Black Widow - 5 People Who Could Be Taskmaster
"Who is that guy?" says Natasha. Who, indeed?
With Black Widow coming to cinemas in May of this year (foregoing the possibility of pandemics pushing the release date further back, as has already happened with Mulan), Marvel fans will at long last get to see the maestro of many styles. That's right - we're getting Taskmaster.
A fan favorite villain from the comics, Taskmaster has the ability to mimic the fighting style of anyone he sees, thanks to a nifty little ability called photographic reflexes.
As you can imagine, this makes him a pain in the ass to fight, especially for someone like Natasha, who has no powers. Not only can he match Natasha's move-set to a tee, but he can weave in the combat styles of Black Panther, Spider-Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, and anyone else with replicable physical abilities.
Fans are excited to see him, but there's still one looming question regarding the character in Black Widow: who are they? We know who he is in the comics -- his name is Tony Masters. But "Tony Masters" hasn't been cast by name, at least not on any publicly available cast list.
The folks over at Marvel have been pretty secretive about the character. they were just name-dropped for the first time in the last trailer, and we haven't yet heard them speak. They're actively playing up the mystery, with Natasha asking who they are, and Yelena giving only basic information: their name and role in the Red Room. That's all we've got to go on.
So who IS behind the mask? Let's examine some possibilities.
5. Multiple People
This is one of the more out-there possibilities, but it's an interesting one nonetheless.
What if Taskmaster isn't one person, at all? What if, instead, he's a series of individuals, each having mastered the fighting style of a different Avenger? What if we're seeing multiple characters, hiding behind the same mask?
Alternatively, what if there's a head Taskmaster, and he's taught a bunch of other "Taskmasters" how to fight the way he has, using them as stand-ins while he pulls the strings from afar?
He DOES have a history of training mercenaries, and while he's clearly in charge of the Red Room program (wherein new Black Widows are trained), the trailers have shown other armored, gun-wielding soldiers. It's possible -- albeit faintly -- that Taskmaster Prime has trained an entire generation of subordinates.
This possibility is highly unlikely, but it would make for a "practical" explanation for a character with such a varied skill set. Indeed, there is no single character with a single skill-set, but a multitude, each with their own specialty. But let's move away from this one. It's "practical", but out-there - as is the next pick, but for a very different reason.