Saturday Splash Page #97

 

"Bus Battles," in Taskmaster (vol. 2) #2, by Fred van Lente (writer), Jefte Palo (artist), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (color artist), Dave Lanphear (letterer)

The next time Taskmaster got a mini-series all his own, it was after Siege had wrapped up. Taskmaster had been working for Osborn, but in the aftermath, finds a huge bounty placed on his head by the mysterious "Organization" he often works for, claiming he's actually a mole for Steve Rogers. Taskmaster has to track down the Organization to find out what's going on, and an innocent waitress named Mercedes gets sucked into the whole mess.

It's made messier because of how Fred van Lente treats Taskmaster's power. The first mini-series treated Taskmaster as essentially a mutant, having had his photographic reflexes since childhood, and with perfect recall of his entire life. van Lente changes it so Taskmaster didn't get these abilities until he was an adult, and that they're artificial in original.

What's more, and what creates all sorts of problems, is that while Taskmaster's excellent at recalling specific skills, he can't hold on to the context of how he acquired them. He can speak German, but can't recall when he learned it. Certain things act as triggers in his "memory palace", but it requires a step-by-step process through his past to get to the truth, which is far different from what he thinks.

In that sense, the story is grim and more than a little sad. Taskmaster endlessly repeating the same sin, feeling the guilt without remembering the cause. At the same time, van Lente and Jefte Palo also fill the book with bizarre concepts that seem more than a little tongue-in-cheek.

AIM agents preparing to attack Taskmaster by activating performance enhancers that make them bulk up, while they chant "Death. By. SCIENCE!" The Don of the Dead, a SHIELD agent turned costumed cartel leader, who performs songs about his exploits to keep the people loyal to him. A Bavarian castle in the Andes full of copies of Hitler's brain, with an entire village of Peruvians convinced they're Hitler.

Oh, and the guy truly behind everything is a no-name who survived working for every secret organization ever and refers to his new group as the Minions' International Liberation Front. Yeah, the initials spell exactly what you think they do. So, it's kind of crazy, but it keeps things from getting too heavy before the real emotional payoff at the end.

Palo's art is much more textured and rougher than the Udon Studios' guys. No manga influence. His Taskmaster doesn't show off the same fluid grace theirs did, tends towards quick and to the point violence. When Taskmaster uses someone's skills, Palo will overlay a greyed panel of that character on Taskmaster. It's makes for a nice contrast. The Udon guys with tend to draw Taskmaster starting a move, and then an after-image of whoever he'd copied might finish it. More than one after image if he switch from say, Daredevil to Spider-Man while navigating a laser security grid.

It made the process seem fluid, while Palo's makes it something that switches on and off abruptly. Use skill, turn off skill. Activate other skill. It makes sense, with the story suggesting the more he learns the more it crowds out his memories. Don't give the skills any more space in his skull than he can afford.

Saturday Splash Page #96

 

"Working on Laundry Day," in Taskmaster (vol. 1) #2, by Ken Siu-Chong (writer), David Ahn, Omar Dogan, Alan Tam, Rob Ross, and Shane Law (artists), Jon Babcock (letterer)

In spring of 2002, Taskmaster got his own mini-series, and a Casual Friday costume redesign to go with it. The Udon team handled writing and art chores as Taskmaster gets stiffed on a job by Machine Man of 2020 enemy Sunset Bain. In response, Taskmaster tries to use the Triads to steal his payment for him. Which will also start a war between them and Bain, keeping her too busy to finish tying off the tracksuit-wearing loose end. Things, of course, do not go according to plan.

This version of Taskmaster will learn just about anything, whether it has practical work applications or not. He'll study the mannerisms of a Triad boss down to how he holds a cigarette for a job, but he'll also learn to cook or cut a radish into a flower to impress a lady. He'll take a high-paying, high risk job to wreck semiconductor specs Stark's cooking up, but also help a pal who owns a casino with a guy that's cheating somehow. He'll use a holographic disguise to make himself look classier, and learn a new accent to help convince clients he's more than some guy from the Bronx.

Curiously, he has perfect recall of all his memories, but it still takes seeing something a few times before he can copy it. But the total recall might help explain his unwillingness to let the double-cross go. Taskmaster says he thinks it would set a bad precedent, letting someone stiff him successfully, but I wonder if it's the fact he'd never forget it. Literally, he would never be able to forget she played him for a patsy. So he has to do something in response.

This mini-series also, introduces Sandi, a young woman Taskmaster meets after the casino job and asks out. Sandi and Taskmaster would both go on to appear in the Gail Simone and Udon's brief stint on the first volume of Deadpool, and then on Agent X. Sandi hung around in Deadpool's orbit, at least through Cable/Deadpool, although Outlaw definitely surpassed her in use and popularity. Taskmaster himself could almost be considered part of Deadpool's supporting cast, although he went back to the cloak and pirate boots look pretty much as soon as Agent X ended.

What I Bought 12/18/2020 - Part 2

I will never understand sports fans bemoaning their team winning because it hurts their draft position. In this case, Jets' fans being angry they actually won a game. If your team is so incompetent they can't win a single game, why would you have any hope a high draft pick is going to improve anything? The idiots that built the shitty team are still there, so either they'll pick the wrong player, or coach, or fail to put good players around him. I never root for my team to lose. Take any win you can get.

Deadpool #9, by Kelly Thompson (writer), Gerardo Sandoval (penciler), Victor Nava (inker), Chris Sotomayor (color artist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - Well, it's not Wade's first relationship with someone who sucks the life out of him.

