InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Go crazy? Don't mind if I do!"

volksjager (volksjager) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-08-27 18:12:00

Current music:	Insekt 5 " Green indicates Irony"
Entry tags:	char: taskmaster, group: avengers, publisher: marvel comics, series: martial arts week, title: avengers

Taskmaster, he's just better at than you...
Martial Arts mayhem...

The Avengers are the first to encounter Taskmaster !

I would also like to say for the record , this my personal fav. of the Wasp's costumes !

CAP fall down...

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	sherkahn 2009-08-27 10:35 pm UTC (link)
	I like that Taskmaster knew that there was a realistic chance he would not win this fight, and cut his losses. Tasky is playing the long game. Smart. (Reply to this) (Thread)

crinosg
2009-08-27 11:00 pm UTC (link)

Which is why Taskmaster is totally awesome and his DC counterpart Prometheus is a loser.

Like that earlier post about Prometheus pointed out, Prometheus wants peoples respects, which makes him sort of pathetic and leads to him make stupid mistakes which end up getting him beat down.

Tasky on the otherhand, while being proud of himself, has enough common sense to stop himself when he goes on a "I could take the Avengers one by one if I wanted" and go "Wait, that's stupid; even if I could it's too risky for me, I better just quit while I'm ahead and live to fight another day."

and note, Tasky did all this after Beating Captain America into the effin dirt. Cap, the guy who can literally take on an entire room of costumed villains at once and survive. Tasky probably could have taken the Avengers at this point, but he's smart enough to know the difference between "probably" and definitely.

That's why I like Tasky; even if he does dress like a White Supremacist skeletor.

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	cmdr_zoom 2009-08-28 01:50 am UTC (link)
	This. All of this. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	lonewolf23k 2009-08-28 02:08 am UTC (link)
	Tasky's genre savvy enough to realize that Captain America's the kind of guy who pushes it up to 11 when the chips are down. Sure, he was dominating the fight at the moment, but pushing Cap into a corner just makes him fight all that harder. Best to knock him down, then cut and run before that happens. (Reply to this) (Parent)

proteus_lives
2009-08-28 05:18 am UTC (link)

Agreed and excellent analysis!

Taskmaster has an important super-power that most other super-villains lack. He knows when it's time to bail.

Another super-villain (Copycat) said it best when she, Constrictor and Deadpool were fighting some Avengers and when they were beating them. She ordered a retreat and Constrictor said, "Why? We're winning! We're actually winning!" Copycat said, "No. We're just not losing yet."

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	icon_uk 2009-08-28 01:11 pm UTC (link)
	I'm going to have to remember that one! :) (Reply to this) (Parent)

	daningram 2009-08-27 10:37 pm UTC (link)
	As much as I like Taskmaster, it still annoys me that Marvel gave such a good combat ability to someone who's more than willing to flee at the drop of a hat. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	volksjager 2009-08-27 10:41 pm UTC (link)
	Why is that ? I would say it's just different than the cackling Villains who just take on all comers til' they blow out ( like Graviton ). He knows when the cut his loses and live to fight another day. I don't think Taskmaster is out the conquer the world, just make money and have fun. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	daso 2009-08-27 10:52 pm UTC (link)
	It doesn't show in the scan, but he is outnumbered ten-to-one. Not running is only foolish. (Reply to this) (Parent)

box_in_the_box
2009-08-27 11:16 pm UTC (link)

Actually, as crinosg said, that's one of the things I like about him.

I seem to recall some Justice League story or another, in which Lex Luthor and his Injustice Gang are cornered by the Justice League, and one of the other bad guys basically says to Luthor, "You're the smartest guy in this room, Luthor! What do we do now?" To which Luthor replies, "That's right, I am the smartest person in this room; that's why I'm doing this," and he activates his personal teleporter.

