Taskmaster possesses the ability to absorb knowledge and instantly replicate the combat skills of anyone he observes. He has used these skills as a teacher to many super villains, henchmen, and even some heroes. In order to clean his record, he started working for the U.S. government as a combat instructor. Due to a set of events, he was ultimately put in as sheriff of the criminal island known as Bagalia. He currently serves as Madame Hydra's personal bodyguard.
- I agree that he should be treated as a street level team killer and a major villain for that group of heroes. Too many writers have used him as a cameo or a joke and few take the character as serious anymore.
@ReVamp: Do you know what parts are and are not? For example, I'm guessing they'd want to keep all the awesome bits like fast forward martial arts? :)
From what I understand (Like I mention, I haven't read it, so I have mostly no idea what I'm talking about) they just retconned a lot of his origin and thus by extension some of his mini-series. I quite believe most of the events here are cannon. Then again I haven't rea-- You get the point.
And that scan of Iron Man and Cap vs Tasky is misleading. He didn't hold his own against them, he used a cheap shot that suprised them and then ran away. Its a great feat for running away, but doesn't mean he could hold his own against Captain America and Iron Man.
Taskmaster Vs Daken and a group of robbers (Taskmaster takes a fricking bazzoka!?) It should be noted Daken was not fighting to beat Taskmaster as de didn't want anyone to know he was there. Still Task demonstrates some very good speed at being able to catch Daken not to mention impressive durability in taking a rocket head on!
Love Taskmaster a great example of how you don't need to be able to everything to be interesting.I read Udon and honestly I prefer the 616 I just wish his costume would loose the tight whittys man!! You are a Badass damnnit!!! But his power level is great I want to see him fight the Avengers again.
@kasino: His ability is that he can copy anything they can do physically. For example if he watched Iron Fist he would know just how to fight like him. What he can't do is copy superhuman abilities so although he could move like Iron Fist he wouldn't be able to use his Iron Fist technique.
I'm pretty sure it doesn't even begin to compare with the stuff Iron Fist can do with it, but the point is he has learned to use chi techniques.
And I don't recall him ever fighting somebody who was invisible, however he has fought with his eyes closed when using Daredevil's style against Elektra (even though he lacked Daredevil's radar sense). I believe that's the closest he's ever come to fighting an "invisible" opponent. I won't share the scans for that though since they've already been posted here.
In Avengers Powe Pack Assembled #1, (2006?) Taskmaster takes on 5 super powered heroes unarmed! He would've knocked Capt. America off a roof too had he not been blindsided by Alex Power.
Btw - i know this is a self contained stand alone issue - but is it considered 616 canon?
And even after all that (plus a beating from a group of Senior War Vets) he still escapes to complete his mission.
@themimegogo: Well in case it's not, let's follow that up with this...
As Crusader says here, Taskmaster simply told the new recruits at the Initiative to take him down. He didn't restrict them in any way because he wanted to know what level they were on, to determine what training they required (although it can be assumed that they weren't using deadly force because this WAS a training exercise). Regardless, despite a 7-on-1 battle, not one could get the better of him (they obviously condensed this action sequence to fit it on one page but since these images and Crusader's assessment are all we have as evidence, we can assume that they couldn't even touch him).
What is not listed on this page however, is who his students are and what they can do, so for the sake of convenience I'll list them:
Ant-Man (Eric O'Grady), can change his size at will.
Proton (Geldoff), can fire explosive balls of energy.
Dragon Lord (Tako Shamara), can summon dragons.
Melee possesses an innate mastery over every form of martial arts.
Red Nine (Wallace Jackson), has flight, super-strength, force-fields and energy bolts at his disposal.
Geiger (Delilah Dearborn), can mimic the powers of gamma-powered beings in her vicinity (so she's effectively powerless in this scene, though O'Grady says in the following issue that she is "built like a brick house").
And Diamondback (Rachel Leighton), who was already fully trained in hand-to-hand combat a long time ago at one of Taskmaster's own academies, and also known for her trademark of throwing tampered diamond tips as throwing weapons. Also, she later trained with Captain America (Steve Rogers himself).