Wade's fighting the Bone creatures with the added power of the Bloodstone. But the infection in it is killing him, and it lets the Queen read his mind. You'd think that would be enough to incapacitate her right there, but no. Elsa's getting the kids and Jeff (who loves getting to carry a knife in his mouth and stab things, apparently) to safety, but can't quite bring herself to abandon Wade, who has let the Queen eat him. Then he blows himself up from the inside. And because he's dead, the Queen's infection is somehow burned out of the Bloodstone? So Elsa can put it back in her hand and fry the Queen. 

Despite being just a head, Wade is not dead, and says he still wants an apology from her. When Elsa points out her forgave her already, Wade counters she was dying at that time, of course he said that. Now that she's not, and he blew himself up to save her, he wants another apology. Instead, Elsa threatens to leave him there, but ultimately carries him in a baby bjorn. Which means he gets to rest next to her chest. I'd say getting to second base is as good an apology as he's likely to get.

And unfortunately, we don't get to see monster softball next issue because they have to do King in Black tie-ins. Or as the preview of next issue's cover describes it, 'Venom Nonsense.' Boo, boooooooooo.

 

So, that happened. It was OK. It makes me wonder if Elsa couldn't simply have pried the Bloodstone out of her hand and let it sit for a while to get rid of the infection. If the infection was in the stone, and using it infects the person, but taking it away removes the infection, like it did with Elsa, then that would seem like the obvious answer. I guess you could argue Elsa is too attached to it to surrender it willingly, since it's part of her legacy, and I'm not sure what Elsa's got in her life if she isn't killing monsters with the power of an ancient rock.

I'm really more interested by Deadpool trying to run a nation. Hard to see when we're going to get much of that, unless we see him rallying his people to fight symbiotes. Not that I want a lot of minutiae on bureaucracy, but just watching him try to be a leader. He's probably bad at it, but he can care deeply about people, and he'll go to the wall for them, which aren't the worst qualities to have. Certainly better than most of the elected officials here in the United States. 

(Really, could Deadpool be any worse at diplomacy than Trump? I guess if you consider killing foreign dictators bad, then yes, possibly.)

Taskmaster #2, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alessandro Vitti (artist), Guru-eFX (colorist), Joe Sabino (letterer) - It's fine, I'm sure Taskmaster has copied how to do the superhero landing if Hyperion lets go.

Taskmaster goes to Coulson's favorite comic shop to copy his kinesics, but is uncovered by his love for Alpha Flight. He tries to bail, but Hyperion shows up, and Taskmaster trying to fight him goes about as well as you'd expect. Fortunately, Fury had himself some Krypto- sorry, Argonite, and Tasky attached it to a Boomerang arrow for the win. Kind of disappointed he didn't go ahead and slit Hyperion's throat. There's like 47 of them running around. Instead of the Captain Britain Corps, the Hyperion Corps. Anyway, that's one of the three down, but Black Widow found Fury's hidey-hole, so she knows who they're after. Oh no, that'd be really concerning if I wasn't still convinced this was all a trick to get Taskmaster to do their dirty work.

Fury and Taskmaster keep calling Coulson "Cheese". Like "Phil"ly Cheese slices? I don't know. Nobody explains it, and honestly, it doesn't matter, it was just weird. I was just grateful Taskmaster is apparently the one person who doesn't like Phil Coulson, and was happy to punch him in the face a couple of times. I knew there had to be someone. (Yeah, Deadpool killed Coulson, but that wasn't personal, he just figured Captain America had good reasons.)

 

I still think Vitti's artwork is a little too busy, too overdone. Too many little lines, everybody's way too muscular. Like, even Coulson looks kind of jacked, and Taskmaster's practically got Thor arms, which is a little much. I guess since this is supposed to be a sneaky spy thing, so people need to look squinty and weathered, but I feel like maybe don't apply that to Hyperion, who is probably supposed to act like your stereotypical superhero. If he wasn't, he'd had just punched Tasky's head off with the first swing, instead of holding back enough he still hadn't knocked him out after multiple punches. So let him look different.

So, did I like this enough to get issue 3? I don't know. I'm kind of debating skipping Deadpool's King in Black tie-ins at the moment, let alone whether I care enough to watch Taskmaster fight the White Fox. If either book had an artist I liked better, it would be an easier decision, but they don't.

What I Bought 11/20/2020 - Part 1

Managed to find two out of three comics from last week, plus one from the week before. Didn't get the one I wanted the most (Sera and the Royal Stars #9), but that'll just be something to look forward to.

Sea of Sorrows #1, by Rich Douek (writer), Alex Cormack (artist/colorist), Justin Birch (letterer) - Look man, you go deep-sea diving, you can't be surprised when you find corpses. Contrary to what Pennywise said, they don't all float down there.

They're on a boat in the Atlantic, in the 1920s, looking for a sunken submarine full of gold. Or, one guy, a Mr. Shoals, is down there looking for it. Everyone else is up on deck, sniping and plotting against each other. The captain, a Mr. Harlow, owes money to a Mr. Madden, who sent a bunch of his goons along to make sure if there's gold, they get their share. Shoals found the gold, so it's all good. Except for the part where there's a half-woman, half-fish thing down there, too. And the man who knew where to find the sub, who is on their ship, seems to know it's down there.

Douek lays out most of the potential conflicts. That Harlow owes money, that even the people ostensibly on his side, aren't necessarily on his side. That Shoals is haunted by what he did in the trenches in World War 1. That the survivor from the sub is holding back a lot. Including his name. I triple-checked, and I can't find the guy's name mentioned once. Henceforth, he will be Sub Guy.

