Taskmaster (Marvel)

Villain Overview

Gallery

Evil-doer

Full Name

Anthony Masters

Alias

Taskmaster

Tony
Contingency T
Tasky
Barney Toastmaster
Captain America

Origin

The Avengers #195

Occupation

Mercenary
Assassin
Spy
Bodyguard (formerly)
Military trainer (formerly)
Hand-to-Hand combat instructor (formerly)
Partner of Black Ant
Leader of the Shadow Initiative
Member of the Power Elite
Staff member of the Ravencroft Institute
Member of Hydra's Avengers (formerly)
Member of the High Council of Hydra (formerly)
Member of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Secret Avengers (formerly)
Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (formerly)
Member of A.I.M. (formerly)
Member of The Cabal (formerly)
Member and instructor of the 50-State Initiative (formerly)
Member of Agency X (formerly)
Member of the Frightful Four (formerly)
Member of the Thunderbolts (formerly)
Twitch Streamer (formerly)

Powers / Skills

Genius level tactician
Olympic level conditioning
Exceptional athlete
Master hand-to-hand combatant and martial artist
Skilled master swordsman and marksman
Voice mimicry
Master of disguise
Master spy
Master assassin
Meditation
Artificially enhanced physiology:

Photographic reflexes
Limited superspeed
Physical movement prediction
Superhuman agility
Superhuman reflexes

Hobby

Copying the abilities of others

Training criminals.

Goals

Obtain wealth (succeeded so far).

Defeat superheroes.

Crimes

Theft
Stalking
Poaching
Assault
Sabotage
Battery
Jailbreak
Assassinations
Conspiracy
Kidnapping
Animal cruelty
Murder
Invasion
Hacking
Threats
Tax Evasion

Type of Villain

Strategic Assassin

“	I got this...memory thing. I pick up anyone's moves just by seein' 'em. That's a lotta data. More'n my brain's got room for, I guess. So I... forget things. Things that ain't about combat, about survival. People, places... I can't remember what I did last week. By Monday, I probably won't remember this conversation. I wanted ta fight you 'cause... I thought if I remembered your moves, I might remember you.	„
	~ Taskmaster

“	Do you want some advice? Run. Forget all this. Walk away and never look back. Because once you find the answers you're looking for, there's no going back. Sometimes it's better to forget.	„
	~ Taskmaster

Anthony "Tony" Masters, better known as Taskmaster, is an antagonist in the Marvel Universe who possesses the power to copy any fighting style or move that he observes. He is an extremely skilled mercenary, capable with virtually any weapon known to man. He most often carries a sword, shield, and bow and arrows, but also carries knives, guns, and many other weapons.

After he masters a fighting style, he sells it, teaching it to anyone for the right price. He most often gets his "merchandise" by watching videos of combatants, and copies them photogenically. He cannot, however, perform skills that require superhuman abilities, such as lifting a car or firing energy blasts. If he watches a fighting video in fast-motion, he can copy it at the same speed, granting him semi-superspeed in that instance.

Taskmaster serves as the archenemy of Ant-Man (Scott Lang) and a frequent opponent of Captain America, Black Widow, Spider-Man, and Deadpool, the latter of whom is the only person whose fighting maneuvers Taskmaster cannot replicate, due to his unpredictability.

Biography[]

Early Life[]

Anthony "Tony" Masters was born in Bronx, New York to unnamed parents, and was born with the ability to duplicate the movements of others through brief observation. He discovered his photographic reflexes when he was eight years old, and was able to copy skills from others, such as swimming or twirling a lasso. During his youth, Tony befriended Mercedes Masters, and later married her before becoming a government agent.

Becoming Taskmaster[]

Tony eventually became an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. when he was older, and during one mission, Masters found an elderly scientist dying. Before the scientist died from his gunshot wound, he gave Tony a syringe containing an experimental Nazi version of the Super Soldier Serum, and injected himself with it. After injecting himself with the serum, he began developing powers, but the drawback was that the memories he gained by watching others would overwrite his past memories.

As a result, Tony forgot most of his past with S.H.I.E.L.D. and his wife, but Mercedes crafted an elaborate set-up to help control and guide Tony in his guise as "Taskmaster". Mercedes was able to link Tony to "The Org" by using a series of muscle memory and reflexive tasks, and The Org was his "handler" between missions. Mercedes was actually the Org, gathering intelligence for S.H.I.E.L.D. after Taskmaster completed a mission, making him a double agent for both sides.

