his memories again when he's forced to copy the abilities of another fighter to save Mercedes' life.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Justified a little better than most cases in fiction. It is explained in the miniseries that all of Taskmaster's explicit memories, which makes up his past, have been wiped out because of damage to the hippocampus. This leaves only the implicit ones, which contain his skill set, left.
• Mood Whiplash: The miniseries has a severe case. It goes from scenes involving a South American village full of Adolf Hitlers trying to kill each other to Taskmaster's inner monologues reflecting on how horrible life is being unable to have an identity thanks to his memory loss.
• Powers as Programs: Taskmaster's brain is said to have be reformed after consuming an attempted recreation of the Super Soldier Serum. Now it acts more like a computer where it will "dump" what it finds is unnecessary and only keep fighting moves as well as some small analyzable cues in movement like a computer whose OS is set to delete anything not related to certain subjects. It's one of the reasons why he fights Finesse in an effort to remember her, though due to her training he's able to tell she has no unique attacks only is replicating others like he does. It's been shown he's to be able to recall some things unrelated with fighting but only with a complex set of mental triggers, and has learnt to fake remembering people to hide this (which is largely why he wears a mask; no one can tell how surprised he is when they approach him).
• Red Shirt: The main villain is a former mook turned leader who actually calls himself Red Shirt. He's the only one that doesn't get the joke. He also doesn't get why it's funny that he calls his organization the Minions International Liberation Front.
• Stupid Jetpack Hitler: The miniseries reveals that Taskmaster's copying powers are the result of taking a formula devised by German scientists towards the end of WWII.

• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: The 2020 miniseries has the title villain describing his mercenary life:
  So you do dirty deeds for dirtier dollars. Industrial, espionage, muscle work, bodyguarding, murder... Hell, even the lowest of the low... golf.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Taskmaster briefly go on a tangent against having women and loved ones Stuffed in the Fridge, and considers this both morally gross but also very stupid, since he's aware he's only really alive because most heroes are pulling their punches.
  • Taskmaster also remarks how he has, recently, decided to forgo accepting contracts from Nazis, calling them "crazy". Though it's subverted, as it's less about the fact he thinks Nazis are too evil for his taste, and more the fact they're so hateable that working for them generally ends poorly for him because people fighting them don't pull punches.
• Hero Antagonist: Black Widow is hunting Taskmaster for his apparent involvement in the death of Maria Hill.
• Gratuitous Katana: Justified, as Taskmaster states that he began using a katana so he could duplicate the moves (his power) of Silver Samurai.
• Katana Superiority: This is justified, where Taskmaster states that he began using a katana so he could duplicate the moves (his power) of Silver Samurai.
• Take That!: Taskmaster goes on multiple tangents about things he hates about other supervillains, and among them was the Stuffed in the Fridge tactic of killing the hero's girlfriend to hurt them, pointing out how idiotic it is.