Are there any feats from Secret Avengers or nice things to add?
So far, not really. In case you wish me to elaborate I'll explain, but I'm going to use spoiler tags where I feel they are necessary as the series is still relatively recent: He didn't get to do much feat-wise when introduced in issue #2 as we find him both handcuffed and having gone 12 days without sleep (although you might classify that as a feat), only to then suffer a beating from a super-villain mob before being knocked unconscious by Mockingbird and taken by S.H.I.E.L.D.
Since then, all we've seen of him is a fight with Mockingbird while he was stuck in sleeper status, which was too short to determine their difference in skill, as Taskmaster was quickly re-awakened as an agent, the disorientation of which gave her an opening, causing her to appear as the victor. He did help her following that skirmish, but there was no particular feat beyond the fact that he knows how to sneak in places. He's also been "training" AIM personnel, but not personally, instead electing to play ping-pong.
I've looked at the synopsis' for forthcoming issues, however, and it seems he will be more involved in the next few issues at least. Hopefully there are some feats soon to come, if there are I will post them here, providing nobody else beats me to it.
@cameron83: That's a tough one, I wish I could give you a simple answer. The truth is, I think you really hit the nail on the head with this one. It's all about how well it's done. For example:
Now personally I think that he looks terrible here in his Udon suit, yet I thought the majority of the images from the Udon miniseries and Agent X were great. But it's the same costume, it's just that this artist chose to focus an outline around Taskmaster's mouth-piece (something that Udon admittedly couldn't seem to decide on, with one issue having the removable mouth-piece, another having the entire lower half of his mask being removable, and some where there appears to be no removable sections). He also drew unnecessarily strong lines on the mask above the eyes and even lines through the eyes for some reason. Couple this with how slouch he looks here and how large his torso seems in comparison to his arm, it just looks bad in my personal opinion.
But maybe it always looks bad without Udon's over-stated muscular-esque artwork? Maybe Udon themselves are what carried the charm of his Udon attire? I disagree, and my reason is Power Pack:
Now I don't dislike this. He is drawn in a new style to fit with the rest of the comic, Cap is even here for a nice comparison, yet the costume doesn't suffer for it. This one also has a strong outline around the mouth, but it fits. The proportions are accurate, the eyes are menacing. The costume has been successfully and accurately adapted into a different style and looks good.
I think, looking at older issues using his Classic costume, the quality of Taskmaster's appearances suffered when new artists felt the need to alter him to fit with their books. His mask has gone from the original skull face (supposedly it was originally intended to not be a mask but a side-affect of his powers as I heard), to being a pale/sickly face, to looking like cloth, to being green and grotesque. From normal eyes to no eyes to glowing eyes... I still think of all of those appearance as being his classic costume despite multiple minor alterations, but although I felt there were several examples of a bad looking Taskmaster in his classic look, I still don't fault the costume. Case in point, my avatar:
Now I don't own this figurine, and I doubt I'll be able to afford it any time soon, but when I saw it I had to save the image. Of all the things that people might knock the classic costume for: the pirate boots, the underwear-over-pants look, the cape, etc. He has it all in this image and yet to me he looks dangerous, prepared, perfect. Everything from the expression on his mask to the way the costume appears to fit and the cape appears to flap. What that tells me is that the costume isn't the problem. Taskmaster "done correctly" looks badass.
When it gets down to it though, I like to think that his Classic costume and his Udon costume serve different roles:
Udon: More practical, ideal for infiltration and assassinations, less weight. I like to think that this suit is about getting the job done in the most efficient way possible.
Classic: Intimidating, theatrical, iconic. This is a man you recognize, any man who dresses like this and carries a full stash of weapons on his person is to be feared. Considering his choice of relatively basic weapons, you would have to assume he is confident and proficient with them and thus he seems even more intimidating. People might think that since he's wearing a cape and tights, maybe he's just insane? Then he's insane and armed to the teeth. And that "T", you don't put a logo on your stuff unless you want to be identified. I think that this outfit has always been about theatrics and reputation.
