ORIGIN: When the man known as Taskmaster was a child, he discovered he had photographic reflexes after watching a cowboy program on television. He found out that he could duplicate the rope tricks exactly. He used these powers for his own gain, including becoming the high school star quarterback by watching a single pro football game. After graduation he considered becoming a superhero, but decided being a super-villain was more lucrative.

Watching broadcasts of superhuman activity, he executed several successful grand larcenies but underestimated the dangers involved in such work. He thus used his profits to start up academies where he trained aspiring super-villains, including Crossbones, to become professionals. He designed a costume and took the name Taskmaster.




xp064 R Taskmaster
Team: Minions of Doom
Range: 6
Points: 39
Keywords: Martial Artist

6 11 16 2

6 9 15 2

6 8 14 1

5 7 14 1

5 7 13 1

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PROS: Right off the bat you can't help but be impressed by this figure. Look at all the fun things that you get for a mere 39 points! Once upon a time a six range was on the low side of average, but in today's game it's actually taken a swing to the higher end of average. What was once mediocre is now pretty good, so older characters like this have a little more life in the modern game. Now add in the fact that he has the Minions of Doom team ability to represent him being a mercenary for hire. I'm pretty sure I don't have to go over why having a wild card team ability is a good thing. Now lets look at the actual dial. It is practically unheard of for a figure of this cost to have an 11 attack. Combine that with the blades/claws/fangs that he has and you have a majorly competent fighter for only a minor investment.

CONS: He doesn't have a lot of life compared to some of the other pieces of his era. At only five clicks long you have to make every hit count and especially the first one because he is very top loaded. Even one click of damage and his effectiveness goes from great to average. Anything more than one click of damage and you have to start worrying about the mortality of your figure and wondering what happened to it's effectiveness. Incapacitate is a great power, but it tends to be more of a "Hail Mary" play when you have an attack value of eight or below mid-game. It will probably be your best option at this point though as pacing will be more important than that one damage that he has at this point of his dial. That last click which has flurry is all but useless in my opinion as well. A seven attack and one damage isn't going to do much...even when you get two attacks.

THEME: He only has the one keyword attached to him so it's kind of obvious what theme he is going to fit best in when making an "Approved" theme team. He does fit in very well with other martial artists, though. My favorite kind of martial artist team is more of a swarm with characters like If I were to put him on one of the teams in the "Who needs keywords" section, I would probably put him on a S.H.I.E.L.D. team. Taskmaster is/was a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent but one of the side effects of his photographic reflexes is that every new skill he learns replaces things in his memory and he no longer remembers being an agent.

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xp065 E Taskmaster
Team: Minions of Doom
Range: 6
Points: 58
Keywords: Frightful Four, Martial Artist

7 11 16 2

7 9 15 2

6 9 15 1

6 8 14 1

5 8 14 1

5 7 13 1

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PROS: This Taskmaster is supposed to represent him as the headmaster of the villain/henchmen academy. This is why experienced Tasmaster sports such powers as mastermind, leadership, and enhancement. These are all great powers to gain at only a cost of 19 more points more than the rookie. The only thing he gave up to have any of them are those first two clicks of es/d and that isn't a very steep price to pay. He still retains the range, team ability, and very high attack stats that the rookie does. In fact, he's built on the dial to make it even more playable. The mid-dial incapacitate will seem like less of a desperation move with a nine attack to utilize it with.

CONS: It's unfortunate that with the loss of his opening es/d that the defense stat didn't get bumped up at all. Even a 17 would have helped him out dramatically. With only a 16 opening defense, he's not that hard to take out. Sure, he's got his mastermind ability, but that's only going to help if there is a character adjacent who is 57 points or less. Depending on who else you have on your team, you might not even have that option and even if you did, you might not want to exercise it. Though the playability of the figure has improved, his last click of life is just as pointless as it was on his rookie dial. If that flurry has ever come up and has been a game making difference, it has not been in a game that I have played.

THEME: Though I'm not a huge fan of generic keywords, he is my top pick for a Taskmaster to put on a martial artist keyword theme. When and if I were to make a team like that, I would generally look for efficient dials in the 50-75 point range. With his mastermind and leadership, he could pull tokens from lower point teammates and push damage done to him off onto them should you want to do that. The enhancement could go a long way on martial artists with range as well. As far as dial design goes, the experienced Taskmaster will act like a swiss army knife and will have just the tools you need.

