Taskmaster #4

Tasky and his wife draw the legions of MILF to a stockpile warehouse; but, when they're holed together, they finally have to confront their twisted history of their relationship.
 

The Good

I never thought a character like Taskmaster was capable of this kind of pathos. His relationship with his wife has some surprising depth, but it never gets overbearing enough to get in the way of the manic and truly inspired action. This is strong balance of the strange and the kickass, the gubusting and the heartbreaking, and Palo's art is a perfect complement to that. His recurring visual gimmick of panels revealing which heroes Tasky's copying was superb.

The Bad

I'd really have to reach to find something to fault with this one. Once again, the only thing bad about it that it's only a mini-series and it's over, now. I never thought I'd say that I wanted to see a Taskmaster ongoing but, here I am, wanting one.

The Verdict - 5/5

I'm always impressed whenever a writer's able to do some continuity fixing in a way that weaves possibly contradicting stories into a complex, sophisticated character portrait. To that end, Van Lente has made sense of Tasky's waxing heroism and waning villainy in way that not only cleverly makes connections to the costs of his famous photographic memory, but also redefines him as a deeply tragic character. This might be collected in trade soon, but it might not be. Grab your chance and go back - - get all the issues, now!