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Welcome to the main discussion thread for the Marvel Cinematic Universe! This pinned post is here to establish some basic guidelines. All of the Media Forum rules still apply.

  • This thread is for talking about the live-action films, TV shows, animated works, and related content that use the Marvel brand, currently owned by Disney.
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    Original post 
Since Thor and now Captain America came out this year, I wanted to get what Tropers thought of the concept and execution of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general. Personally I love the idea and wonder why this idea hasn't been seriously tried before. It sorta seems to me like the DCAU in movie form (And well, ummm, with Marvel), and really 'gets' the comic book feel of a shared universe while not being completely alienating.

Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM

alliterator Since: Jan, 2001
#104351: Jun 26th 2019 at 8:55:25 AM

[up] He has photographic muscle memory — so yeah, anything he sees someone do, he can then do himself. He can't mimic powers, only skills, though.

Also, the more skills he has, the more his actual memory suffers. In the comics, he actually used to be a SHIELD agent who was sent undercover to bring down some bad guys...but then he ended up forgetting who he was and becoming one of the bad guys for real.

Well, I say "bad guys" but Taskmaster really is only on one side: his own. He will work for anyone who pays him, including SHIELD and the Avengers. He will train mooks and agents alike.

GNinja The Element of Hyperbole. from The deepest, darkest corner of his mind. Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
The Element of Hyperbole.
#104352: Jun 26th 2019 at 9:01:58 AM

[up] I do wonder how a nonpowered person can beat him then.

I guess you have to trick him at that point.

Kaze ni Nare!
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#104353: Jun 26th 2019 at 9:05:14 AM

[up][up] Indeed, that often tends to be his role in stories. Taskmaster generally appears in one of two capacities.

  1. Mercenary Taskmaster. An extremely talented merc, rival of Deadpool, and dangerous adversary to be on the wrong side of. He'll get the job done and maybe pick up some sweet new skills doing it.
  2. Instructor Taskmaster. HEY KIDS. DO YOU WANT TO BE A SUPERVILLAIN? Taskmaster knows all the best moves. With a million and more useful skills applicable to criminal and mercenary fields, he'll teach you everything he knows! But that knowledge comes at a terrible price. Of money. Actual money. The price is money. Whooo scary noise.

This latter role tends to be what he's most fondly remembered for among fans. He's trained villains, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, even heroes on occasion. Taskmaster is a one-stop training shop for everything you need to know to be a deadly super-assassin or undetectable cat burglar or what have you.

It's honestly a brilliant application of a superpower. He fights Hawkeye. He learns how to shoot a bow like Hawkeye from watching Hawkeye shoot his bow at him. Then he makes his living charging people money to teach them how to shoot a bow like Hawkeye. There is no better use of his power than that.

It's one of those "Well, if I had X superpower, the SMART THING to do would be this!" scenarios, except Taskmaster actually does it.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Jun 26th 2019 at 10:10:34 AM

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
GNinja The Element of Hyperbole. from The deepest, darkest corner of his mind. Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
The Element of Hyperbole.
#104354: Jun 26th 2019 at 9:16:18 AM

I think the only comic I've read with Taskmaster in it was an issue of Power P Ack.

And now I want a Power Pack movie. It'd be a different genre to anything the MCU has tried before. With children as protagonists.

Kaze ni Nare!
Bocaj Funny but not helpful from Here or thereabouts (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Pining for the fjords
Funny but not helpful
#104355: Jun 26th 2019 at 9:30:23 AM

There was a television pilot back in the 90s.

Forever liveblogging the Avengers
fredhot16 Don't want to leave but cannot pretend from Baton Rogue, Louisiana. Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: Too sexy for my shirt
Don't want to leave but cannot pretend
#104356: Jun 26th 2019 at 9:40:47 AM

[up]...Was it entertaining?

Trans rights are human rights. TV Tropes is not a place for bigotry, cruelty, or dickishness, no matter who or their position.
AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#104357: Jun 26th 2019 at 9:46:48 AM

I was hoping they'd go with the Gail Simone Agent X version of his costume as I think that's perfectly adapted for modernized portrayals, but it does't look like it so far.

alliterator Since: Jan, 2001
#104358: Jun 26th 2019 at 9:58:56 AM

...Was it entertaining?
No. No it wasn't.

[up] You are referring to the UDON-version of his costume — UDON (or, really, Alvin Lee) was the artist that did the art for Taskmaster's first mini-series and Agent X.

HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#104359: Jun 26th 2019 at 10:39:18 AM

[up]Imma assume they didn't name themselves after a Japanese type of noodles on purpose.

Edited by HailMuffins on Jun 26th 2019 at 2:39:44 PM

Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#104360: Jun 26th 2019 at 10:41:13 AM

Yeah the UDON costume of Taskmaster is by far my favorite and I'm somewhat bummed they aren't using it.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."
AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#104361: Jun 26th 2019 at 10:55:50 AM

[up][up] They did. Their logo is a bowl of noodles.

[up][up][up]I'm aware.

Edited by AlleyOop on Jun 26th 2019 at 1:56:21 PM

HandsomeRob Leader of the Holey Brotherhood from The land of broken records Since: Jan, 2015
Leader of the Holey Brotherhood
#104362: Jun 26th 2019 at 10:57:41 AM

Taskmaster is also one of those all rounder villains who can go up against just about anyone under the right circumstances stances.

He’s fought a pretty wide variety of heroes. I think the only ones he’s never gone up against are the X-Men.