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xp066 V Taskmaster
Team: Minions of Doom
Range: 6
Points: 75
Keywords: Agency X, Martial Artist, Thunderbolts

8 12 16 2

7 11 16 2

6 10 15 1

6 9 15 1

5 8 14 1

5 7 14 1

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PROS: This was the best example of of utility in a figure for a long time. Even after the Avengers set came out and we got the next Taskmaster that is on this list, he remained the best option for the character until just recently when Chaos War came out. He has a six range with double targets, an insanely high 12 attack value to start out with that includes a blades/claws/fangs option. He once again starts with energy shield/deflection, but this time around that gives way to mid-dial willpower. There is nothing quite as great as multiple target incapacitate with willpower. With good positioning and proper implimentation, he could single-handedly shut down a team or at least really slow it down. Also, for the first time, Taskmaster has a click of energy explosion show up. That combined with his outwit and double targets could really put a wrinkle in an opponent's plans and formations. This version of Taskmaster is just teeming with utility. Add in the myriad of things that the dial gives you to use and add in the team ability and you have one of the best 75 point characters of any age. For only eight more points, he can almost have two wild cared team abilities with the Thunderbolts ATA.

CONS: There are very few drawbacks about this character. About the biggest fault that I can find with this Taskmaster is the fact that his base defense on all three versions has never exceeded a 16. He's a character that can copy any physical movement that he has seen yet he has a defense that says otherwise. His powers and stats beg for you to get him into melee combat, but unlike his comic-book counterpart, that is where he is defensively most vulnerable. Finally, it is unfortunate that for the longest time that we had to put up with that costume as our best option for Taskmaster. He looks like a Casey Jones wannabe in this costume. I personally replaced my veteran with the Avengers sculpt. This is my personal opinion on the outfit choice, though. Your mileage may vary.

THEME: In this Taskmaster you get my favorite pick out of all Taskmasters for the Thunderbolts theme team. When I make a Thunderbolts team, I personally try to use characters that are under 100 points in cost if at all possible. A lot of them fit into that point range, and this Taskmaster fits the profile very well. Another reason to grab for this guy when building for Thunderbolts is to choose the Sinister Syndicate team ability when using the Thunderbolts ATA and then parking him next to your attackers to get a nice 12 attack replacement. A 12 attack for your team is worth the price of admission by itself!

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av029 U Taskmaster
Team: Minions of Doom
Range: 6
Points: 140
Keywords: Agency X

8 10 16 3

8 10 16 2

7 9 16 2

7 9 15 1

7 8 15 1

6 8 14 1

6 8 13 1

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Punch Like Cap, Shoot Like Hawkeye: Taskmaster can use Close Combat Expert and Ranged Combat Expert.

Photographic Reflexes: Before any attack roll, Taskmaster can replace his attack value or defense value with the unmodified value of the same type from any target character within 6 squares to which he has a clear line of fire. After the resolution of an action in which Taskmaster uses this power, roll one d6; if the result is less than or equal to the difference between Taskmaster's printed combat value and the replaced value, Taskmaster is dealt 1 unavoidable damage for each 100 points (or fraction thereof) of the target's point value.

PROS: A lot of the things that we've come to love about Taskmaster are present in this incarnation. He has the opening stealth with a six range that will help him to position and snipe people. He has flurry, but this time it is closer to the top of the dial for some more effecitveness than what the old REV ones had. I like the mid-dial leap/climb. It will help get him into position to where he will have the greatest impact or help him get away should he get himself in a tight situation. One major difference to this dial as compared to the X-Plosion versions is the addition of super senses. Depending on how your average super senses rolls go, this could be the make it or break it factor for this version of Taskmaster. I really appreciate what they were going for with the special powers as well.

CONS: However much I appreciate what they were going for with the special powers, I can't help but feel that they suffer from what a lot of early special powers suffered from...the inclusion of feedback damage. For some reason they thought there should be a drawback for nearly EVERY special power when they were first introduced. His "Punch like Cap, Shoot like Hawkeye" power works well enough, but it's too easy to shut down ALL of his offensive capability. His "Photographic Reflexes" is just overly complicated, though, and not exactly accurate to how his power works in the comics. It seems like they started off with a good idea, but it just went haywire at some point in the execution. All in all I would never play this figure for the GIGANTIC 140 point investment when I could do what I did and just put the sculpt on my old Veteran dial as that is the best thing this version has going for him.