Choosing which I prefer is difficult, as I am quite fond of both, but for the sake of giving you a straight answer I prefer his Classic look. While I wish the Udon costume would return every once in a while, and I do believe it is the more practical of the two, the Classic costume is simply iconic.
As for an image, I guess my avatar for the reasons stated above. Unless you meant specifically comic images, in which case I'd need to skim back through his comic appearances again to decide, or else I'd just be posting an endless stream of random images.
@bazdan: Wow. Thank you for the elaborate and well-thought answer. And I completely agree,his old costume doesn't look bad. It's just that it needs the right artist. Like the one I provided with Matteo Scalera. That costume was simply badass in that.
But in some depictions,it just looks a bit...awful. Like David Finch's art of him (his Moon Knight was awesome,though).
Also,yeah,I prefer the classic look. It looks a lot more intimidating and iconic (in some cases,he looks like The Grim Reaper),and like something that a master like Taskmaster can wear. He's one of the guys like Batman or Doctor Doom that can pull off a cape and make it look epic in a fight.
Of course,I think his costume just needs a slightly different artist interpretation to look perfect for my taste,know what I mean?
The costume looks awesome,but maybe if someone like Kenneth Rocafort came along and drew it that it would sell it for me. Like Matteo Scalera's interpretation.
Anyway,there are some pretty good scans there. To tell you the truth,I think that Taskmaster is a bit underrated. He can easily be Deathstroke level in popularity and,imo,can beat Deathstroke in a fight (especially since he's WAY more skilled). But I think that,in order for more people to realize that,he just needs more fans and recognition to get more respect. And in order for that to happen, I think he needs more appearances in media (and not as some side-character in the background)
@cameron83: I think I can relate to what you mean. I personally feel like Marvel has never been able to decide what they want Taskmaster to be.
I mean, first he's introduced as not only a villain, but a villain who can emulate the combat styles of members from the Avengers' roster, who also happens to have captured Ant-Man, Yellowjacket and the Wasp. Furthermore, this is the man revealed to be behind every no-name hired thug seen in Marvel Comics. They could have easily used Taskmaster as a team-buster, and the cover of The Avengers #196 - The Terrible Toll of the Taskmaster implies that they would do so. However, what ensues is an incredibly short skirmish with Cap and Iron Man, and while in that moment he does seem to have the advantage, he realizes that a strategic retreat is the wisest option, his reasoning coming later: he can't beat the whole team.
It's been brought up several times, partly due to the characters he has frequently interacted with, that Taskmaster is quite fragile. He's in great shape, but he's human, and that limits his strength and durability. When you consider those limitations, and the nature of his power, it's immediately evident why they were right not to try and pass him off as a team-buster. His lack of raw power and/or durability means that his only advantage over the Avengers is skill, and if the gap is so monumental that he were capable of beating the entire team with skill alone, then the Avengers would look like chumps and nobody would take them seriously.
After his initial introduction, he appeared seemingly at random in various comics for one-off issues as the occasional villain of the week. By this point it was clear that Marvel's opinion of Taskmaster was not very high, as his arrest at the end of The Thing #26 - Runaways seemed particularly weak when you consider his debut. Admittedly, this helped set up an important Captain America story-line, but Taskmaster would go on to remain underutilized. Obviously I'm not going to list every issue or occurrence. The point I'm trying to get at is that from here on out he went from teaching crooks, to mercenary work, to serving the Red Skull and Hydra and more. Yet, at no point was he able to do serious damage (well there was one building he blew up IIRC but he would've died in the blast unconscious had his employers not intervened so I'm allocating that to them). I'm sure you might be wondering why I've gone on this pointless ramble about his character history, and it's because I think that this is relevant to the artwork. The artists' renditions of the character are based on their perceptions of what the character is and what he/she represents, drawing Taskmaster as if he were still considered a team-buster would be fairly different from the one we know, as would a Taskmaster who often succeeded, but Taskmaster for all his proficiency failed consistently. I imagine he must have seemed quite trivial and possibly even quite silly back then, with nothing but his origin to carry him as a character. I believe this is why he became a more comedic character and you can see the influence that has had on both the way he is written and the way he is drawn today. As he grew to seem like a one-trick pony and less of a threat, his depictions became less threatening, but every now and then it's as if someone came along and thought that if they alter the mask and make him look horrendous then he'll suddenly seem scary and/or intimidating (Finch?). Whether I'm right or wrong in assuming that, it's plain to see that they've been experimenting with his look back and forth for decades. I'd like to think that he's finally at a place where they can make him look and feel dangerous and appealing without feeling the need to make his mask appear overly ugly, but only time will tell.
