Taskmaster

Taskmaster in Taskmaster v2 #1.

Taskmaster is a male comic supervillain that features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Masters came to be an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. where he became a skilled operative in the agency. He was deployed on assignment to the Andes to target the headquarters of S.S. Hauptsturmfuhrer Horst Gorscht who was a Nazi scientist that developed a corrupted version of the Super-Soldier Serum. His version had been used to empower a number of Nazi super-powered agents in that time. Upon his relocation, Gorscht came to believe that Nazi Germany's failure in the war was due to not being able to indoctrinate their young quick enough. To solve this, he had created a primer that unlocked the minds potential to absorb knowledge instantaneously. During the attack on the castle, Gorscht was fatally wounded and Masters found his serum which he injected into his body to save it before the knowledge of it was lost forever. The effects of it transformed him allowing Masters to learn physical skills instantly but this came at the cost of his memories. (Taskmaster v2 #3) He was set-up as a super-powered operative where he took the name Taskmaster and was deployed on assignments through a S.H.I.E.L.D. front called the Org with his handler being his wife Mercedes Merced operating as Hub. However, the effects of the serum on his memory caused him to forget his past making him lose track of his mission or nature as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent with him instead becoming a mercenary. (Taskmaster v2 #4)

One of his first jobs for the Org was retraining Mexican Special Forces to take over the operations from the drug cartels. (Taskmaster v2 #2)

Overview

Powers and abilities

Much of his powers came as a result of a variant of the super-soldier serum that was developed as a primer designed to allow him to absorb information and skills instantaneously. (Taskmaster v2 #3)

He utilised a mnemonic technique called a memory palace where he built a palace within the hid with rooms that contained items he wanted to remember. These rooms were stocked with objects and associations that triggered the information he was looking for which needed to be recollected. It was said to work best if the rooms of the memory palace were placed the person had been in during his life. (Taskmaster v2 #1) This allowed him to retain skills, random facts and even allowed him to speak eight languages. (Taskmaster v2 #2)

According to him, his photographic reflexes operated by implicit memory making them operate differently from brain maps that controlled his actual memory of past events as this was explicit memory. (Taskmaster v2 #3)

Through muscle memory, his fingers were incapable of inputting passwords without him thinking about it. (Taskmaster v2 #2)

Notes

• Taskmaster was created by David Michelinie and George Pérez where he made his first appearance in the Avengers v1 #195 (May, 1980).

Alternate Versions

• In Master of Kung Fu v2 (2015), an alternate version of the character appeared on Battleworld in the realm of K'un-Lun with this one being a martial arts master and assassin named Laughing Skull who served Emperor Zheng Zu.

In other media

Television

• In Ultimate Spider-Man, Taskmaster appeared as an antagonist in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Clancy Brown.
• In Avengers Assemble, Taskmaster appeared in the animated television series fourth season Secret Wars in the episode "Show Your Work" where he was voiced again by actor Clancy Brown.

Films

• In Heroes United: Iron Man and Captain America, Taskmaster appeared as a supporting antagonist in the 2014 animated film where he was voiced by actor Clancy Brown. He was shown as a mercenary that was hired by the Red Skull who had sought Captain America's blood and Iron Man's Armour. During this time, he acquired a set of Iron Man Armour and adopted the name of Ironmaster.

Appearances

• Avengers:
• Taskmaster v1:
• Taskmaster v2:
• Secret Avengers:
• Captain America: Steve Rogers:
• Spider-Men II:

External Links

• Wikipedia Entry

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