He can shoot like Hawkeye and fight like Cap... He's been a villain and on occasion, a very reluctant anti-hero. This week, we build some teams around the skilled and dangerous character, The Taskmaster!

Not the one from Avengers, don't worry.

So Taskmaster made his full debut back in Avengers #196. He was making a living running an academy that trains all those flunkies you see supervillains everywhere using. But then he stepped into the big leagues himself when he kidnapped Wasp, Yellowjacket and Ant-Man. Of course they got away, but so did he. After that, he his expertise in training gave him a unique role in the Marvel Universe. Since then, he's trained villains and heroes alike: Jessica Drew, U.S. Agent, Spymaster, Crossbones and Diamondback.

So while Taskmaster has had a long history in comics, his appearances in Heroclix have been mixed at best. You either had a super playable REV piece from Xplosion, but the sculpt was from a very brief run in the comics. Then there was the Unique from Avengers. That one just plain stunk. Thankfully, Chaos War gave us a much more playable version, that we'll be using for our builds.

cw048 V Taskmaster
Team: Minions of Doom
Range: 6
Points: 139
Keywords: Agency X, Frightful Four, Hydra, Martial Artist, Thunderbolts

8 11 18 3

9 11 17 3

8 10 17 3

8 9 16 2

8 11 18 2

7 10 17 2

8 10 16 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

(Special) Still Got Those Photographic Reflexes: Give Taskmaster a free action. Choose any standard power an opposing character within 8 squares and line of fire and with one or more action tokens can use. Taskmaster can use that power until the end of this turn.
(Special) You Hold No Surprises: Taskmaster's combat values can't be modified by opposing characters' powers or abilities.
(Damage) Super-Villain Training: Taskmaster can use Enhancement and Leadership. When he succeeds on an roll for Leadership, adjacent friendly characters modify their attack and range values by +1.

Our first build is a brief team-up of sorts. In Daredevil #292-293, Taskmaster was participating in a "friendly" competition with Tombstone on who was the better killer. So all we have to do is pair our Chaos War Taskmaster up with Tombstone from Secret Invasion.

si003 E Tombstone
Team: Sinister Syndicate
Range: 6
Points: 58
Keywords: Brute

8 9 17 3

7 9 17 2

7 8 17 2

7 8 16 2

6 8 16 2

6 7 15 2

6 7 15 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Together, these two are 197 points. Plus, if Taskmaster wild cards the Syndicate TA, it might actually make Tombstone useful! As for their competition, it was cut a bit short by the equally dangerous team-up of Punisher and Daredevil. Two guys that one could probably put together for another 200 point team, depending on which pieces you use.

Now while Tombstone's game of oneupsmanship was pretty much a one-time thing with Taskmaster, there's another character who's had a much longer and rockier relationship with him: Deadpool. These two have been bumping heads and working together off and on since Deadpool's first series.

ws057 V Deadpool
Team: Spider-Man
Range: 8
Points: 158
Keywords: Agency X, Deadpool Corps, Frightful Four, Great Lakes Avengers, Martial Artist, Six Pack, Weapon X, X-Force

8 12 17 3

8 11 17 3

10 11 17 3

10 10 17 3

6 10 16 2

10 9 16 2

6 9 15 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

(Special) Ridiculous Regeneration: Whenever Deadpool would be dealt damage from an attack, roll a d6 instead. On a result of 1, he takes that damage plus 1. On a result of a 2-3 he takes the normal amount of damage. On a result of a 4-5 he takes 1 damage. On a result of a 6, he heals 1 damage instead.

Deadpool and Taskmaster on their own come out to 297 points, so all you have to do is add on the X-Force ATA to Deadpool and go from there. BUT... Back in Deadpool #35, the two of them were both recruited (along with Constrictor) into Wizard's Frightful Four.

ic161 LE Frank Schlichting
Team: Sinister Syndicate
Range: 4
Points: 63
Keywords: Frightful Four, Masters of Evil, S.H.I.E.L.D., Sinister Syndicate

6 10 16 2

6 9 14 2

6 8 13 2

5 7 12 1

4 6 12 1

4 4 11 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

sn027 V Wizard
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 8
Points: 93
Keywords: Frightful Four, Scientist

8 9 17 2

7 9 16 2

6 8 15 2

6 7 15 1

6 7 15 1

5 7 14 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

All four figures together come out to 453 points. Rather than adding on the X-Force ATA, I'm opting to use the Thunderbolts TA on Taskmaster and then I just threw in Auto Regen for Deadpool, Contingency Plan on Taskmaster and just to fill the points, Mental Shields on Wizard. In the comics, the team was a complete disaster. Pretty much everyone regretted that adventure. Of course it was all Deadpool's fault, but as much of a clusterhump as the adventure was, it wouldn't be Taskmaster's last time becoming part of a team.