Taskmaster is generally underrated by people unfamiliar with the character, but from the few topics I've seen on these forums he is rated fairly accurately and respectively by people who are familiar with him. You draw comparisons between Taskmaster and Deathstroke and I support that. While I'm sure that they've been brought up many times in vs threads and I don't want this to escalate into one, I agree that Taskmaster is at least on par with Deathstroke in terms of combat proficiency (although impassioned fans on both sides would obviously argue differently). However, I think that while Taskmaster's ability gives him a great advantage, his personality is equally a disadvantage. And considering his track record, without consistently high-skilled opponents to face, it's hard to accurately gauge just how much of a threat Taskmaster is. While his feats speak for themselves and he is capable of a lot, he has consistently lost from either surprises, overwhelming odds or simply quitting of his own accord and running away.
This is where your last few sentences become truly relevant. Taskmaster's popularity will only rise if he gets some good authentic wins or Marvel takes a risk to give Taskmaster some material. Unless a character has been introduced as the woobie, few people are going to back the losing horse. Taskmaster wasn't made to be likable or to be sympathized with, and it's only in the last decade or so that Marvel has been pushing for the character to rise in popularity (MvC3, Udon miniseries, Avengers Initiative, second miniseries, etc.). The only way that Taskmaster is going to start getting wins is with character development, which is dependent on him having more on-screen/in-panel time in given stories. Character development would help bring the him to a stage where his personality, while still in-tact, would not cause him disadvantages in a fight and thus increase his lethality. Of course this requires him to first get more appearances in media. While I wouldn't say no to a Taskmaster series, he tends to fit better as a supporting character because of his interactions with other characters: he's a teacher by nature, either through criticism or beatings or setting an example, he helps other characters grow, such is the case with Agent X. Taskmaster himself is best played solo or second fiddle, but that's not a problem as long as he is being developed (hopefully Secret Avengers is on the case).
Also, thank you, I'm familiar with the website you shared, and I think you might be interested in checking themimegogo's thread on a rare Taskmaster image he was looking into. I found that website back when I was trying to track down the origin of his image, as it's featured at the top of the page.
@cameron83: I think I can relate to what you mean. I personally feel like Marvel has never been able to decide what they want Taskmaster to be.
I mean, first he's introduced as not only a villain, but a villain who can emulate the combat styles of members from the Avengers' roster, who also happens to have captured Ant-Man, Yellowjacket and the Wasp. Furthermore, this is the man revealed to be behind every no-name hired thug seen in Marvel Comics. They could have easily used Taskmaster as a team-buster, and the cover of The Avengers #196 - The Terrible Toll of the Taskmaster implies that they would do so. However, what ensues is an incredibly short skirmish with Cap and Iron Man, and while in that moment he does seem to have the advantage, he realizes that a strategic retreat is the wisest option, his reasoning coming later: he can't beat the whole team.
It's been brought up several times, partly due to the characters he has frequently interacted with, that Taskmaster is quite fragile. He's in great shape, but he's human, and that limits his strength and durability. When you consider those limitations, and the nature of his power, it's immediately evident why they were right not to try and pass him off as a team-buster. His lack of raw power and/or durability means that his only advantage over the Avengers is skill, and if the gap is so monumental that he were capable of beating the entire team with skill alone, then the Avengers would look like chumps and nobody would take them seriously.
