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Taskmaster (Earth-616)

From Marvel Database

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Real Name
Unknown
Current Alias

Aliases
Tony Masters, Tasky, Barney Toastmaster, Captain America

Identity

Alignment


Relatives
Mother (name unknown)

Universe

Base Of Operations
Camp H.A.M.M.E.R.

Characteristics
Gender

Height


Eyes

Hair

Status
Citizenship

Marital Status

Occupation
Mercenary, Assassin, trainer/school operator

Origin
Origin
Taskmaster discovered his abilities at a young age and decided to live a life of crime. His power may or may not count as a mutation.

Place of Birth


First appearance

History

Taskmaster possessed an innate ability known as "photographic reflexes", which enabled him to watch another person's physical movements and duplicate them without practice, no matter how complex. This ability was only limited by the fact that he did not have superhuman strength or other superhuman attributes. He was a naturally gifted athlete who trained himself to superb physical condition. He committed the following fighting styles to memory (in addition to many others): Captain America, Black Panther, Daredevil, Elektra, Hawkeye, Punisher, Tigra, USAgent, Spider-Man and Wolverine.

Contents


He trained his body to be in all around peak physical condition and engaged in intensive regular exercise. His strength, endurance, stamina, reflexes, and agility were on the level of an Olympic athlete. He was nearly the physical equal of Captain America. In addition to his ability to copy the fighting techniques of others he had mastered hundreds of forms of unarmed combat and had created some of his own original techniques as well. The Taskmaster was skilled in the use of all conventional weaponry. He was an unerring marksman as a result of the skills of various champions he committed to memory. These skills included all present day and many historical martial arts, boxing, wrestling, swordsmanship, archery, marksmanship, gymnastics, aerial acrobatics and sleight of hand.

The Taskmaster had his scientists duplicate versions of a variety of weapons used by super-humans which he could use with nearly as great facility as their respective owners. He had a copy of Daredevil's multipurpose billy club, Hawkeye's trick arrows and bow, the Black Knight's sword, and a shield designed like Captain America's (but it was not indestructible; it was only an osmium alloy). He also sometimes carried a .45 caliber Colt automatic, which he could use in the style of the Punisher.

Taskmaster fighting Thor in Seige

Eventually, the Taskmaster considerably changed his appearance. He now wore a costume apparently modeled after tactical body armor, replacing his pirate-themed garb. The Taskmaster also ceased carrying an arsenal of duplicate weapons. Instead, his armament consisted primarily of a pair of semi-automatic handguns and a katana (which he wielded using the fighting style of the Silver Samurai). The Taskmaster also carried a prototype wrist-mounted device, stolen from S.H.I.E.L.D., which could spontaneously create simple shapes out of solid energy, saving him the trouble of weighing himself down with many weapons. He used the device to create duplicates of Captain America's shield and Spider-Man's webbing.

In addition, the Taskmaster has revealed new abilities. First, given observation and practice (with the aid of a voice-match recognizing device) he could duplicate the voices of others. He also displayed photographic memory. More importantly, after watching video footage of fights filmed in double-time, he learned how to perform actions in double-time as well. Since the Taskmaster did not have a superhuman physique, he could only use this ability to provide short bursts of superhuman speed lasting a few seconds, or he risked seriously injuring himself.

Taskmaster came to blows with Deadpool a number of times, but the two became friends when Taskmaster started dating Sandi Brandenburg, who had been Deadpool's Personal Assistant when he ran DP Inc. Both were employed by Agency X at the same time.

At a certain point, Taskmaster was hired by the Committee to take out Marc Spector, the Moon Knight. He raided Spector's apartment, but was unable to kill him. Spector piloted his Moon-chopper to the Committee's Manhattan headquarters and flew it directly into their office. Miraculously, all of the Committee members survived the attack.[1]