 

Cormack goes heavy on the shadows, even on the surface. Makes sense underwater, where Shoals has just a single lamp to light his surroundings, but even on the ship, he shades faces heavily. Half of them in shadow, everyone gaunt and battered. The one woman on board clearly doesn't take care of her teeth, which is a nice touch. It's the 1920s, what do they know about dental hygiene?

I'm curious if Cormack intends to keep using red light significantly. Someone on the ship shot a flare up in celebration, and it segued into Shoals' flashback to the trenches, and him machine-gunning advancing German soldiers. The ship's gotta have more than one flare, so I'm figuring we'll see them again.

Taskmaster #1, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alessandro Vitti (artist), Guru-eFX (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Dang, Taskmaster swiped the Black Knight's old lightsaber. Not like Dane's using it, though. Is he even alive right now?

Taskmaster has been framed for killing Maria Hill. In the most obvious way possible, as someone literally left his shield sticking in the wall at the crime scene. Black Widow is trying to kill him for it. Nick Fury (the new one, although I guess this character is at least 7, 8 years old now) is Tony Masters' old buddy, so he's going to keep him alive. In exchange for helping to unlock some thing that needs three different people's precise gait and body language. Instead of a retinal scanner, it's a buttprint scanner. And all of three of them are going to be tough to get close enough to for Taskmaster to do that.

First things first. Taskmaster is being played. By Hill, Fury, and the Widow most likely. Faked Hill's death, put Natasha on his tail to drive him right to Fury, get him to do this dirty work. The old Escape from New York stunt. Put the person in a bad spot, then benevolently give them the chance to work their way clear. I mean, if the Widow is supposed to be so damn good - and I know this is supposed to capitalize on the Black Widow movie, but fucking spare me with this 'the greatest killer to walk the earth at present' nonsense -  then how did she miss Taskmaster with about 300 bullets when he's trying to escape in a damn golf cart?

Also ludicrous? The notion there are people who would actually be mad Maria Hill was dead.

The best part of the issue is the start, where Taskmaster is working as a partner for a Maggia guy trying to win a golf tournament. Against another Maggia guy who hired Bullseye as his partner. That concept I enjoyed quite a bit. It can't all be stealing crap and fighting Avengers. Sometimes you got a pulled hammy and you take the low-impact gig.

MacKay's writing Taskmaster as a bit melodramatic. Some of his reactions - especially to learning the Black Widow's after him - are more what I'd expect from Deadpool. Other times he seems pretty professional, but those odd moments here and there are noticeable. But at least it makes Vitti occasionally draw a character who is squinting grimly. I think there's one panel of Fury's mouth slightly upturned, and that's the closest we get to a smile in this entire comic. There's too many extraneous little lines on people, and whatever color-shading technique Guru-eFX is using wasn't doing the characters in the golf course scene any favors. It just made people look blocky and plastic-skinned.

I'm not sure I'll buy the second issue of either of these books, but I'd say Sea of Sorrows made the stronger case for itself.

Sunday Splash Page #37

"Dare to Dream, Scott", in Ant-Man #3, by Nick Spencer (writer), Ramon Rosanas (artist), Jordan Boyd (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer)

I know, it's not a splash page, but this is the only issue of the series I'd kept, and it only had one splash page, and I found that one pretty lame, so I went with this page instead.

Spencer and Rosanas moved Scott Lang to Miami to establish his own security firm, which he then staffed with super-villains. Unfortunately, Spencer decided to take his cues from the recent movie and play up Scott as a complete loser that none of the other heroes respect or believe they can count on at all.  He even went so far as to reveal Hank Pym let Scott keep the costume because he felt sure there was no way he would be overshadowed by a successor if that successor was Scott. Because, ha ha, Scott is such a loser!

Keep in mind that Matt Fraction had just finished a stint on Fantastic Four where Scott played the team brain in Reed's absence and defeated a cosmically-powered Dr. Doom by unlocking the full capabilities of Pym Particles. Yep, sure sounds like an unreliable loser to me.

There's also the part where Spencer opted to depower Cassie Lang, Scott's daughter and one-time Avenger because. . . reasons. I dunno. He didn't try and de-age her to match movie Cassie, so I'm not sure why it was necessary to take her powers away. 

Being Marvel, the book was canceled after 5 issues because of Secret Wars, then restarted 5 months later with the same creative team and a slightly different title. I tried the first issue of that, decided I couldn't deal with the portrayal of Scott, and dropped it. I thought the fact Scott had assembled an odd crew of villains as his team had potential, but I had no confidence in Spencer to do anything interesting with it. Plus, I found Rosanas' art kind of dull and not terribly expressive, and the coloring didn't help. Everything felt too understated and low-energy.

Alternate Favorite Marvel Characters #10 - Taskmaster

Character: Taskmaster (Tony Masters)

Creators: David Michelinie and George Perez

First appearance: Avengers #195

First encounter: Amazing Spider-Man #367. I think he appears on the last page and cover of the issue before, but that didn't tell me anything about him, so let's pick this issue, where Spider-Man and Solo run up against some guys trained by Taskmaster while pursuing leads on ULTIMATUM and the Red Skull.

Definitive writer: Gail Simone used him as a regular member of the cast in her Deadpool and Agent X runs, and that's probably the version I think of. A gun-for-hire to be sure, ruthless when he feels like it, cocky to the point of being almost insufferable. Not really trustworthy at any time, but when he found a few people he cared about he did try to help them, in his own way.