After his initial introduction, he appeared seemingly at random in various comics for one-off issues as the occasional villain of the week. By this point it was clear that Marvel's opinion of Taskmaster was not very high, as his arrest at the end of The Thing #26 - Runaways seemed particularly weak when you consider his debut. Admittedly, this helped set up an important Captain America story-line, but Taskmaster would go on to remain underutilized. Obviously I'm not going to list every issue or occurrence. The point I'm trying to get at is that from here on out he went from teaching crooks, to mercenary work, to serving the Red Skull and Hydra and more. Yet, at no point was he able to do serious damage (well there was one building he blew up IIRC but he would've died in the blast unconscious had his employers not intervened so I'm allocating that to them). I'm sure you might be wondering why I've gone on this pointless ramble about his character history, and it's because I think that this is relevant to the artwork. The artists' renditions of the character are based on their perceptions of what the character is and what he/she represents, drawing Taskmaster as if he were still considered a team-buster would be fairly different from the one we know, as would a Taskmaster who often succeeded, but Taskmaster for all his proficiency failed consistently. I imagine he must have seemed quite trivial and possibly even quite silly back then, with nothing but his origin to carry him as a character. I believe this is why he became a more comedic character and you can see the influence that has had on both the way he is written and the way he is drawn today. As he grew to seem like a one-trick pony and less of a threat, his depictions became less threatening, but every now and then it's as if someone came along and thought that if they alter the mask and make him look horrendous then he'll suddenly seem scary and/or intimidating (Finch?). Whether I'm right or wrong in assuming that, it's plain to see that they've been experimenting with his look back and forth for decades. I'd like to think that he's finally at a place where they can make him look and feel dangerous and appealing without feeling the need to make his mask appear overly ugly, but only time will tell.
Taskmaster is generally underrated by people unfamiliar with the character, but from the few topics I've seen on these forums he is rated fairly accurately and respectively by people who are familiar with him. You draw comparisons between Taskmaster and Deathstroke and I support that. While I'm sure that they've been brought up many times in vs threads and I don't want this to escalate into one, I agree that Taskmaster is at least on par with Deathstroke in terms of combat proficiency (although impassioned fans on both sides would obviously argue differently). However, I think that while Taskmaster's ability gives him a great advantage, his personality is equally a disadvantage. And considering his track record, without consistently high-skilled opponents to face, it's hard to accurately gauge just how much of a threat Taskmaster is. While his feats speak for themselves and he is capable of a lot, he has consistently lost from either surprises, overwhelming odds or simply quitting of his own accord and running away.
This is where your last few sentences become truly relevant. Taskmaster's popularity will only rise if he gets some good authentic wins or Marvel takes a risk to give Taskmaster some material. Unless a character has been introduced as the woobie, few people are going to back the losing horse. Taskmaster wasn't made to be likable or to be sympathized with, and it's only in the last decade or so that Marvel has been pushing for the character to rise in popularity (MvC3, Udon miniseries, Avengers Initiative, second miniseries, etc.). The only way that Taskmaster is going to start getting wins is with character development, which is dependent on him having more on-screen/in-panel time in given stories. Character development would help bring the him to a stage where his personality, while still in-tact, would not cause him disadvantages in a fight and thus increase his lethality. Of course this requires him to first get more appearances in media. While I wouldn't say no to a Taskmaster series, he tends to fit better as a supporting character because of his interactions with other characters: he's a teacher by nature, either through criticism or beatings or setting an example, he helps other characters grow, such is the case with Agent X. Taskmaster himself is best played solo or second fiddle, but that's not a problem as long as he is being developed (hopefully Secret Avengers is on the case).
Also, thank you, I'm familiar with the website you shared, and I think you might be interested in checking themimegogo's thread on a rare Taskmaster image he was looking into. I found that website back when I was trying to track down the origin of his image, as it's featured at the top of the page.
Wow.
1. I don't know how you have the concentration to write something this elaborate and well-thought out =) Great post(s)
I agree with everything here. I think that he can definitely ork as a second fiddle,but I almost feel that it has to be in a role that is somewhat significant,like the enforcer for the main villain.