UDON Comics[]

Taskmaster was featured prominently in UDON Studio's run of him, where he obtained a new costume and powerset as well as a new standard weapon set, including replacing his sword with a katana, his bow with guns, and his shield with an energy weapon generator. UDON's run was also the first time he used "Tony" as a name although, at the time it was an alias. During UDON's Agency X series, Taskmaster was a main character of the team. During this time, he became a reluctant friend of Deadpool after starting to date Deadpool's secretary, Sandi Brandenburg. After the Agency X run of Taskmaster, UDON didn't work on his character anymore, and as such his new costume and powers were abandoned outside of non-canon appearances.

Powers and Abilities[]

Taskmaster has what he calls "photographic reflexes" where after seeing someone perform an action once, he can perfectly copy the action. After injecting himself with a syringe containing an experimental Nazi version of the Super-Soldier Serum, this already remarkable gift of his enhanced further that he can even copy the fighting styles and skills of many heroes and villains, mixing them up and turning them into his own style. He can only mimic actions to the extent that his body will allow. For example, he can copy the way Spider-Man fights, but can't copy his super strength. He can copy the way Daredevil moves to avoid danger, but he can't copy his radar. He can copy the fighting style of Deadpool but can't copy his unpredictability and healing factor. Copying skills doesn't give him an understanding of what is needed to do them either. He could copy a famous pianist's performance, but wouldn't be able to read sheet music. In a flashback he demonstrated something like this: when he was a child, he almost drowned after perfectly duplicating a swimmer's dive, forgetting that he couldn't swim.

The downside of his photographic reflexes is the severe declarative memory loss where he will forget explicit memories (i.e. personal experience) as the price of learning equally implicit memories (i.e. knowledge and abilities), necessitating his wife Mercedes Merced aka. Org to act as the surrogate memory, banker, and handler for him.

Voice Mimicker[]

Taskmaster has that is unconnected to his photographic reflexes is his ability to mimic voices. With just a couple hours of practice, Taskmaster can fully mimic another person's voice and speech patterns, a tool he uses for impersonation and breaking voice-activated locks.

Equipment[]

Taskmaster carries a wide variety of weaponry he uses to mimic the fighting styles he managed to copy along his publication.

In Other Media[]

Ultimate Spider-Man[]

Main article: Taskmaster (2010 Marvel Animated Universe)

Taskmaster appears as a recurring villain on the animated series Ultimate Spider-Man. He serves as the main antagonist in the first half of Season 3.

Marvel's Spider-Man[]

Main article: Taskmaster (Marvel's Spider-Man)

Marvel Cinematic Universe[]

Main article: Taskmaster (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Taskmaster appears in the 2021 Marvel Cinematic Universe film Black Widow as the secondary antagonist. She is a commander of Red Room and the daughter of General Dreykov, the main antagonist of the film. She is portrayed by Olga Kurylenko.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 & Ultimate[]

Taskmaster is a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, as he one of the four unlockable characters in the original. He is voiced by Steve Blum. He is unlocked after obtaining 8,000 Player Points by playing any of the game's modes, making him the last unlockable character in the entire game after his rival Hsien-Ko. In the remake, he is now initially unlocked from the start of the game.

Fortnite[]

Taskmaster is a supporting antagonist in Fortnite Chapter 5 Season 4 He is first seen when Doctor Doom breaks him out of the Raft later he joins the Kingdom of Doom and he is given the job to mostly scout around the Island for Doom and to get rid of the people that are trying to oppose him if he sees them sometime after scouting he finds the Underground and spy's on them learning what they are doing but while spying on them he is spotted by Hope and she sends the Looper to go get Taskmaster a little while after that Taskmaster is going to Doomstadt to tell Mysterio what he had found so he goes halfway through the desert biome and then comes face to face with the Looper who he engages in combat and after a long fight loses and gets defeated by the Looper

Marvel's Avengers[]

Main article: Taskmaster (Marvel's Avengers)

Trivia[]

He was created by David Michelinie and George Pérez.