Definitive artist: I've only seen him draw one comic with Taskmaster, but I think I'll go with Stuart Immonen. There's a fluidness to his style that fits how I picture Taskmaster moving, he makes the pirate boots and cape look good, and he makes sure the skull mask is partially in shadow, which helps it look more like a mask and less like it's his actual face (which it isn't supposed to be).

Favorite moment or story: In the final issue of his first mini-series, Taskmaster #4, Taskmaster is trying to take revenge on Sunset Bain, who had used him and then tried to betray him and leave him for dead, as vicious criminal industrialists often do. He's made his way through her security guards and most of her defenses, but she has one guy left. An enhanced human, fast and strong enough to catch bullets.

Taskmaster knew he'd have to deal with that guy, so he watched footage of himself on fast-forward, and for a few moments, he's able to make his own body move with that kind of swiftness, which is enough to get past the goon's defenses and drop him.

It's a clever move, while still keeping in mind that Taskmaster does have limits to what he can manage, regardless of his powers. He would like to kill Bain, but the cops are coming. Normally they wouldn't be any problem, but between a bullet he took earlier, and his own exhaustion after that stunt, he has to bail. Mostly though, I just think it's a cool trick.

What I like about him: Not every villain has to be someone's arch-nemesis. Not every battle has to be a titanic struggle for the fate of the hero's loved one, or the fate of the world. Sometimes you just need a fun villain to give the hero someone to fight for an issue or two. Much like Arcade, who holds the #6 spot on the favorite characters list, Taskmaster is great for that role.

His superpower is cool, for one thing. The ability to learn almost any skill, instantly? I would be all over that. Cuts out all that time lost practicing. As an antagonist it gives him a wide array of abilities to draw from to challenge the hero with. But since he still has to be able to physically do whatever the skill is, there are limits to keep him from being too overwhelming. He isn't the Super-Adaptoid. It isn't as though he can watch Charles Xavier put his fingers to his temple while muttering, "To me, my X-Men," and the next thing you know, he can seize control of your mind.

There's a story in Kurt Busiek's Avengers' run, issue 26, where Taskmaster is hired to impersonate Captain America and trick a group of heroes into attacking a building controlled by a religious group the Avengers are having issues with. It's a quartet of heroes - Carol Danvers, Genis-Vell, Silverclaw, and Scott Lang - who haven't worked with Cap much, or at all with each other, so it takes them a while to figure out something's off. Once they do, Taskmaster drops the disguise and sics some of his students on them. When that fails, he fights all four of them by himself, and because he's been watching and studying their moves, for a time he's mopping the floor with them.

That issue includes most of what I like about Taskmaster. It's not a big revenge scheme on his part, just a job. But he enjoys the opportunity to jerk the Avengers around a bit, and when the disguise fails, he owns it and openly challenges them. Then he uses it as a chance to test some of his students, while using that as a chance to figure out these Avengers' moves. He's able to use what he's picked up (and their relative inexperience working together) to more than hold his own. But he loses when Genis charges him, then switches places with Rick Jones at the last second.

There's a lot of pieces there. The fact none of it is personal, just a paycheck. The occasional villain who despises the hero is fun - there'll be one of those later on in this series - but sometimes you want the guy who is simply doin' a job. It means you can use him against just about any hero, and depending on what the job is, he has a chance. Sure, Taskmaster probably can't defeat Iron Man in a one-on-one battle, but if all he needs to do is keep him off-balance long enough to finish stealing something and escape? Yeah, he can manage that.

So he can present a challenge, but not one so overwhelming that it seems impossible the hero can win. Taskmaster is ultimately mostly human in his abilities. He has limits, and he can be particularly vulnerable to surprise, precisely because he's so sure of himself. If he thinks he's seen everything you've got already, then he's sure he has some trick he copied from someone to counter it. If you can bust out something new, you can catch him entirely flat-footed. Case in point: That hodgepodge Avengers quartet wins when Genis charges at Taskmaster only to switch places at the last second with his counterpart Rick Jones, who kicks a gobsmacked Taskmaster right in chops.

At different times Taskmaster has fended off the Avengers, eluded Spider-Man, brought down Cassie Lang and Eric O'Grady while they were 50-feet tall and fighting each other. At other times he gets clocked by an RJO (Rick Jones Onslaught) From Outta Nowhere, or loses to Deadpool when Wade is fighting with his wrists and ankles cuffed. If he doesn't have time to adjust, or the opponent is just too unpredictable, he can lose really badly. And sometimes he loses to Moon Knight because Moonie is just too fuckin' crazy to stop coming at him, and Taskmaster is just here for a paycheck. He's not looking to die fighting some nutjob that talks to the moon.

He used that job with the Avengers as a chance to test some of his students, and the schools he sets up are a nifty variation on his shtick. Most of the mercenary types in comics don't like to hand out trade secrets. Maybe they take a student every so often, but why create potential competition? Taskmaster, maybe because of how many skills he has, maybe because it's so easy for him to pick things up, he shrugs and says, "Let me make some extra bucks off this."

Why not? There are all kinds of organizations that need cannon fodder, and that cannon fodder needs to be marginally useful. Taskmaster knows all sorts of things that can help with that. He's not going to train these guys up to the point they could take some of his more high-paying gigs, so it's an easy way to make some more money, and one that greatly reduces his chances of getting punched in the face by superheroes. And it keeps more avenues open to him for future work.