Found the thread,and that is a pretty cool costume.
Lastly,I have almost nothing to add (since you said everything already). I do have a question,though. What do you think it will take for Taskmaster's rise in popularity? I think that it's via media exposure and more comic appearances or something like that. And with more media exposure,his fanbase can potentially increase. If it increases (especially when they are trying to promote him),I think that he will be written a bit more serious and threatening than just being taken down easily or undermined. Basicaly what I am saying is,with more exposure (and more importantly,more fans by an increase in popularity),he can be written more seriously more frequently and we will be sure to see more character development. Heck,he might even get a series....but that is a HUUUGE "if" and it's unlikely that Marvel is going to promote him.....I think.
1. I don't know how you have the concentration to write something this elaborate and well-thought out =) Great post(s)
I agree with everything here. I think that he can definitely ork as a second fiddle,but I almost feel that it has to be in a role that is somewhat significant,like the enforcer for the main villain.
Found the thread,and that is a pretty cool costume.
Lastly,I have almost nothing to add (since you said everything already). I do have a question,though. What do you think it will take for Taskmaster's rise in popularity? I think that it's via media exposure and more comic appearances or something like that. And with more media exposure,his fanbase can potentially increase. If it increases (especially when they are trying to promote him),I think that he will be written a bit more serious and threatening than just being taken down easily or undermined. Basicaly what I am saying is,with more exposure (and more importantly,more fans by an increase in popularity),he can be written more seriously more frequently and we will be sure to see more character development. Heck,he might even get a series....but that is a HUUUGE "if" and it's unlikely that Marvel is going to promote him.....I think.
1. Thank you very much, I'm sincerely flattered.
2. I fully agree with this.
3. I'm glad you like it.
4. While I do think more comic appearances will definitely help, I think that the quality of his appearances will do more to help him than the quantity. Also, considering how well received Marvel's cinematic universe has been, the film and TV departments are the most likely avenue to increase his popularity. He has already been featured in video games and merchandise, and while there can never be enough comics featuring him, anyone who reads comics who would like him is likely already familiar with him. I think Marvel does want to promote him, they've gone out of their way to give him several endorsements and he has been well-received, but he hasn't garnered enough attention or profit for them to trust something along the lines of a feature-length movie to sell. The problem is that as you say yourself, he needs more exposure to support him.
I think if he is ever really going to get more exposure he needs to first be given his own iconic story-line. I think if you compare him to other characters who've received a lot of exposure, there's a pattern: among adaptations and other media exposure, how many times have we seen Peter Parker deal with high-school and change from zero to hero? How many times have we seen Wolverine suffer from the Weapon X Program and join Xavier's? How many times has Thanos been craving the Infinity Gauntlet? Hell even in DC, I heard Bane hasn't used venom since his initial story arc, yet how many adaptations of Bane have used venom? The connection is that these story-lines are what we most often associate the characters with and as such, they become the basis of most adaptations, the core of the character that remains despite the details shifting. If, hypothetically, Taskmaster were featured in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Captain America 3 (assuming there will be one), what particular well known, iconic story-line could you adapt over? I don't think he really has one and I think if they find Taskmaster a story-line like that, he will be adapted more often because they won't have to wrack their brains trying to make him relevant to the story and he would be easier to adapt and introduce: the story would come prepackaged almost. As it currently is, do you have him teaching thugs or being a mercenary? Is he a straight-forward cutthroat or "the killer who cares"? Is he working under orders or gunning for revenge? Does he have a love interest or has he forgotten her? S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra? Having an iconic story-line will answer all of these and lay out his path of progression for the course of the story, but without that, all they can safely say is that he's a criminal with photographic reflexes, and everything else about the character is in danger of being lost in adaptation (e.g. the "Ultimate" version of Taskmaster). I think that they can easily make an adaptation without basing it on a comic arc, and it could be great and possibly even become the iconic story-line that people would come to associate him with. However, the sooner they have a well-received, prepackaged Taskmaster plot to play around with, the sooner they would be likely to increase his exposure.
