Random Meet Taskmaster, Skull-Faced Master Combatant Coming To MCU (15 items)

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  (#1) Taskmaster Was Born With Unique ‘Photographic Reflexes’ That Make Him The World’s Best Mimic

  Tony Masters was born with the innate ability of “photographic reflexes,” though there’s never been any indication that he’s a mutant. While still a young boy, Masters discovers that his power allows him to replicate the movements of anyone he observes in motion, meaning he can learn to ball like a pro just by watching basketball on TV and can learn to dive like an Olympian just by hanging out at the pool.

  In a world full of superheroes and other individuals with marvelous abilities, Masters’s photographic reflexes have potential - though he doesn’t realize their full implications until he reaches adulthood. His powers are what eventually lead him to become the villain known as Taskmaster, but not before a brief period in which he attempts to use his gifts for the greater good.
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  (#2) While Serving As An Agent Of S.H.I.E.L.D., Tony Masters Injects Himself With An Experimental Serum That Greatly Enhances His Powers

  Upon reaching adulthood, Tony Masters decides to put his photographic reflexes to good use by becoming an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., where he works for Nick Fury and meets his eventual wife, Mercedes. On one mission, Masters comes across an alleged rip-off of the Super Soldier Serum, and he injects the formula into himself in an attempt to increase his natural abilities.

  The gambit works, with Masters gaining new powers like movement prediction and superhuman reflexes, though modern-day writers mostly choose to ignore the uncomfortable bit about the evil science and just act as though he always had these abilities. He even develops a form of limited super-speed in which he can replicate an individual’s moves at double the speed.

  Unfortunately, these new powers come at a terrible cost. 
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  (#3) Masters Loses All Of His Memories After Injecting The Serum 

  A combination of Tony Masters’s newfound powers and the long-term use of his photographic reflexes leads to a terrible consequence - total memory loss. Masters is able to retain the movements of anyone he watches with perfect accuracy, but doing so pushes the existing memories out of his brain, making it so he eventually only recalls his recent past and completely loses touch with his moral compass. 

  Every time Masters picks up a new skill, he loses a piece of himself, to the point that his past is completely wiped from his mind and he can only ever remember a few years at a time. The reality is that the man who was once Tony Masters no longer exists, having been replaced by the Taskmaster.
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  (#4) Taskmaster’s Wife Manipulated Him Into Being An Unwitting S.H.I.E.L.D. Double-Agent For Years

  With Tony Masters’s memory of the man he once was wiped from his brain, he’s in need of a new identity, and he finds it in Taskmaster, a swashbuckling supervillain with a skull-faced mask. The persona is created by Tony’s wife Mercedes, who decides to keep her amnesiac husband in her life by converting him into the ultimate double agent.

  Mercedes convinces Masters that he’s a mercenary working for “the Org,” but in reality, she uses him to gather inside intel on supervillain organizations for S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nick Fury. When Taskmaster thinks he’s doing evil, he’s actually spying for the good guys - until he loses touch with his old life completely and continues on as a legitimate mercenary. 
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  (#5) Masters Opens ‘Taskmaster’s Academy’ And Starts Training Villains To Fight

  Always an enterprising individual, Taskmaster recognizes that his ability to memorize the moves of the world’s most prominent heroes is a remarkably marketable superpower. Looking for a fresh start, he sets up a henchman training facility known as Taskmaster’s Academy in which he teaches the foot soldiers of various unlawful organizations how to fight with the Avengers, Defenders, and the like. 

  Taskmaster’s new business strategy proves a lot more lucrative - and a lot less dangerous - than ordinary mercenary work. Unfortunately, it also attracts the attention of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
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  (#6) When The Avengers Try To Shut Him Down, Taskmaster Takes Them All On

  The Avengers eventually catch wind that there’s an individual training super-outlaws to beat them in combat, and they dispatch a limited lineup to shut down his enterprise. Since Taskmaster has yet to build a reputation, the Avengers don’t take him as a serious threat - that is until he captures Ant-Man and the Wasp and handily squares up against Hawkeye.

  The only reason the Avengers escape Taskmaster’s Academy with their lives is the intervention of one of their newest members - Jocasta, the would-be robot wife of Ultron. Because of her robotic nature and lack of natural movements, Taskmaster’s abilities prove useless against Jocasta, forcing him to flee and start his business elsewhere. 
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  (#7) Taskmaster Trains A Replacement Captain America

  Taskmaster develops a reputation as one of the premium hand-to-hand combatants in the Marvel Universe, but also as one of the most capable martial arts trainers. That leads to him being hired by the US government to train a replacement Captain America after Steve Rogers quits. 