Also, I think it shows something about his attitude towards all the skills he has. He's pretty cocky about it, how quickly he can learn someone's moves, how many he's got. He's taken jobs for the government to get access to the World War 2 film archives, so he could study footage of heroes who are dead. He's the person who wants to know everything he can pick up about fighting, killing, infiltration, foreign languages, any skill that could possibly be helpful.

At the same time, because he can pick everything up so effortlessly, it doesn't mean as much. He copies Iron Fist's Flying Eagle Strike, so what? Just another skill. Throw it on the pile next that triple flip he picked up from Nightcrawler. I think he figures, what's the point of being able to do all this stuff if you can't show it off? Almost every fight he has, he has to namedrop who he stole each move from. Blah blah blah, drinking buddies with Bullseye, blah blah blah Daredevil's billy club block, blah blah blah. Training people and setting them up with HYDRA or AIM (or SHIELD) is just one more way to show off. "See how much stuff I taught these guys? I can do that, because I know all this stuff. Aren't I cool?"

Scott Lang gave Taskmaster some grief over his costume. He's a pirate, but also a skeleton, plus he threw in a cloak, pick a theme. It's part of that need to show off. Be garish, get attention, have some showmanship. It's not as though he can't dress down, wear a disguise. He can easily mimic another person's movements and speech patterns after all. If that's what the job requires, he'll go that route. If he wanted, he could be one of those legendary assassins spoken of in whispers. The one whose true face and voice no one has ever seen and lived to tell about it. But that's not how he plays it. Sometimes you need to be flashy, you need people to notice you, and his outfit certainly accomplishes that.

For the record, I don't mind the "track suit" look the Udon art team gave him; it has a pleasant simplicity to it, wouldn't restrict his movements, and the skull helmet is very cool. But it lacks that flashy element that seems key to Taskmaster.

Taskmaster has had two mini-series so far, and they took opposite approaches towards his memory. The first one, by the Udon Studios crew, which said he'd had the powers since he was a child at least, stated he remembered every moment of his life with perfect clarity. The second one, by Fred van Lente and Jefte Palo, said that he gained the power because he was a SHIELD agent who injected an experimental formula he found in a HYDRA base into his head, and that he could barely remember anything about himself because he had learned so many skills they were taking up all the space in his brain.

The van Lente/Palo mini-series went for the notion that Masters had cost himself dearly by using the serum, and while I thought the whole "forgotten wife" reveal was a bit much, the idea that his memory for people and events is almost non-existent did seem to work with his willingness to work with anyone. Taskmaster really doesn't seem to hold grudges, and will work with anybody just about, even if they parted on bad terms the last time. He's fought the Avengers multiple times, but was willing to take over training the new recruits at their Initiative camp. Deadpool has humiliated him more than once, but he and Wade might almost be considered friends. Taskmaster has been willing to help Deadpool in the past, and while I'm sure he's getting paid, Deadpool doesn't usually have that much money. Tasky could get more on another job elsewhere easily, but he still works with this crazy guy who has busted his jaw multiple times.

But if he only vaguely, or occasionally, remembers who anyone is, it could make sense. He approaches each meeting fresh, and judges the person based off what they say and do that time. If we go with the idea the second mini-series put forth, that Taskmaster on some level remembers he abandoned his wife by taking this serum and forgetting her, even if it's only a vague sense that he's a bad person, he might see a kindred spirit in Deadpool. When Taskmaster has helped Wade, Wade is usually in trouble for one reason or another, rather than it being a random "Kill this person for lots of cash" job. The attempt to do the right thing, or fix a past mistake could resonate with Taskmaster.

Because there's really no reason for him to willingly pose for a photo where it looks as though one of the washout Initiative recruits has defeated him, except just to be nice. The kid tried hard, but the nature of his power didn't seem to allow for things to work out for him as a superhero. If Masters supposedly always wanted to be the best, and took the serum to achieve that, he could feel empathy. Or maybe he remembers everything about his own life, knows he was never like that kid, but still figured there was no harm in giving the kid a good memory to go home with. He met Sandi and fell for her, and while that ended with her in the hospital, he did stay in the vicinity and try to sort of look out for her. He didn't always do this in healthy ways - killing the abusive boyfriend she told Deadpool just to beat up, trying to kill Alex Hayden (Agent X) because he thought he was bad news - but it's out of a genuine concern and desire to make up for his own mistakes, so the intent is good, at least.

Taskmaster has a lot of versatility, which comes in handy. Play him as a bad guy, play him as a surprise ally, or even a friend. Use his skills to make him a surprisingly difficult opponent for people in a higher weight class, or the limitations to bring about his defeat. Heck, you can make some gags out of him possessing some unusual or unexpected skill he picked up randomly.He's learned how to cheat at cards, but he also knows how to make a little flower out of a radish, because he picked up the technique from a restaurant. Give him a surprisingly good singing voice, or adept at carving marionettes. There are all kinds of possibilities.

Taskmaster picks up the pace, because he's got places to be, people to kill in Taskmaster (vol. 1) #4, by Ken Siu-Chong (writer), Jon Babcock (letterer), and the art team of Arnold Tsang, Drew Hou, Omar Dogan, Robb Ross, and Shane Law. Taskmaster makes some Avengers look like chumps, then is defeated by Scott Lang's favorite musician in Avengers (vol. 3) #26, by Kurt Busiek (writer), Stuart Immonen (penciler), Wade von Grawbadger (inker), Tom Smith (colorist), Richard Starkings and Albert Duchesne (letterers). Scott Lang has another bad day in Ant-Man #3, by Nick Spencer (writer), Ramon Rosanas (artist), Jordan Boyd (color artist), and Travis Lanham (letterer). For every $10,000 you donate to PBS, Taskmaster will kick Hawkeye in the face once in Avengers (vol. 1) #223, by David Michelinie (writer), Greg LaRocque (penciler), Brett Breeding and crew (inkers), Christie Scheele (colorist), and Rick Parker (letterer). Tasky prefers the drums, but still saves the day in Taskmaster (vol. 2) #2, by Fred van Lente (writer), Jefte Palo (penciler), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (color artist), and Dave Lanphear (letterer).

