Black Widow: 5 Taskmaster stories to check out before the movie

2. Taskmaster (2002)

This was Taskmaster’s first mini-series. In this one, Taskmaster took a job to destroy some of Tony Stark’s work, and ended up fighting, defeating, and later tricking Iron Man before escaping. But after completing his mission, he was betrayed by his employer. However, the way Taskmaster got his revenge showcased a wide variety of his skills and planning.

This isn’t like any of the previous stories where Taskmaster had to run away; this is him at his best. He was more smooth secret agent than mercenary. A funny moment was, no doubt, Taskmaster admitting that he watched cooking shows to impress women.

This series also had Taskmaster’s best uniform. It wasn’t as cheesy and had a lot of practical uses like a hard-light feature. He has even used it to create Captain America’s shield and Spider-Man’s webs.

1. Taskmaster (2010)

Saved the best for last. Marvel gave everyone the true origin of Taskmaster in this one and it was sad.

You might think Taskmaster has one of the best superpower sets, but this series highlighted that they came with a curse. Whenever he learned something new, he forgot something else; the more complex the move, the bigger chunk he’d forget. In this case, Taskmaster forgot he was actually a good guy and a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. More importantly, he forgot he was married.

His wife loved him even though he couldn’t remember her. She was his handler and sent him on missions. Sometimes they were good, but other times he had to be a dirt-bag. Unbeknownst to him, he was a secret agent, so all the times he was trying to kill Captain America, it was under Nick Fury’s orders. His wife was the middle ground to send him along. It hurt, but she did it anyway. In the end, she would always cry whenever he talked to her and he didn’t recognize her voice.

There is an abundance of other comics that feature Taskmaster – like his time working with the Initiative under Norman Osborn’s Dark Reign, the time Deadpool hired him to fight while The Merc With A Mouth was shackled and manacled, his time with the short-lived Agent X comic book series. Recently, he was even working for Hydra (money is money, I guess) and fought the Punisher.

But these five stories here are a great place to begin your journey. Trust your favorite comic book article writer (me, duh), he’s a special character that’s gotten better as time has gone on.

What is your favorite Taskmaster story? Let us know in the comments below.