Panel of the Week 1/27/10 – Avengers: Initiative #32
The Taskmaster is great example of a character that has original powers and style but no one really knows what to do with him. Perpetually cast as a mercenary and a trainer of henchmen he hasn’t found his voice just yet. Of course, that might be because he wears a skull mask for no reason and a white cape and hood.
For those not familiar, Taskmaster has the power of photographic reflexes. Once he sees a person perform an action he can duplicate it flawlessly. Unfortunately Tasky is featured so infrequently in comics that every time we see him his power set has to be explained. As it is in the first three pages of this issue of Avengers the Initiative. He has no other powers. No super strength, no super speed, no super durability. Which leads to the logical question of how he duplicates moves by Cap, Spidey, or Daredevil? All of whom are supers.
In a limited series Taskmaster was featured in a few years ago he amps up his own abilities by watching kung-fu movies in fast forward. I thought this was brilliant. I suppose his lack of super mojo explains why he runs around with a sword and shield. Well, in that limited series the style was distinctly Agent-X manga, pictured below. Overall, a much better aesthetic for a kung-fu/black-ops kinda guy.
Unbelievably I can’t find any pics online of when Deadpool went after Taskmaster’s secret ninja school in Deadpool #2. This will always be my favorite Deadpool series and his fight with Tasky was classic. It was drawn by my boy, Ed McGuinness so both characters looked great (if slightly over muscled). I’ll keep looking and bust out the scanner if I need to. Never mind, I found it!
Honorable Mentions
Hey! It’s Captain America! What you can’t see is someone off panel saying, “Hey Look! It’s Enrico Pallazzo!” That someone is me. Because I don’t care. We’ve known for weeks, if not months, how this series wraps up. Captain America: Reborn #6 (of 5), you are extraneous.
The end of Siege is really only three issues away. I would like to see Dr. Doom be the one to take down Loki at the end. Sure he’s arrogant and yes, Doom is an asshole but he does it with old school style. And he’s been beaten enough, here by the Odinson in Thor #606. Let’s get this green-hooded sonuvabitch a win huh?
In Superman Secret Origin #4 we see an origin story for the popular Superman villain Parasite. This time around the super glutton actually looks like a disgusting fat body. It’s just so obvious I’m surprised we’ve never seen a take on him like this before.
Punisher #13 featured more ridiculous Frankenstein Punisher (Frankencastle) versus monster hunter horseshit. But once again Tony Moore is drawing the pictures and it looks cool. Again. Dammit.
Flipping through Kick-Ass #8 I was struck by just how many spectacularly violent panels there were. In fact, for my next Longbox post I’m going to go through all 8 issues and pluck out the best panels. For now though, here is the Red Mist getting his face smashed into a red mist of blood. Oh. I get it. Sneaky.
Oh, and one more thing. Last POTW I mentioned how I adore fastball specials. Well, just one week later we get another one. This time it’s Frankencastle chucking Man-Thing! From now on I will document all fastballs I find on this site and I will tag them #fastballspecial.
Yes! Love youre idea about fastball specials. Ans what the hell are they (Marvel) doing with Punisher, did they learn nothing from when they made him a Demon-Hunter Punisher (Bernie Wrightson drew the L.S.). Talk about running out of ideas….