Still Talkin' Bout Tasky

OK, so two more thoughts I had in relation to Taskmaster - Unthinkable. Don't look at me like that. I didn't plan it, these didn't occur to me until today.

1) Taskmaster's learned so many things that exist in what he calls his implicit memory that he's lost most of his explicit memories. Can he learn so many things that he starts losing some of the implicit memories? Similar to Mimic from Exiles (and maybe the Mimic in the Marvel Universe, too, I'm just more familiar with the Exiles one). He could only copy the abilities of so many (I think 5 or 6) mutants at a time. If he wanted to add someone else's powers (say optic blasts), he had to lose some other person's copied abilities (teleportation or bone claws, or whatever). So Taskmaster learns some new skill, playing a 1987 DG-20 electric guitar, for example, and forgets some flying kick he stole from Shang-Chi. I suppose that's what his memory palace is for, creating sensory inputs that trigger those skills, but it seems like it'd be easy for him to forget what the particular stimulus he needs for a skill was.

2) If Taskmaster had remembered everything about himself sooner, how would Nick Fury have handled that? Would Taskmaster have been as effective knowing the truth about himself, or would he have wanted to do things differently? It'd still be possible for him to pass himself off as the same old Taskmaster. He told Mercedes he's a master of 'intimate sounding, utterly superficial chit-chat', so he can probably continue to talk in a way that seems normal to whoever he interacts with, even if his mindset is completely different. I think Tasky might decide he wanted to do things differently, to make up for a past mistake, but I worry Fury would try and put him in a situation where he'd forget himself and revert to the Taskmaster we're used to seeing.

One Gripe And One Rave

These are two thoughts I had related to Taskmaster - Unthinkable, that didn't really fit with the review I was typing. So we can discuss them now.

There-s a point in the story when Steve Rogers shows up at the diner where Tasky and Mercedes were attacked by hordes of cannon fodder. The detective in command is some gruff old bastard named Rolling who gives Rogers a lot grief, telling Steve if he doesn't respect Rollins' crime scene or if he expects Rollins to salute, he'll get the cop's boot up his ass. Rogers, not being the sort who cares about that stuff, defers and lets Rollins lead the way. Nick Fury's there as well, waiting for Steve. Rollins is completely different around him. Deferential, respectful, calls Fury "Colonel", and doesn't seem to mind Fury's curt 'I'll take it from here Sergeant Rollins. You are dismissed.'

That whole sequence bothers me. That the cop goes out of his way to try and mark his territory when Steve Rogers shows up, but with Nick Fury it's a whole other matter. I know it shouldn't make a difference, but the idea Fury is somehow more deserving of respect than Steve Rogers grates. I have this impression that Marvel Fury's characterization has been drifting towards Ultimate Nick Fury territory for awhile. If you were reading the blog back when I still bought Ultimate Spider-Man, you may remember I rarely cared for Ultimate Nick Fury, with his manipulative ways, and tendency to view everyone as assets he could use as he saw fit, whenever he saw fit. Marvel Nick Fury might not be that far gone, but he's close enough I don't really like seeing him deferred to so strongly.

OK, so that was the thing that bugged me. Let's move to the other thing, the Legion of the Living Lightning. Or is it the Lords of the Living Lightning? The bonus material in the back refers to them both ways. They're one of the criminal groups after Taskmaster. They aren't one of the ones created for this mini-series, as they appeared previously. I thought they were related to the Lightning Lords who menaced Orson Randall in the Immortal Iron Fist Annual of 2007. Orson won a challenge with one of them (with the help of Danny Rand's father), and the loser had to drink poison, which set his brothers on a vengeance path*. Anyway, I figured these guys were devotees, or maybe just the many, many offspring of the various brothers. Mr. Xao, who was one of the enemies in the Brubaker/Fraction Iron Fist seemed to have lightning powers, so why couldn't there be enough of them to form a criminal organization all their own.

Well, until someone comes along and retcons it into place, that isn't the case. The Legion of the Living Lightning's first appearance is from 1967, which is just a little before Immortal Iron Fist. Little disappointing, though perhaps for the best. I have a feeling the Lightning Lords would be horrified to learn their descendants had such poor fashion sense. At least ditch the suspenders. If they were connected, the fact they had a device that created the Avenger Living Lightning would be interesting. Perhaps their power's diluted, because they've inherited the trait, but not the proper training. The device that enabled Miguel Santos to become pure energy was an attempt to put them on the level of their ancestors? After all, three Lightning Lords can combine to for one Super Lightning Lord, which about made Orson Randall soil himself. Imagine dozens of Super Lightning Lords, or if dozens of the group combine, an Ultra-Mega-Super Lightning Lord, towering over cities.

I guess that wouldn't fit with their goal to provide others with weapons that will destroy civilization so the Legion of the Living Lightning can become rulers of the new world. But turning into a giant electricity monster might let them destroy everyone who would oppose their taking over, so it all comes to the same end. They just cut out the middleman.