THEME: He only has the one keyword...Agency X. The options are really slim with that keyword, and if you're not a Deadpool fan, there is no incentive to build that team. Of course, I don't know why you would ever build that team to begin with if you weren't a Deadpool fan, but that's another argument alltogether. A nice tidy team would be this Taskmaster and the Web of Spider-Man super rare Deadpool at 298 points. This Taskmaster is going to be a giant boat anchor on that team, but luckily a better option came along...(albeit about 5 years later)

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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

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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.

You Hold No Surprises: Taskmaster's combat values can't be modified by opposing characters' powers or abilities.

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.

PROS: What a lot of people probably look at when they see him is how many points he costs and they immediately are reminded of the colossal dung-heap that was the Avengers Taskmaster. Have no fear. Though 139 points is a large investment, Chaos War Taskmaster is worth it. Having played him recently, I couldn't believe how well he worked. I played him with SR Deadpool from the Web of Spider-Man set in an Agency X team and even without getting all of the benefits from his leadership power as Deadpool is more points that Taskmaster, he still performed admirably. The way they represented his photographic reflexes this time around is just sheer brilliance and works incredibly well. Add in the fact that all of his stats are consistently high and he has a trait that prevents them from being modified by opposing characters' powers or abilities, and he is just an impressive package of a character from first click to last click.

CONS: About the only complaint I can muster with this Taskmaster is one of comic accuracy more than anything that I can think of where gameplay is concerned. When talking game mechanics and how he plays, he is really a fantastic figure. However, where comic accuracy is concerned, his photographic reflexes just don't work in the way they do on this figure. Having to have line of fire within eight squares of him and having at least an action token is brilliant and is exactly how it should work, but the ability to use ANY standard power that said target can use opens him up to powers that he shouldn't have access to. Powers like telekinesis, mind control, psychic blast, pulse wave, and others should not be available to him for accuracy purposes. Knowing that not everything in game mechanics always make sense, though, I'll gladly use whatever I can steal.

THEME: It should be noted that this Taskmaster has every keyword that has been available to any of the versions of him that came before. So, if you had a favorite team that you used him on, maybe give this one a shot in his place and see how you like it. I personally have him as my number one pick for every keyword save for the martial artist and thunderbolts options, because I personally prefer lower point characters for each of those keywords, but if that is not your opinion then by all means do what makes you happy. I haven't tried it out yet, but I think he's really going to shine in a theme that is specific to only this Taskmaster...Hydra. His ability to bump up both the attack and damage of the "Peon" Hydra figures has a ton of potential and since swarm teams tend to be my bread and butter, I can't wait to try it.

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KEYS TO THE KINGDOM

Now that we have had a little glimpse into the aspects of all the different Taskmaster figures, let's take a quick look at his keywords and I will tell you my number one picks to use for each keyword theme available.

Agency X: cw048 Taskmaster
Hydra: cw048 Taskmaster
Thunderbolts: xp066 Taskmaster
Frightful Four: cw048 Taskmaster
Martial Artist: xp065 Taskmaster

WHO NEEDS KEYWORDS?!

In this section, I'm going to list some possible theme teams that you could play Taskmaster on that are definitely comic accurate but don't require keywords and provide links using Comic Vine and Wikipedia to tell you more about them. Unfortunately, using these teams means you are going to forego keyword bonuses, but every once in a while, Judges might let you slip by with one of these teams:

The Cabal
Freedom Force
Avengers: Initiative Staff
Masters of Evil
S.H.I.E.L.D.
Thunderbolts Army

This wraps it up for Deep Dish Themes: Taskmaster edition. Feel free to post what you think about the article and feel free to nominate a character for the next edition of Deep Dish Themes. (BTW, it's been a while since I've done a DC character, so keep that in mind if you are going to nominate one). Join me in two weeks when I tackle a team of teenagers that knew what the world needed was Warriors...NEW Warriors (As nominated by Slankford)