During the Dark Reign (and just before Siege), Norman Osborn had Taskmaster placed in charge of training students at The Initiative's Camp Hammond. To the extent that he was doing such a good job that Norman recruited him into his Cabal, a group that at that point was falling apart after the desertion of prior members like Dr. Doom, Namor and the Frostitute.

ws023 Norman Osborn
Team: S.H.I.E.L.D.
Range: 6
Points: 66
Keywords: Dark Avengers, H.A.M.M.E.R., Politician, Ruler, Thunderbolts

6 9 16 2

6 9 16 2

6 8 16 1

6 8 15 1

6 8 15 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

(Special) Unbalanced: Once at the beginning of the game roll a d6. On a roll of 3-4, put a sanity token on this card. On a roll of 5-6, you may choose to put a sanity token on this card.
(Speed) Alter Ego: Patriot of Goblin?: Give this character a power action. If this card has a sanity token, replace this character with a {ws}#039 Iron Patriot. If this card does not have a sanity token, replace this character with a {ws}#058 Green Goblin instead. Begin the replacement on its orange starting line. Existing action tokens from this character, as well as action token and pushing damage for this action are applied to the replacement. If replaced, no victory points are awarded for this character and the replacement is considered to be its orange point value for all game effects.

cw042 V Loki
Team: Mystics
Range: 8
Points: 138
Keywords: Asgardian, Avengers, Deity, Mystical

10 10 17 3

9 10 17 3

8 10 16 3

8 9 16 3

7 11 18 3

7 10 17 3

6 10 17 3

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

(Special) My Unwitting Pawns: Loki can use Shape Change. When Loki rolls a 6 for Shape Change, friendly characters can't be targeted by ranged attacks this turn.

mu015 R The Hood
Team: No Affiliation
Range: 6
Points: 28
Keywords:

7 9 16 2

7 8 15 2

6 8 14 1

6 7 14 1

5 7 13 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

(Speed) Cloak: The Hood can use Leap/Climb and Stealth.

The Cabal come out to 371 points. Now you can choose how you want to fill those last 29 points yourselves, as you've got a lot of options. Thunderbolting Taskmaster and Norman? Contingency Plan on pretty much anyone but Hood? Armor Piercing? Your call. If you want an even higher point build, you could include Norman's secret ally The Void, but that'll just up things from a 400 point game to a 700 point one.

Like the Frightful Four he was a part of, The Cabal fell apart too. Seems to be a recurring theme, that this guy wasn't meant to be a part of a team. There was even an issue of Avengers, #26 to be exact, where he posed as Captain America and led a team consisting of Warbird, Ant-Man (Scott Lang), Captain Marvel (Genis) and Silverclaw on a mission to discredit the real Avengers. I was tempted to build this lineup, but without Silverclaw, I passed.

Lately, Taskmaster has been keeping busy. He starred in another miniseries which revealed his full origins, made more appearances in Deadpool and for our last build, appeared in Alpha Flight #5. He was brought in to help train everyone's favorite Canuck superteam in order to take on the Canadian government.

No, I'm serious. Anyways, Taskmaster clearly has his work cut out for him. But this gives us license to build a larger team. So we take the Chaos War piece and add on the lineup from the series:

sv206 LE James MacDonald Hudson
Team: Avengers
Range: 8
Points: 99
Keywords: Alpha Flight, Armor, Scientist

10 10 17 3

8 10 17 3

9 9 16 3

9 9 16 2

8 8 15 2

8 8 15 2

9 8 14 2

10 7 14 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

mm026 E Puck
Team: Avengers
Range: 0
Points: 42
Keywords: Alpha Flight, Martial Artist

8 10 16 2

8 10 16 2

6 9 15 2

6 9 15 2

5 8 14 2

5 7 14 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

aw050 E Shaman
Team: Avengers
Range: 6
Points: 66
Keywords: Alpha Flight, Mystical