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	daningram 2009-08-28 01:23 am UTC (link)
	It's not that it doesn't make sense, it's that it leads to pretty disappointing action scenes where the guy you want to see throw down...bails. Imagine a movie where Jackie Chan doesn't throw a punch, or Bruce Lee runs away instead of throwing down. It's like that. Let someone else have the common sense to run, while Taskmaster dishes the pain ;) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	jfurioso 2009-08-28 02:58 am UTC (link)
	Actually, many of Jackie Chan's movies base his action scenes on the fact that he IS mostly running away or trying to avoid the conflict as much as possible. Bruce Lee of course did the opposite. He would anticipate attacks with intersecting moves and preemptive strikes. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	icon_uk 2009-08-27 11:25 pm UTC (link)
	Yup, I like that he WILL fight, and CAN fight, but sees no profit in hanging fighting pointlessly when he stands a good chance of getting caught. It shows he has a personality beyond his powerset, and I like that. Of course, how his photographic reflexes help him predict Iron Man's moves, when repulsor blasts have nothing to do with reflexes, is another matter. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

the_jeff
2009-08-27 11:43 pm UTC (link)

There's still the body motions and Iron Man's 'style' which he can read, even if he can't duplicate he has an innate understanding of what he's going to do - instinctively understanding he's going for the repulsor blast instead of the uni-beam or closing for melee or something else.

Assuming that he observed him somehow.

There's a great scene of him fighting Daredevil where he mimics each move, until DD turns that against him.

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	volksjager 2009-08-27 11:53 pm UTC (link)
	Issue number ??? Post it if ya' got it :) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

the_jeff
2009-08-28 02:02 am UTC (link)

I'll see if I can find it. Sadly, sometime around late 89, early 90 when I had just joined the Marine Corps my folks cleaned the basement which involved tossing 2 long boxes and numerous other comics (along with $500-1,000 worth of painted Warhammer 40k minis) in the trash.

I don't recall if I still have this one, but I'll look for it some more. I didn't find it at a cursory glance, but I did find a 3 issue Grendel mini called The Devil Inside, which I had totally forgotten. I'm sure there will me some material worthy of MA week in there if I can get the scanner to cooperate.

Anyway, the general plot is that Taskmaster and Tombstone are competing (with others, but they're just filler crap who we never really get to know) to fill the slot of Kingpin's #1 hitman/assassin. DD busts in on the middle of them fighting each other as I recall. I forget how Tombstone gets out of the picture, but the TM/DD fight is neat. Hopefully that description can help someone else find it at least. Pretty sure this is post Miller, the art at least isn't his, as best I recall.

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	autolychus2 2009-08-28 02:12 am UTC (link)
	Oh, man do I feel your pain. The same thing happened to me when I was stationed at MCRD Parris Island. Mom and the ex-wife had a yard sale -- they left me one long box and that was it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	schmevil 2009-08-28 05:03 pm UTC (link)
	Why do people do things like this? flail (Reply to this) (Parent)

ashtoreth
2009-08-28 02:51 am UTC (link)

Post-Nocenti too, I think. That was the time Tombstone and Taskmaster were competing to join the Hand, for some wierd author-mandated reason.

But that's hardly the only Taskmaster/Daredevil fight. One of the things I like about their fights is that its acknowledged that, in a pure fight, Tasky might beat DD. But DD is far smarter so he uses tricks to win. And both of them know this, and there's this wierd sense of respect between them. Probably why Echo got taken down so fast, Matt was used to dealing with photographic reflexes people.

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	abagnale008 2009-08-27 11:10 pm UTC (link)
	KA-TANG! "That's for saying hot spam." (Reply to this)

	silverzeo 2009-08-28 12:36 am UTC (link)
	He's from the Bronx?... anyone else notice that he was wearing the same kind of disco-boots that Slade wears. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-08-28 01:00 am UTC (link)
	The design of Deathstroke the Terminator was very much a variant of Taskmaster, Perez designed both of course. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	crinosg 2009-08-28 02:33 am UTC (link)
	Also: They shop at the same specialty store. (Reply to this) (Parent)

crinosg
2009-08-28 02:33 am UTC (link)

On another subject; I've always wondered why Taskmaster dresses like he does; I mean a guy that down to earth and that genre savvy and he dresses like if Mum Ra and Robin Hood had a butt baby together.

My Guess? Taskmaster realized that, in a world where super heroes and villains are major power players, you need a costume and a goofy name in order to be a power player, to be with the big boys.

Hence why Tasky dresses like he does. Any other theories?