He was one of the Thunderbolts detainees. Later, he was released and assigned to Camp Hammond to serve as a trainer for the Initiative recruits while their former drill instructor, Gauntlet, recuperated from injuries sustained from one of his trainees. During this time, a formerly deceased Initiative member, Michael Van Patrick acquired a weapon called the Tactigon and began assaulting everyone at the camp. The Taskmaster had little interest in participating in the fight, preferring instead to sit by the sidelines with one of his charges, Ant-Man.[2]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Taskmaster's deadlly with weapons
The Taskmaster's only superhuman abilities are his photographic reflexes. He can duplicate almost any physical act he sees after seeing it done by someone else only once. The Taskmaster can do many things due to his photographic reflexes which border on being a superpower. For instance Taskmaster has discovered that after watching martial arts movies on fast-forward he is able to briefly duplicate the moves at a greatly increased velocity, effectively giving him a limited form of super-speed. However, as he does not have any sort of enhanced endurance, this puts a great strain on his body and he is only able to fight in this manner for short periods of time. He can also copy the subtle muscle movements of others so precisely that he can at times do things such as copying another persons voice so precisely as to fool voice recognition software. He can also do things such as figuring out the sleight of hand techniques of a master poker cheater simply by watching them. He can even duplicate the nearly superhuman abilities with thrown projectiles which Bullseye exhibits, or approximate the agility of someone like Spiderman, at least up to a point that doesn't require superhuman effort. The first thing he learned was how to twirl a lasso after seeing it on television. He is also capable of using this ability to master complex gymnastics routines and play difficult pieces of music. However, he typically prefers to use this ability to copy the combat skills, both armed and unarmed, of costumed crime-fighters and expert martial artists from around the world, typically seen through watching videos of them in combat situations. He has often shown the ability to actually predict an opponents next move before they make it if he has studied their fighting style enough. Opponents who are skilled at improvisational fighting styles, or who have a more random unpredictable style are less likely to have their moves predicted by Taskmaster.

Abilities

The Taskmaster is an Olympic level athlete and is among the most formidable armed or unarmed combatants in the Marvel Universe. Besides his photographic reflexes it has been revealed that he also posses a photographic memory. While not having any superhuman physical, mental, or energy manipulative abilities, the Taskmaster is able to routinely battle superhumanly powered foes with an impressive degree of success.

Fighting Styles Studied Characters: Taskmaster learned personal styles of these individuals from watching videos or from combat: Ant Man, Batroc, Black Widow, Boomerang, Bushwacker, Blacklash, Black Knight, Black Panther, Captain America, Genis-Vell, Conquest, Daredevil, Deadpool, Elektra, Falcon, Fatale, Firestar, Hawkeye, Huntress , Iron Fist, Justice, Libra, Machete, Oddball, Puma, Punisher, Razorfist, Shockwave, Silverclaw, Silver Samurai, Spider-Man, Shatterhead, Swordsman, Tigra, Tumbler, US Agent, Warbird, Wolverine and Zaran.

Strength level

The Taskmaster possesses the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build that engages in intensive regular exercise. The Taskmaster is strong enough to lift at least twice his bodyweight, meaning he is able to lift at least 440 lbs.

Weaknesses

  • The Taskmaster is not capable of duplicate a physical feat if the effort to do so requires superhuman effort. For instance, while he can view an opponent lifting a car, he can't because his body can't duplicate the superhuman strength required to do so.
  • He also can't duplicate any energy manipulating or projecting capabilities for the same reasons.
  • His abilities are also limited in that they do not grant him an innate understanding of underlying disciplines. For example, as a child, he nearly drowned after imitating a dive because while he was able to mimic the dive, he did not know how to swim.
  • Taskmaster is unable to copy the moves of Alex Hayden for unknown reasons.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Taskmaster often keeps DVDs and tapes of individuals he wishes to mimic. He has at times been shown using a wrist device stolen from SHIELD which creates weapons out of pure energy which apparently have substance even after he lets go of them, at least for a short time.

Transportation

Customized Quinjet, van.

Weapons

Taskmaster uses a number of weapons, often determined by whose abilities he is using. - Known weapons include: Energy Shield, Energy Claws (like Wolverine), Energy Webbing (like Spiderman), Katana, Bow & Arrows(sometimes using "trick" arrows like Hawkeye), Sword, Broadsword, Pair of .45s, Rope, steel round shield (used in the manner of Captain America), Moon Shaped Shurukin (Like Moon Knight) and a multi-purpose Billy Club (in the same sense of Daredevil) He has also been shown sticking to walls suggesting that he has special gloves and perhaps boots which can approximate Spider-man's wall crawling ability.

Notes

  • The Taskmaster's character was considerably revised in a 2002 UDON-created miniseries.

Links

Discover and Discuss

  1. ↑ Moon Knight (Volume 3) #3-6
  2. ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #9-10
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