6 9 15 2

6 8 15 2

6 8 14 2

5 7 14 1

5 7 13 1

4 6 13 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

mm070 R Sasquatch
Team: Avengers
Range: 0
Points: 80
Archenemy: Tanaraq (Green)
Keywords: Alpha Flight, Monster, Scientist

6 8 14 1

9 9 16 3

8 9 15 3

8 8 16 3

7 8 15 2

7 8 14 2

7 7 14 2

6 7 13 2

6 7 13 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

mm065 E Snowbird
Team: Avengers
Range: 0
Points: 77
Keywords: Alpha Flight, Mystical

9 9 15 2

8 9 15 3

8 9 14 3

7 8 14 2

7 7 13 2

6 7 13 2

8 6 14 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

aw035 E Marrina
Team: Avengers
Range: 0
Points: 37
Keywords: Alpha Flight, Avengers

8 8 16 2

8 8 16 2

8 8 15 2

8 7 15 2

7 7 14 1

7 7 13 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

mm068 E Northstar
Team: Avengers
Range: 0
Points: 61
Keywords: Alpha Flight

12 9 16 2

12 8 16 2

11 8 15 2

11 7 15 2

10 7 14 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

aw202 LE Jeanne-Marie Beaubier
Team: Avengers
Range: 6
Points: 66
Keywords: Alpha Flight

12 9 16 3

12 9 16 2

10 8 15 2

10 7 15 1

9 7 14 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Putting the Alpha Flight ATA on the roster gets us to 699 points. The great thing is if Taskmaster gets his Leadership roll, then between that and the ATA, adjacent friendly characters could basically end up getting a +2 to their attacks!

Well, that's it for our look at some teams we can play Taskmaster on. Special thanks to anonym0use for the topic suggestion, and as always, if there are certain teams or characters you'd like to see spotlighted here at Comic Accurate, feel free to PM me with them. Next time, we venture back to the DC Universe!

you forgot agency x. taskmaster, deadpool, and bob agent of hydra

I am loving this figure more and more.

Except Taskmaster had left years before Bob was even on Agency X. If you're going to waltz around like you're a Deadpool fan, you mighty as well research the damn character.

Not to mention the Agent X storyline owns.

Great article, man.

CW Taskaster WoS Deadpool CA Hydra Bob = Agency X HELLS YEAH (modern day dream version)

Easy, man. It's not a big deal at all. Just smile.

No need to be a dick about it. But since you are only at 14 posts, I guess you still need to learn a few things yourself about being a member of the Realms community.

Anyway, I plan on playing Taskmaster this weekend at our tournament. He's on a 500pt Thunderbolts team I've built.

Taskmaster from CW
Common Green Goblin from Marvel 10th
Uncommon Ant-Man from CW
Baron Zemo from CW
Black Knight from CW (getting Thunderbolts keyword from Zemo)

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the leftover points yet.

Heh. Not that his comment was warranted or anything but, to be perfectly fair, there are members of HCRelms with thousands of posts to their names who still act like that.


To the OP: Thanks for the article. I've never followed Taskmaster, so I always thought he was a total loner. It is nice to see some things he did with teams.

Great read and awesome lineups, I'm just curious why you went with the CW version of Loki when it was the female version that was part of the cabal. If you use the female version you have enough points left over to throw Dark Avengers on Norman, or Asgardian on Loki then drop the Gauntlet on the Hood so he has some level of power comparable to his abilities in the comics.

Eek, such language. Way to set the example...LOL, guess he was defending the article? As the previous statement wasn't courteous either. Oh well. not justifying it though, guess we're all at fault here (except me,lol)

Excellent job OP!!

The female version was on The Cabal when they started, but by the time Taskmaster was brought in, Loki had reverted back to a male form.

How about a Hero Hunters Civil War T-bolts team? One of my favs!

CW Taskmaster 139
T-Bolts ATA 8
HoT Songbird 84
T-Bolts ATA 8
HoT Venom 73
T-Bolts ATA 8
Xpl U Lady Deathstrike 45
Sin V Bullseye 65
T-Bolts ATA
Sin V Jack O'Lantern 62

500 points exactly!

It's not a theme, but it works oh so well!

Might I suggest researching the forum rules?