* Though they were also working for the Bride of 9 Spiders to capture Wendell so he could be executed for his crimes against the 7 Heavenly Cities.

Taskmaster - Unthinkable

This trade came in with my last bunch of comics and even though I don't normally review trades (don't know exactly why, just don't), why not?

The mini-series is set after the conclusion of Siege, when a lot of criminals were apparently arrested at Asgard. Taskmaster wasn't one of them, and the word is he's working for the good guys now (not an impossible premise), and a group known as The Org has put a $1 billion bounty on him. So Taskmaster needs to find The Org and set things straight. Or kill them, if they won't listen to reason. The problem isn't the hordes of cannon fodder from practically every criminal organization in the Marvel Universe (including several writer Fred van Lente made up for this mini-series).

The problem is Taskmaster can't remember anything about The Org. Or anything at all, really. He's absorbed so many fighting styles, languages, and other assorted skills that his memories of actual people, places, and events are overwritten. They're still there, but buried under mountains of stuff he uses in his work. So we follow Taskmaster and an unfortunate waitress named Mercedes Merced as they try to work backwards through Taskmaster's memories to The Org.

I like all the bits of strangeness van Lente puts in this story. The different criminal organizations he created (the Black Choppers especially), the Andean village where everyone is Hitler as a result of an old operation SHIELD tried to destroy years ago. The Don of the Dead and his songs about his criminal exploits. The more oddball stuff that populates the Marvel Universe the better. It's all things other writers can play with if they want, and even if they choose not to, it's still adding something to the tapestry.

OK, van Lente sort of changes Taskmaster's origin. He had a mini-series years ago that told us he'd had these abilities since he was a kid (as demonstrated in a scene where he's copied Olympic diving techniques, but forgets he hasn't copied how to swim yet). Which would make him a mutant, I guess. van Lente makes it so Tasky gained his ability as a result of a drug he chose to take as an adult. It does add a certain Marvel element to his story. He chose to take the drug so he could be the best, but in so doing badly hurt someone close to him, and he can't stop hurting them the same way over and over. It has a bit of Spider-Man, where a moment of selfishness lead to his Uncle Ben dying, and maybe a bit of the Hulk, where no matter how well things are going for Banner/Big Green, eventually the Hulk will overdo it and wreck everything and be alone again.

The question is whether Taskmaster needed that added to his story. Before he might do the right thing, but it was down to whether he felt like it or not. Or if he was paid enough to do it. Or he might attack the Avengers, or open another cannon fodder training facility. Either way, it was his call. If he helped Agent X fend off a group of super-powered killers, it was probably because X's partner Sandi was in the line of fire and Taskmaster was sweet on her.

Now that isn't really the case. He has such a vague idea of who he is, he probably wouldn't remember Sandi well enough to know why he'd care she was in danger. He's reliant on guidance from The Org (more specifically The Hub). Or he's pushed by an instinct he can't explain that he's a bad guy, which seems to give him the attitude that if he feels like a bad guy, he ought to be one. The origin's twist is that the end result of his drive to be the best makes it that he can't use those skills for his won goals anymore, because he can't remember who he is well enough to have goals. The gift comes with a curse. A reverse of Iron Man, where the suit originally keeps his heart going, but then advances further to becomes a weapon he can use to rectify mistakes, protect people, throw his friends in a Negative Zone prison, etc. It makes Taskmaster a little more tragic, but I don't think he needed that. A guy who was just good enough you might be able to get his help, but would be looking over your shoulder the whole time just in case seemed more interesting. He can still be that, I suppose, but if he turns on someone, it'll be due to forgetting who they are, or The Hub tells him to, rather than a conscious decision on his part.

Jefte Palo's the artist for the series, and lets hear it for an artist who doesn't need fill-in help to finish a mini-series. What? That's seems rarer than you'd think these days. I last saw Palo's work on the last arc of the Moon Knight series I was buying, right before it was canceled. Which was only two years ago, but we're on our second Moon Knight ongoing since then, which is nuts. I liked Palo's action sequences more there than I do here. I think the difference was Moon Knight was doing anything fancy in those fights, mostly punching and being punched. Taskmaster's being a lot more acrobatic and varied, since he draws on skills from close to a dozen characters over the mini-series, but the art doesn't convey the grace I'd expect. There's a sequence where Taskmaster says he'll use the Destroyer for acrobatic skill, but he doesn't really do anything acrobatic. Just charges at the machine gun nest and lunges.

I haven't seen Palo's method of showing whose skills Taskmaster's using before. The one I see most often is a sort of after-image either superimposed on Taskmaster, or floating around him. Palo opts for a sort of sepia-toned square. Any parts of Taskmaster outside the square look like him. Any parts inside look like whoever he's mimicking. It works, and it did make for a nice visual when Taskmaster unleashes multiple styles simultaneously.

I did like Palo's expressions and body language. One in particular was at the start of issue 3, as Tasky and Mercedes climb a mountain. Taskmaster's leading a llama, Mercedes is following, holding onto the llama's tail. Everything about her, from the way she's hunched over, to the way Palo drew he with a sort of stomping tread, how her hat is pulled low over her eyes, and the little bit of an outthrust lower lip, sell that Mercedes is seriously aggravated by all this, and actually, probably a little pissed. Understandably. And Palo does this with what looks like relatively few lines, so I was seriously impressed.

Why Hide An Eye In Shadow?

That post I mentioned prepping for yesterday? Let's get to it. I don't know why this caught my eye, but it did, so best to accept it and go forward. 