  Willing to do anything for a buck, Taskmaster happily instructs John Walker on how to fight like the old Cap. Walker has collected countless tapes of Rogers in action over the years. Then, proving his lack of moral boundaries, Taskmaster hires himself out to the Red Skull, offering to show one of the Skull’s henchmen exactly how to end the new Captain America. 
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  (#8) Deadpool Is The One Who Defeats His Friend ‘Tasky’

  Aside from the particularly powerful, there are very few individuals in the Marvel Universe who can beat Taskmaster in a one-on-one fight. He can stand toe-to-toe with the likes of Daredevil and Natasha Romanoff - who he’ll face off with in 2020’s Black Widow - by constantly replicating and predicting their movements. Aside from robots, however, Taskmaster’s greatest weakness is an enemy that he can’t predict, which is why he’s developed a long-term love/hate relationship with Deadpool. Though their personalities are similar enough that they seem to genuinely like each other, Taskmaster has been continually frustrated by his inability to guess the Merc with a Mouth's next move - mostly because Wade Wilson often isn't even sure what he will do next. 

  This frustration has led to Taskmaster having few qualms when he’s hired to take out Wade, a contract he’s accepted on numerous occasions. The antihero, meanwhile, is responsible for labeling Taskmaster with the less intimidating nickname of “Tasky.”
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  (#9) He’s Learned About His Past On Several Occasions, But He Always Forgets It 

  On several occasions, Taskmaster has made an attempt to recover his memories, or at least learn of his own past, and each time has ended in tragedy. Once, he got as far as discovering his history as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and even briefly met with his former life - only to have his memories once again wiped from his brain by a subsequent fight with a superhuman. Most heartbreaking of all was the revelation that Taskmaster had already learned the secrets of his past multiple times, only to forget them again and again.

  At one point, Taskmaster learns of a young hero at Avengers Academy with a power set very similar to his - Jeanne Foucault, also known as Finesse. He does enough research to determine that she may be his daughter and then confronts her, hoping to jog his memories. It doesn’t work, and he’s forced to accept that he’ll never really know the truth - and that he’ll forget all about her in a few years’ time. 
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  (#10) Taskmaster Is Hired To Train The New ’50-State Initiative’ Of Superheroes

  After being briefly incarcerated, Taskmaster is given a new lease on life when Tony Stark launches the Initiative - an ambitious plan to put a superhero team in every state. With dozens of new powered individuals about to be put into action, Taskmaster is hired to train the recruits at Camp Hammond.

  Taskmaster won’t win any “Teacher of the Year” awards - at one point he sits idly by while one student goes mad and begins going after everyone else on campus. Still, he’s an able instructor who helps get the 50-State Initiative off the ground - all the while taking full advantage of the perks of government employment until politics drastically alter the situation.
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  (#11) He Helps Lay Siege To Asgard In Norman Osborn’s ‘Dark Reign’

  Norman Osborn - the former Green Goblin and an all-around evil individual - ends up in charge of the remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D. and enacts his Dark Reign on the Marvel universe. He chooses several influential supervillains to serve on his “Cabal,” and eventually Taskmaster is given a seat at the table.

  Taskmaster wisely manages to stay on Osborn’s good side, even when most of the rest of the Cabal betrays him in one form or another. Taskmaster is still standing by Osborn’s side when he decides to infiltrate Asgard in the Siege storyline, where "Tasky" acquits himself well by fighting two Captain Americas - Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes - at the same time.
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  (#12) He Briefly Serves As An Avenger, But Inevitably Returns To Mercenary Work

  Taskmaster abandons Norman Osborn’s cause just before the Dark Reign falls, and thus keeps himself out of prison and free to do more mercenary work. In a twist of fate, he’s recruited once again by S.H.I.E.L.D. to serve on a clandestine team known as the Secret Avengers.

  Taskmaster’s time as one of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes is short, however, as he ends up hurt while on an undercover mission. He survives and eventually makes a full recovery, but the incident takes him out of the game for a while and ends his tenure with the Avengers. 
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  (#13) Taskmaster Becomes Best Friends With A Robot Clone Of Ant-Man, And Now The Two Are Inseparable

  In recent years, Taskmaster has developed a strong bond with another character sporting a complicated backstory - the Black Ant. Eric O’Grady was the third - and most reprehensible - Ant-Man, who had a previous friendship with Taskmaster before he perished and was replaced by a Life Model Decoy in an attempt to turn him against the Secret Avengers.

  Taskmaster quickly befriends the robotic clone of his old pal, and he and the Black Ant are soon inseparable. Together, they’ve aided a HYDRA takeover of the country, fought the Champions, and found employment with Kraven the Hunter - remaining the best of friends despite their mutually duplicitous nature. 
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  (#14) Taskmaster Is One Of The Most Capable Villains In The Marvel Universe

  Taskmaster makes his long-awaited arrival in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2020’s Black Widow. In his time as a mercenary without morals, Taskmaster has successfully taken on opponents as diverse as Wolverine, Iron Fist, and the Black Panther. He’s fought Captain America to a standstill on multiple occasions. He’s even stood his ground against Thor long enough to escape the encounter unharmed.

  There are very few individuals in the Marvel Universe who stand a chance of beating Tony Masters in a fair fight - and that means that Natasha Romanoff will have her work cut out for her when she makes her solo cinematic debut. 

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