One Strip! One Strip!
KnownUnknown Since: Jan, 2001
#104363: Jun 26th 2019 at 11:13:26 AM

Greedy But Neutral Taskmaster is such a great idea that it’s one of the reasons I was hoping he wasn’t the Big Bad of Black Widow. If he’s The Heavy, sure: that fits the niche he’s best within, as a Punch-Clock Villain, but as a Big Bad he pretty much has to be evil with an agenda, which files off some of what makes him such a fun character.

HailMuffins Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#104364: Jun 26th 2019 at 11:39:26 AM

[up]x3 Huh, they seem a fun person.

Edited by HailMuffins on Jun 26th 2019 at 3:39:41 PM

Anomalocaris20 from Sagittarius A* Since: Sep, 2010 Relationship Status: Love blinded me (with science!)
#104365: Jun 26th 2019 at 12:10:14 PM

Taskmaster is great.

Also, Deadpool is consistently a foe he struggles with not due to his superpowers but due to his unpredictability. Everybody else, Taskmaster knows their next move before they do, but Deadpool just does stupid shit that throws him off his game.

Edited by Anomalocaris20 on Jun 26th 2019 at 3:10:55 PM

You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!
Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#104366: Jun 26th 2019 at 12:24:14 PM

The UDON Miniseries had a neat character trait for Taskmaster that due the fact he has this eidetic memory that doesn't let him forget, he can recall all his traumas and sufferings with crystal clarity. He specifically brings this up after removing a bullet from his arm and remarking how he'll always be able to remember in excruciating the detail of being shot every time he thinks back to that moment.

It is also later revealed he can't swim/has a drowning phobia due a childhood incident that he can never forget involving nearly drowning. Every time he sinks underwater he goes haywire with panic because his brain can recall in exact detail what was the experience of nearly drowning. Effectively, he has super PTSD.

Later writers adopted the reverse (and imbecilic) perspective that Taskmaster has "fighter's memory" that can only recall battle memories at the cost of him losing every other sort of memory and thus becoming a amnesiac regarding everything except punching people in the face, because if there's one thing we need more in comics, is brooding anti-heroes with amnesia.

"All you Fascists bound to lose."
M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#104367: Jun 26th 2019 at 12:32:23 PM

Reminds me of the Freudian Excuse the Ur-Quan have in Star Control 2. Except even worse since they have photographic Genetic Memory, meaning the trauma of their ancestors' enslavement and the self-inflicted torture needed to free themselves from their Dnyarri masters will never fade.

Disgusted, but not surprised
jakobitis Doctor of Doctorates from Somewhere, somewhen Since: Jan, 2015 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
Doctor of Doctorates
#104368: Jun 26th 2019 at 1:35:04 PM

Taskmaster has the "limits" of being only (comic book version of) a normal but very athletic human. He can see Daredevil pulling acrobatics and mimic them perfect, but if he watched Spider-Man or Nightcrawler doing acrobatics he'd not be physically capable of actually doing them.

... Unless writers decide that actually yes he can.

"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel."
slimcoder The Head of the Hydra Since: May, 2013
The Head of the Hydra
#104369: Jun 26th 2019 at 1:54:29 PM

Taskmaster also has a maybe daughter in superhero in Finesse who has the same powers he does.

They had a pretty sad moment together as Tasky admits after fighting her that he can be her father but he really has no way of knowing & because she fights like everyone else he’s liable to forget her.

"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."
Gaon Smoking Snake from Grim Up North Since: Jun, 2012 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#104370: Jun 26th 2019 at 1:57:28 PM

The UDON comic also had Taskmaster do the nifty move of mimicking kung fu moves in movies and then having the idea of watching these movies at twice the speed and mimicking those moves, enabling him to move twice as fast as humanly possible for a brief period of time (he explains if he does this for more than a few seconds at a time, his muscles are liable to tear apart like a string as the human body isn't built for this kind of strain).

Edited by Gaon on Jun 26th 2019 at 1:57:45 AM

"All you Fascists bound to lose."
GNinja The Element of Hyperbole. from The deepest, darkest corner of his mind. Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: I'd need a PowerPoint presentation
The Element of Hyperbole.
#104371: Jun 26th 2019 at 2:03:19 PM

Finished Luke Cage season 2. I'm actually kinda pissed that there won't be a season 3, because the season ends on a massive downer and lack of closure. That's not a fault of the season itself though.

See, to people who think I'm obsessed with villains, I actually don't really like stories where the villains end up winning. Which is what happened here if the story is left like this.

Also, at a certain point you gotta wonder if the story really is supporting the idea that some families are just genetically evil.

Edited by GNinja on Jun 26th 2019 at 9:04:33 AM

Kaze ni Nare!
LordVatek Not really a lord of anything Since: Sep, 2014
Not really a lord of anything
#104372: Jun 26th 2019 at 2:10:57 PM

Taskmaster looks like a Power Rangers villain

This song needs more love.
Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#104373: Jun 26th 2019 at 2:13:16 PM

And thats a good thing!Although his gimmick sounds OP

have a listen and have a link to my discord server
Tuckerscreator (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Drift compatible
#104374: Jun 26th 2019 at 2:20:44 PM

Good thing for him that Quicksilver is dead.

Ultimatum Disasturbator from the Amiga Forest (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Disasturbator
#104375: Jun 26th 2019 at 2:24:03 PM

in their universe,supposing something involving multiple timelines and alternate realities and somehow Quicksilver reappears..

have a listen and have a link to my discord server

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