External Links[]

Taskmaster — Marvel Database

Navigation[]

Villains

Movies
Captain America (1990): Red Skull | Valentina de Santis
Captain America: The First Avenger: HYDRA (Red Skull, Arnim Zola, Heinz Kruger, HYDRA Lieutenant, & Velt) | Nazi Party (Adolf Hitler | Roeder | Hutter | Schneider)
Heroes United: Iron Man and Captain America: HYDRA (Red Skull & Taskmaster)
Captain America: The Winter Soldier: HYDRA/STRIKE (Alexander Pierce, Winter Soldier, Crossbones, Jack Rollins, Jasper Sitwell, Russo, Senator Stern, Arnim Zola, Wolfgang von Strucker, List, Scarlet Witch, & Quicksilver) | Georges Batroc | Ferdinand Lopez | Gerald Durand
Captain America: Civil War: Helmut Zemo | Thunderbolt Ross | Winter Soldier | Scarlet Witch | HYDRA (Vasily Karpov, Josef, & Winter Soldiers) | Hero Mercs (Crossbones)

See Also
Agent Carter Villains

Villains

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Marvel Cinematic Universe
Spider-Man: Homecoming: Bestman Salvage (Vulture, Tinkerer, Shocker #1, Shocker #2 & Randy Vale) | Mac Gargan | Aaron Davis
Spider-Man: Far From Home: Mysterio's Crew (Mysterio, William Ginter Riva, Victoria Snow, Gutes Guterman, Janice Lincoln, & Doug, Shanice) | Elementals (Molten Man, Hydro-Man, Sandman, Cyclone & Elemental Fusion) | Skrulls (Talos) | Obadiah Stane
Spider-Man: No Way Home: Earth-96283 (Green Goblin, Sandman & Doctor Octopus (His Tentacles) | Earth-120703 (Electro & Lizard) | Sadie Deever | Venom | Mysterio

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Villains

Movies
The Invincible Iron Man: Mandarin | The Elementals | Deities of Death (Dormammu, Hela, Mephisto & Pluto)
Iron Man: Iron Monger | Ten Rings (Raza Hamidmi Al-Wazar, Abu Bakaar, Ahmed & Omar) | William Ginter Riva
Iron Man 2: Whiplash | Hammer Industries (Justin Hammer, Jack & Hammer Drones) | Ten Rings (Ten Rings Agent) | Senator Stern | Anton Vanko
Iron Man: Rise of Technovore: Technovore | Ezekiel Stane | Obadiah Stane | Black Widow | Punisher
Iron Man 3: A.I.M. (Aldrich Killian, Eric Savin, Trevor Slattery, Ellen Brandt, Sweat Shop Agent, Ponytail Express, Maya Hansen & Extremis Soldiers) | Vice President Rodriguez
Heroes United: Iron Man and Hulk: Zzzax | Abomination | HYDRA
Heroes United: Iron Man and Captain America: HYDRA (Red Skull & Taskmaster)
All Hail the King: Trevor Slattery | Herman | Ten Rings (Jackson Norriss & The Mandarin) | White Power Dave | Justin Hammer

See Also
War Machine Villains

Villains

Villains

Movie
Madame Web: Ezekiel Sims

Television
Dormammu | Dracula | Kingpin

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Movies
Marvel Animated Features
Ultimate Avengers 1 & 2: Herr Kleiser | Chitauri
Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow: Ultron

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Villains
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Vs. Villains

Tatsunoko Universe
Berg Katse | Boyacky | Doronjo | Tonzura | Sosai X

Nintendo Universe
Metal Face

Sony/PlayStation Universe
Cole MacGrath

Original Generation
Ultron Sigma

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Miscellaneous
Sun Wukong | John Cena | The Rogue LAROI | The Beast

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Villains Wiki

Taskmaster (Marvel)

Contents

Biography[]

Early Life[]

Becoming Taskmaster[]

UDON Comics[]

Powers and Abilities[]

Voice Mimicker[]

Equipment[]

In Other Media[]

Ultimate Spider-Man[]

Marvel's Spider-Man[]

Marvel Cinematic Universe[]

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 & Ultimate[]

Fortnite[]

Marvel's Avengers[]

Trivia[]

External Links[]

Navigation[]

Fan Feed