Taskmaster appears in 32 panels in Avengers Academy #9. Some portion of his face appears in 23 of those panels. There are only two where both of his eyes are visible. This includes panels where he's looking at Finesse (and us) or just the reader, but one eye is still in shadow. The last panel he appears in, for example. As he tells Finesse to take care of herself, his left eye is shadowed over. He even sports that look in the file photo that comes up when Finesse asks Quicksilver to help her track Taskmaster down. 

It's not the hood he's wearing, because the shadows don't cover any other part of his face. I also don't think it's some common technique McKone uses, because it doesn't appear with any other character in the issue, or in the prior issue, even though that one had The Hood in it, who also wears a hood (obviously). It's more his brow ridge overhangs his eye so much it's kept in shade. Or his eyes are set so far back in his head, it's as though they're at the bottom of a pit where the light can't reach. If only one eye is visible, it's typically the right, though in the panel where he's choking Finesse with a rope and discussing the American Avenger it's the left that's visible. 

I thought maybe it was supposed to be something Taskmaster was doing intentionally, trying to keep one eye obscured from the person he's fighting, in case they try to read his moves that way. Considering how Finesse's power works, that wouldn't seem to be of any use. Plus, we aren't always observing things from her perspective, so in those situations, just because we can see one of his eyes, doesn't mean she can. And maybe she can see them when the reader can't. Looking at the panels where both his eyes are visible. One comes partway through the fight (page 14, panel 1), after she's decked him. Taskmaster is disappointed because she's using moves from some fight between Daredevil and Bullseye that was on TV. He's holding his shield and looking right at her (and us). 

The second one (page 16, panel 3) comes after she throws his own sword at him, and pins him to some machinery with it. In that case, he's looking at his sword as it just misses his shoulder, but goes through his cape. Prior to the first panel, Finesse had been doing fairly well. Taskmaster hadn't scored a clean hit, while she'd made contact a couple of times. She got his sword away from him so she could use it (though he knocked it away from her two panels later). Then Tasky criticizes her source material, and goes to work with what he picked up from newsreels. Finesse then turns the tables again, and starts rattling off all the heroes she's actually trained with as she chucks his own sword at him and follows that up with a boot to the face. Taskmaster calls an end to the fight two panels after the sword panel. 

Taskmaster seems to be goading her on, trying to convince her to unleash her full potential. He gives her grief about only using billy clubs, which prompts her to grab his sword and try and use it on him. After she's clocked him, he continues busting her chops for how limited her reference material (and by extension, her repertoire) is. He then promptly boots her in the face (hard enough to draw blood and knock her mask off), follows up with a punch to the jaw (also drawing blood), and then busts out the lariat. The whole time he's prattling on about the people he's studied, and how he's taken jobs with the government just to get his hands on more obscure footage. 

Finesse's rebuttal is to flip him over, and begin describing everyone she's actually fought with, I guess refuting the usefulness of his sources*. I think the eyes are about how Taskmaster's power works. He sees things (and hears, but that's not relevant here) and can remember them, if they're useful, anyway. I think the panel on page 14, he's looking at her and trying to find anything about her that'll stick, and that's really why her using Daredevil vs. Bullseye moves disappoints him. The panel on page 16, he's seeing that there's more to her than he thought, but it's still more of the same. That's why he calls the fight. He's seen everything he needs to. 

After that, it goes back to 1 or 0 eyes visible because his power isn't going be of any use here. He just has to hope she can stick in his memory some other way, and in that sense, with the severe limits his memory apparently has, he's half-blind compared to the rest of us. Or worse. 

* I don't think Taskmaster fought anywhere near full capability. There's no indication he was injured by any of her strikes. Also, while Finesse may have trained with all those heroes, Taskmaster's fought them, and more besides. With real stakes on the line.

This Could Keep Building On Itself Endlessly

Taskmaster has some peculiar condition that lets him learn any sort of physical motion simply by watching it. He doesn't even have to practice it; he just watches, then repeats. Simple.

At some point, to expand his array of skills, he procured footage of various hero types doing their flippy, jumpy, fighty thing, and watched it, picking up all sorts of cool moves from Captain America, Daredevil, and so on. If he watches the footage on fast forward, he can even use the moves at that speed for brief periods of time, assuming he's not already too worn down.

I was mulling that over at work this morning, during some down time, and I started thinking about the limits of that ability. If Taskmaster video recorded himself watching footage of say, Iron Fist, then watched the video of himself on fast forward, could he copy his own ability to copy moves, only at an even greater speed? Normally, he has to see the entire move before he can copy it, but perhaps this way he could perceive what the move was going to be the moment the person he's observing/fighting even starts to move, let alone even really start the attack. He could mirror their move back at them even as they were unleashing it upon him.

Then I thought that perhaps observing himself copying people could cause some sort of exponential increase in his ability, as though it removed block, and he could then read a person's intentions or emotions based on body language. Not telepathy, more like what Cassandra Cain has, which is really an amped up version of what Taskmaster has*.

* Sort of. Reading the Kelley Puckett issues, Cassandra can certainly perceive a wider array of things from a person than Taskmaster, but he's been portrayed as being able to learn a person's entire fighting style from one move, whereas I know Batman said it took him 5 minutes to teach Cass stick fighting. Admittedly, that's really fast, but not quite the same as "You executed a back flip into a double foot smash to the face; I know now every move you'll make". Then again, you can flummox both their abilities if you're crazy; see Cass against the Joker and Tasky against Deadpool.