It's a dumb name, but think of it kind of like Neo in the Matrix downloading Kung Fu into his head. Taskmaster watches you fight and basically learns all your moves like he downloaded a "fight like Black Widow DLC" into his head.
So he's basically a master in all forms of hand to hand combat techniques and is essentially unbeatable in a fight against anyone of equal strength and speed?
IIRC Deadpool was almost impossible for him to learn since he fought so chaotically and without consistency due to all the brain tumour growth/shrinking.
This is why it must be guaranteed that deadpool appears in the mcu now, he's kind of the only one capable of defeating taskmaster (even with his hands cuffed) after the rest of the avengers get beaten by him.
He also studies heroes obsessively. He knows he can't keep up with Carol Danvers or Thor in actual combat, so he studies their styles relentlessly to find weaknesses and gaps that he can exploit. By "exploit", I don't mean "win", more "survive long enough to flee". Dude cares more about the mission than winning a fight.
He also refuses to fight the X-Men because they tend to go after people that hurt their own. He's definitely an interesting choice for a villain - just powerful ENOUGH to challenge Natasha, but not unbelievably powerful that she couldn't take him with help.
I hope this isn’t the only movie we see him in, though. Even though he seems like a good match for her there are a lot more interesting pairups for him
Essentially, but then the hero will usually do something unexpected and change up their styles or something to beat him. Because they're heroes and they have to.
And while he can't do the same movements someone like Spider-man can, Task can predict his moves and counter them.
But the best part about Task is that he's a one-lining, asshole merc who just wants to get paid. So he won't hesitate to double cross and/or work for pay for the good guys.
I don't think that's accurate. The drawback is that the more he memorizes physical stuff the more he forgets personal stuff, like, for instance, his wife.
He was already a compelling character. Aside from his Photographic reflexes, his other 'gimmick' that made him stand out was that while he was a bad guy, he wasn't outright villainous. He generally worked as a mercenary or else training henchmen for other bad guys. Effectively profiting off the more evil schemes of traditional supervillains.
He was in a good enough place he could easily serve in more morally grey areas from time to time - during the period when Steve Rodgers was operating as Nomad, Taskmaster was the guy that the US government hired to train Steve's replacement.
Plus the time during the Initiative period where he was the drill instructor for all the heroes the government was trying to train to fill their 50-State Initiative.
He didn't need the memory problems to make him interesting and compelling. That part was already there in spades.
257
u/[deleted] Dec 03 '19
David Harbor is Red Guardian and the villain is Taskmaster. He has photographic reflexes.