So glad they made the awesome new one. I do agree about the comic-accuracy part though. Taskmaster can pick up a tank turret by watching Hulk do it? Can levitate Deadpool by watching Sue levitate Ben with invisible platforms? He can mind control somebody by watching Emma Frost do it?
Oh well. I can't rightfully complain too much - I just try to play him in the spirit of comic accuracy because, hey, that's the kind of guy I am.
I actually resisted putting the Avengers sculpt on the old Vet so I could play an accurate looking 300 point team with WoS Deadpool regardless of his general suckiness because, hey, that's the kind of guy I am.
Right after the first preview of this new one though, I knew that dial would never see the light of day again and swapped the sculpts immediately.
Great article on one of my favourite characters.
Although I have to say I really disliked the recent mini - interesting take, it just contradicted too much of his previous backstory for me to enjoy it.

Obviously when the Chaos War one sees an opposing figure use a power that he physically doesn't have all it's actually doing is reminding him he has a gadget that replicates that exact power. "Oh snap, I totally brought a gravity manipulator/mind control ray/really powerful laser/thermal detonator/etc".

Remember to loop this music while reading the article, everyone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHZWZ7RzE-U

I'm not gonna lie, I thought I knew everything the older Taskmasters had to offer, but then I saw the older Vet and realized I somehow never noticed he had a 12 attack Blades. There's a LOT of fun things you can do with that. Awesome article!

Nice overview.

Not to be an apologist for the Avengers version (on which I agree with you on the particulars) at least in this case it made some sense to me - frankly more than the comics version did - because it seemed to be trying to take a stab at demonstrating that knowing the moves won't necessarily be all there is to it. No normal human being could really fight the way Spider-man does, for instance, and trying to do so should at least increase the chances of taking some damage. Sure, it's a ham-fisted way to convey it, and I can't even swear that's what they were trying for - they were so ridiculously timid with SPs in the early days - but that's how I justified it at the time.

Play him and have fun. If you really want to be comic accurate, and you pick your team members accordingly...then don't abuse his Photographic Reflexes. Use it to only copy the abilities that you think are physically copyable. You have a choice on how you use it, and if you are already choosing the rest of your team based on "comic accurateness", the make sure your playing style matches.

I'm a comic-accurate kind of guy, but I'm also into this game for silly situations, and honestly, the thought of Taskmaster mind controlling someone or pulse waving is just HILARIOUS.

This, however, is a pretty dang good way to go about it.

The new one is a blast. Played him as the head of a bunch of Shadow Council soliders (8), plus Max Fury. He skulked around taking shots while the goons tied everyone up.

I nominate Firestorm/Fury for the next article.

Good Choice! I might just have to do that. It won't be the NEXT article, but it's definitely getting added to my list!

Loved this write up, and agreed with more or less everything you said. Nice.

I nominate Sinestro for the next(ish) DC article! Or Doomsday...

Much appreciated bringing some light to The Cabal, Rob!

Awesome, but possibly expensive, Cabal team:
Norman Osborne or Iron Patriot(Norman to cut back on points)
Dr. Doom(either GG ones could work. Not very expensive and in most cases more effective than the SI versions)
Loki(any HoT Version or CW. AVM would be nice but not for Theme's sake)
Taskmaster(definately the CW version)
Namor(SI version is nice but to save points go with either GG versions)
Emma Frost(GSX or M10)
The Hood

This wouldn't be my first choice for this team but as an even 800pt team it works:
Iron Patriot 150
Dr. Doom 139
Loki 138
Taskmaster 139
Namor 120
Emma Frost 86
The Hood 28

With Iron Patriot at the head able to clear everyone with Leadership, Doom copying Mystics, X-Men, and SHIELD, and Taskmaster copying powers left and right...this would be an overall team. It also qualifies for Theme bonuses. Very effective if I might say so myself.

Now let's get beefy!

Iron Patriot 150
Doom 169
Loki 139
Namor 150
Taskmaster 139
Emma Frost 114
The Hood 28
And SENTRY or VOID 299
Add the Dark Avengers ATA to Iron Patriot and Sentry for 8pts total
Tank Turret 2pts

Comes out to 1197...so close to a 1200pt swarm team

Your list reminds me of how badly we need a new Hood!

Nice article! The Vet Xp is still a nice go to Taskmaster as he is very flexable.

I love the new SR Tasky and want to play him on a Hydra team. Now if only I had one. Anyone that has a CW SR Taskmaster need a SR Crystal ?