When the Superhuman Registration Act went into effect, Taskmaster reluctantly decided to help the government. Soon after, the Committee contracted Taskmaster to kill Moon Knight. The Profile told Taskmaster that Moon
Taskmaster
Knight would be friendless, alone, with no fight left in him and ready to die. Expecting this to be easy money, Taskmaster accepted the contract while also contacting the CSA about Moon Knight returning to being a costumed vigilante again. Unfortunately for Taskmaster, everything the Profile had told him was incorrect. While Mark Spector was indeed ready to die at one point, he received a sudden urge to continue living after one of his closest friends was nearly beaten to death. This lead to a short fight with Mark Spector and his friends, which resulted in Taskmaster being shot in the chest with a musket gun and falling out of a window. Upset over the fact that he was lied to, Taskmaster confronted the Committee demanding compensation for lost equipment and time. During this confrontation, Mark Spector flew his Mooncopter into the building, seeking vengeance.
It is unknown how or when, but at some point Taskmaster was once again captured and like last time, was offered a deal to work off his sentence. Under the Fifty State Initiative, he joined the Thunderbolts who were now a group of villains working for the CSA in a work release program. Their assignment is to capture both renegade heroes and villains that have not registered. Not taking any chances, Mister Fantastic chipped and tagged each member with nanobot technology to monitor their actions.
Recently Taskmaster was hired by Maria Hill to infiltrate and test the new security systems of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. After successfully infiltrating the Helicarrier, earning him a pardon, Taskmaster was hired by Henry Gyrich to train the clones of MVP in the fighting style of Spider-Man. Gyrich eventually promoted him to the position of the new drill instructor for the new recruits at the Initiative Training Program in Stamford.
Powers and Abilities[]
The Taskmaster's only superhuman abilities were that of his photographic reflexes. He was able to duplicate almost any physical act he sees after seeing it done by someone else only once. Due to these reflexes, he can do things which border on superpowers. For instance Taskmaster has discovered that after watching martial arts movies on fast-forward he is able to briefly duplicate the moves at a greatly increased velocity, effectively giving him a limited form of super-speed.
However, as he does not have any sort of enhanced endurance, this puts a great strain on his body and he is only able to fight in this manner for short periods of time. He can also copy the subtle muscle movements of others so precisely that he can at times do things such as copying another persons voice so precisely as to fool voice recognition software.
He can also do things such as figuring out the sleight of hand techniques of a master poker cheater simply by watching them. He can even duplicate the nearly superhuman abilities with thrown projectiles which Bullseye exhibits, or approximate the agility of someone like Spider-Man, at least up to a point that doesn't require superhuman effort. He is also capable of using this ability to master complex gymnastics routines and play difficult pieces of music. However, he typically prefers to use this ability to copy the combat skills, both armed and unarmed, of costumed crime-fighters and expert martial artists from around the world, typically seen through watching videos of them in combat situations.
He has often shown the ability to actually predict an opponents next move before they make it if he has studied their fighting style enough. Opponents who are skilled at improvisational fighting styles, or who have a more random unpredictable style are less likely to have their moves predicted by Taskmaster. Taskmaster is a master strategist and tactician (seen particularly in combat with Iron Man and against both Captain Americas during the Siege of Asgard).
Abilities[]
The Taskmaster was an Olympic-level athlete and was possibly among the most formidable armed and unarmed combatants in the universe. Beside his photographic reflexes, he possessed photographic muscle memory that allows him to instinctively, instantly, and completely learn and acquire new skills and abilities. While not having any superhuman physical, mental, or energy manipulative abilities, the Taskmaster was able to routinely battle super-human powered foes with an impressive degree of success.
Taskmaster learned meditation techniques in Tibet, he also claims to have learned forensic methods from CIA Agents and Mossaid Operatives.
Fighting Styles Studied Characters: Taskmaster watches clips of characters that he can mimic, such as Captain America, Black Panther, Iron Fist, Daredevil, Wolverine, Moon Knight, Elektra, Punisher, Nick Fury and Spider-Man who are some of the greatest fighters in their universe.
Strength level[]
The Taskmaster possessed the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular exercise. The Taskmaster was strong enough to lift at least twice his body-weight, meaning he was able to lift at least 440 lbs.
Weaknesses[]
- The Taskmaster is not capable of duplicating a physical feat if the effort to do so requires superhuman effort. For instance, while he could view an opponent lifting a car, he could not do so because his body can't duplicate the superhuman strength required to do so.
- He also cannot duplicate any energy manipulating or projecting capabilities for the same reasons.
- His abilities were also limited in that they did not grant him an innate understanding of underlying disciplines. For example, as a child, he nearly drowned after imitating a dive because while he was able to mimic the dive, he did not know how to swim.
- Because of this, he has a fear of drowning.
- Taskmaster was unable to copy the moves of Alex Hayden for unknown reasons.
- When Taskmaster copies something new, it pushes old memories out of his brain in a form of amnesia.