1. I don't know how you have the concentration to write something this elaborate and well-thought out =) Great post(s)
I agree with everything here. I think that he can definitely ork as a second fiddle,but I almost feel that it has to be in a role that is somewhat significant,like the enforcer for the main villain.
Found the thread,and that is a pretty cool costume.
Lastly,I have almost nothing to add (since you said everything already). I do have a question,though. What do you think it will take for Taskmaster's rise in popularity? I think that it's via media exposure and more comic appearances or something like that. And with more media exposure,his fanbase can potentially increase. If it increases (especially when they are trying to promote him),I think that he will be written a bit more serious and threatening than just being taken down easily or undermined. Basicaly what I am saying is,with more exposure (and more importantly,more fans by an increase in popularity),he can be written more seriously more frequently and we will be sure to see more character development. Heck,he might even get a series....but that is a HUUUGE "if" and it's unlikely that Marvel is going to promote him.....I think.
1. Thank you very much, I'm sincerely flattered.
2. I fully agree with this.
3. I'm glad you like it.
4. While I do think more comic appearances will definitely help, I think that the quality of his appearances will do more to help him than the quantity. Also, considering how well received Marvel's cinematic universe has been, the film and TV departments are the most likely avenue to increase his popularity. He has already been featured in video games and merchandise, and while there can never be enough comics featuring him, anyone who reads comics who would like him is likely already familiar with him. I think Marvel does want to promote him, they've gone out of their way to give him several endorsements and he has been well-received, but he hasn't garnered enough attention or profit for them to trust something along the lines of a feature-length movie to sell. The problem is that as you say yourself, he needs more exposure to support him.
I think if he is ever really going to get more exposure he needs to first be given his own iconic story-line. I think if you compare him to other characters who've received a lot of exposure, there's a pattern: among adaptations and other media exposure, how many times have we seen Peter Parker deal with high-school and change from zero to hero? How many times have we seen Wolverine suffer from the Weapon X Program and join Xavier's? How many times has Thanos been craving the Infinity Gauntlet? Hell even in DC, I heard Bane hasn't used venom since his initial story arc, yet how many adaptations of Bane have used venom? The connection is that these story-lines are what we most often associate the characters with and as such, they become the basis of most adaptations, the core of the character that remains despite the details shifting. If, hypothetically, Taskmaster were featured in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Captain America 3 (assuming there will be one), what particular well known, iconic story-line could you adapt over? I don't think he really has one and I think if they find Taskmaster a story-line like that, he will be adapted more often because they won't have to wrack their brains trying to make him relevant to the story and he would be easier to adapt and introduce: the story would come prepackaged almost. As it currently is, do you have him teaching thugs or being a mercenary? Is he a straight-forward cutthroat or "the killer who cares"? Is he working under orders or gunning for revenge? Does he have a love interest or has he forgotten her? S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra? Having an iconic story-line will answer all of these and lay out his path of progression for the course of the story, but without that, all they can safely say is that he's a criminal with photographic reflexes, and everything else about the character is in danger of being lost in adaptation (e.g. the "Ultimate" version of Taskmaster). I think that they can easily make an adaptation without basing it on a comic arc, and it could be great and possibly even become the iconic story-line that people would come to associate him with. However, the sooner they have a well-received, prepackaged Taskmaster plot to play around with, the sooner they would be likely to increase his exposure.
Wow. I agree. An iconic storyline that we can associate Taskmaster with can possibly carve the way for a game for him,or maybe a show appearance as a main antagonist.
EDIT: I just read a Taskmaster mini-series and it was freaking great. Kind of got me more hooked onto the character.
@themimegogo: Sorry dude, I hadn't checked the forum recently and no notifications popped up, so I didn't see this post and am afraid I've kept you waiting a while. That image came from this comic here: Deadline #2 - Part 2. I haven't read the series, I heard Taskmaster was "featured" in it but that one image is really all there is of him in the book.
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