Last week, Marvel Studios released the first teaser trailer for Marvel's Black Widow which marks the beginning of the MCU's fifth phase of films and TV. Black Widow has been a staple character in the film series since Iron Man 2 (2010) and has been featured prominently throughout the Captain America and Avengers films. In her solo film, the Russian assassin is going up against one new villain to the MCU that has become increasingly more popular in media in recent years, the Taskmaster.
Taskmaster's recent history in video games has been fairly substantial having been featured as an unlockable character in 2016's Lego Marvel’s Avengers, as a side-mission boss in last year's Marvel's Spider-Man for PS4, and as one of the key antagonists in next year's Marvel's Avengers. Seemingly out of nowhere, Marvel appears to be determined for Taskmaster to become a household name villain, but who exactly is Taskmaster?
Origin Story
Anthony "Tony" Master a.k.a. Taskmaster is a mercenary with the ability to learn and mimic his opponent's fighting styles after being born with a form of photographic memory called photographic reflexes. Taskmaster began to demonstrate his abilities at a young age and considered using his skill to fight crime as a superhero before ultimately choosing to become a mercenary where he could profit from them, often putting him at odds with Marvel's Avengers. With associations to AIM, S.H.I.E.L.D, Thunderbolts, Secret Avengers, and more, Taskmaster has trained a number of characters from villains like Crossbones to heroes like Spider-Woman.
History in the Comics
Taskmaster made a brief appearance in The Avengers #195, before making his full debut as a supervillain in the following issue where he went toe-to-toe with Captain America and Iron Man. During the Civil War storyline, Taskmaster was hired by the US government to join the Thunderbolts, a team of reformed villains that had been given amnesty in order to take down Captain America and the Secret Avengers. In 2011, Taskmaster appeared in his own four-issue solo series Taskmaster: Unthinkable, and most recently in the prelude to "Hunted," where he helped Kraven the Hunter track down various animal-themed characters.
Powers & Abilities
Using his photographic reflexes, Taskmaster is able to replicate movements and fighting styles of other heroes and villains, and eventually learn to predict attacks before they've been made, giving him an edge against almost any opponent.
Taskmaster is also highly-skilled in a number of combat styles making him near-equal to Shang-Chi in martial arts, Black Knight as a swordsman, Hawkeye and Punisher's marksman precision, and even Daredevil superhuman athletic ability. Taskmaster's usual outfit includes a white cowl, skull mask, and a variety of weapons that replicate his opponents, most commonly including a sword and a shield. In the gameplay footage for Marvel's Avengers, Taskmaster has his signature weapons, as well as a jetpack, firearms, and an AoE aerial attack.
Marvel's Avengers: The Story So Far
Right now, Square Enix has revealed very little about Marvel's Avengers story and how each villain plays a role yet thus far it is known that the main story takes place five years after the events of A-Day, a large scale attack on San Francisco that led to the Avengers disbanding and the death of Captain America. Taskmaster has been revealed as a villain during the 18-minute A-Day gameplay footage where he is fighting Black Widow in one to one combat on the Golden Gate Bridge, before being trapped under a pile of rubble. Seeing as AIM is the primary enemy in Marvel's Avengers, it's likely that Taskmaster is working as a mercenary for the organization and will make a much bigger appearance further down the line.
Marvel's Avengers is offering six playable characters at launch with more to come, each with their own set of missions to play and villains to fight. Taskmaster is a great pick for a unique villain that hasn't had much time in the limelight before and his ability to mimic and adapt to different fighting styles makes him a malleable villain with unlimited gameplay and story potential. For those that are interested, we've broken down everything we know about Marvel's Avengers progression system and gear customization.
Marvel’s Avengers releases May 15, 2020, for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
