You should definitely check out these Taskmaster stories before seeing Black Widow.
The Black Widow trailer premiered earlier this month and it showed some characters that haven’t made their debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We saw Yelena Belova (a different Black Widow), Alexei Shostakov (The Red Guardian), and a mysterious character in a mask. Now, the casual fan may not know who this masked character is. Comic book fans, however, might be aware that it is one of the Avengers deadliest enemies called Taskmaster.
What makes Taskmaster so formidable is his photographic reflexes. That means he can do anything that he sees perfectly. He’s spent years watching the best fighters, from Iron Fist to Captain America. He’s also picked up Hawkeye’s ability to never miss with with a bow and arrow, Spider-Man’s agility, and Punisher’s skills with a gun.
When fighting people whose abilities he has acquired, he knows exactly what moves they’re going to use… and when. And with all of those abilities, he’s become a problem for almost everyone.
With that in mind, before you see Black Widow in theaters in May, you should check out these Taskmaster stories in order to learn more about him and why he’s a big deal.
5. The Avengers No. 196
You might as well start at the beginning. Taskmaster’s first appearance was in Avengers No. 195, but it was he following issue in which we got to see what he was really made of.
In Avengers No. 196, he went up against Captain America and Iron Man at the same time. Granted, he ended up running away in the end, but he’s not an idiot. As Taskmaster put it, “There ain’t no buck in feeding an ego–an’ it’d be awful hard runnin’ a business from a jail cell.” He knew there was a chance he wouldn’t win this fight so he thought discretion was the better part of valor.
Taskmaster loves to boast that he took on the Avengers. However, Deadpool loves to ask if he actually beat them. Nevertheless, he did have them on their heels – not something a lot of teams can say. Let alone a guy going into Avengers Mansion by himself and having a chance at winning.
4. Deadpool No. 2 (late 1990’s)
The first time they met, Deadpool thought his “Friend” Weasel was captured. Taskmaster watched Deadpool fight, mimicked his moves, and put a whoopin’ on the Merc With A Mouth. The next time, however, Deadpool embarrassed him. He made his moves so random that Taskmaster couldn’t figure them out. How? He literally danced and attacked. As silly as it was, it worked.
This is one of the best love-hate relationships in all of Marvel Comics. Deadpool and Taskmaster have a mutual respect for each other. Even though Taskmaster has tried to kill Deadpool on multiple occasions, Deadpool still helps him.
This must be some weird, “Honor among killers” kind of thing, but it’s at a point now where Taskmaster is in Deadpool comics more than Avengers. That’s how well the pair work together.
3. Deadpool and Thunderbolts: Magnum Opus
At the end of Secret Invasion, Norman Osborn got the kill shot heard around the world. Everyone witnessed as he was the one to kill the Skrull’s queen. What people didn’t know was that he got this information from Deadpool. Norman intercepted Deadpool’s message to Nick Fury and got what he needed to kill the queen. After Norman became the world’s protector, he sent some people to kill Deadpool. When he sent his Thunderbolts, Deadpool was prepared – he decided to get Taskmaster to help him.
This series shows off how skilled Taskmaster really is. What’s funny is that Taskmaster was working for Norman at the time but since Deadpool paid him, he was more than up for the task.
It was a fun issue with Deadpool and Taskmaster. Their banter was incredible. Maybe the best part was the ending in which Deadpool paid Taskmaster out of random ATMs. Since his fee was high, it took more than a few stops. Also, Deadpool was using Norman’s bank card.
Ironically, this story even had Black Widow.
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.