Marvel Comics : Black Widow’s Worst Taskmaster Mistake Was Just Revealed
A recent Spider-Man adventure revealed exactly what went wrong with Taskmaster in 2021’s Black Widow – and it’s not the issue that fans have been pointing out. Taskmaster did not act like the Anthony Masters from Marvel Comics history, which disappointed moviegoers who were looking forward to seeing him on the big screen. Taskmaster, as seen in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #31, written by Saladin Ahmed with art by Christopher Allen and colours by Guru-eFX, demonstrates a characteristic that Black Widow lacks altogether.
Miles Morales: Spider-Man #31
Miles Morales has only recently escaped his own Clone Saga (albeit with fewer victims than Peter Parker in the 1990s), and in Miles Morales: Spider-Man #31, the character enters a new storey arc. He’s got a brand-new outfit that’s nothing like Peter Parker’s old one, and he’s even found time to go on a date with Starling (a romance that sadly can never occur in the MCU). An arrow narrowly misses both heroes on their date, and Miles insists they show their faces as he searches for the perpetrator. “All right,” Taskmaster says from atop a scaffold. “But it ain’t pretty,” says the narrator.
While avoiding Taskmaster’s blows, Miles and Starling rapidly understand that the assassin can perfectly duplicate either of their techniques (which is Taskmaster’s signature and lethal power: perfect muscle memory at the expense of forming other long-term memories). Taskmaster taunts them both fiercely; despite their agility, neither Starling nor Miles can catch him. Taskmaster’s ability to converse was something Black Widow lacked.
Taskmaster
In a traditional superhero combat sequence, taunting one’s opponent is a cornerstone of a villain’s strategy, but Taskmaster lost this skill in his move from page to screen. In Black Widow, the character Anthony Masters was mostly replaced with Antonia Dreykov, the daughter of General Dreykov who was gravely injured in an attempt intended to assassinate her father. A computer chip inserted in her brain gives her muscle memory abilities. She does not say a single line of dialogue in the film, maybe as a result of this (until the villain is defeated and the Taskmaster programming appears to be removed or deactivated).
Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe consider Taskmaster to be a squandered opportunity. The villain’s character was significantly altered, with the villain’s connection to Black Widow taking precedence over the villain’s ability to stand alone as a memorable opponent. It’s up to Spider-Man to point out how talking during a fight would have given Taskmaster some much-needed personality.