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	ashtoreth 2009-08-28 02:54 am UTC (link)
	Sounds like what Bullseye came up with. Also interesting that Tasky is as paranoid as Cobra Commander about his real face. Everytime we think we see the real him, I believe its turned out to be a holographic field on his face. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	proteus_lives 2009-08-28 05:06 am UTC (link)
	He's a merc and the costume is part of the sale. There's also intimdation and confusion factor. But at the end of the day it's because the costume allows him to charge more. (Reply to this) (Parent)

icon_uk
2009-08-28 01:22 pm UTC (link)

He was, in an inspired piece of genre awareness, running a school for train lackeys; The thugs and muscle that supervillains seem to have an endless supply of. They don't just grow on trees you know, they need to be trained, and since they aren't the sharpest pencils in the box, they need trained by someone good, and someone who will be feared. So I'm guessing it's partly PR ("Trained by: The Taskmaster" looks better on diplomas than "Trained by: Irving J Welsh" or whatever Tasky's real name might be) and partly to get his recruits respect, since they are a superstitious cowardly lot, as someone once said.

There's a great scene elsewhere in this issue where Ant-Man overhears a meeting to decide on the next intake with comments from the review panel like "No, this one's intelligence is too high, it's nearly average" or "This one looks promising, low IQ and a history of following orders"

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	volksjager 2009-08-28 03:19 pm UTC (link)
	You have screen your henchmen . The last thing you want is on challenging you command or refuse to be cannon fodder. Hmm, must post Tasky canon fodder army he puts together to attack 42 over in Avengers Initiative. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	volksjager 2009-08-28 01:26 pm UTC (link)
	Didn't Task get a new uniform for that miniseries a few years back. It was practical and conventional...and sucked. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	fusil 2009-08-28 03:56 pm UTC (link)
	I loved it =( I think it was said he used it mostly for merc related activities. His pirate garb's for super villaining. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	ashtoreth 2009-08-28 02:42 am UTC (link)
	Taskmaster, he's just better than you.. His milkshake brings all the boys to the yard? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	superfan1 2009-08-28 03:13 am UTC (link)
	Lol hey if you can work it..... (Reply to this) (Parent)

	sir_mikael 2009-09-03 03:50 pm UTC (link)
	Well, he can teach you, but he'd have to charge. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	likeaminx 2009-08-28 03:04 am UTC (link)
	I love Taskmaster. I also love that for as tough as he is, he has the totally average fear of drowning. ~~Or he did at least. I'll need to read his mini-series again~~ (Reply to this) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-08-28 01:24 pm UTC (link)
	I can imagine the scene now. "Ha HAH! I shall escape because I've watched Namor swim and can therefor mimic his style perfectly... Oh wait hang on a minute, HE can make it work because he's amphibious... Bugge-glug-glul-glug...." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	thanekos 2009-08-28 02:25 pm UTC (link)
	not far off the mark, except instead of Namor, he was trying to mimic an Olympic high diver- which he did perfectly, it's just that he forgot the swimming part after the fact. (Reply to this) (Parent)

halloweenjack
2009-08-28 05:36 pm UTC (link)

Tasky is definitely smarter than your average run-of-the-mill costumed bank robber. During Gruenwald's run on Captain America, Tasky becomes John Walker's martial arts instructor when Walker takes over the role of Captain America, and he's actually worked out different kata for Cap's shield fighting--in other words, he's not only memorized all of Cap's shield moves (or at least all he's seen), he's been able to synthesize them into a fighting style.

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	volksjager 2009-08-28 05:39 pm UTC (link)
	Oh cool. I couldn't remember the issue number. If you have this post it :) I also recall a naive John Walker, feeling sorry for Tasky when he gets hauled back the joint... (Reply to this) (Parent)

	volksjager 2009-08-28 06:22 pm UTC (link)
	"to" the joint. (Reply to this) (Parent)

sir_mikael
2009-09-03 04:01 pm UTC (link)

Oh I love this, thank you for posting. Taskmaster has always been one of my favorites, in part by his badassery as well as the reason others have brought up about him being sensible and flees when appropriate. I think it's a brilliant idea to acutally use a character to explain trained henchmen. It really brings alot of the MU together in a fun way.

Wasps shocked face brings me much more amusement than it should.

Btw Volksjager, the tag for this is "char: the taskmaster" when all the other Tasky posts are under "char: taskmaster", maybe that's something you can fix? It would make it easier to find.

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