15 Worst MCU Villains (So Far)
8. Taskmaster - Black Widow
Talk about wasting a villain.
Taskmaster (Olga Kurylenko), a bad-ass masked assassin who can copy the abilities of anyone they are fighting, was a heavily-anticipated addition to the MCU. The comics version of the character is very popular and there was also a lot of theorising as to who was underneath the mask, with theories ranging from a clone of Natasha to Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner).
Unfortunately, in the final film Taskmaster was a colossal let-down. She barely appears and ends up being nothing more than a henchman, while the reveal of who was underneath the mask was about as underwhelming as could be.
It turns out that she's Antonia Dreykov, who Black Widow thought she'd killed as a child, and not only does this twist carry no weight (it's not like viewers had any attachment to this character) but it also represents a very wimpy move on Marvel's part. It seems like this twist was the result of them being too frightened to have one of their heroes be responsible for the death of a child.
And even then, while the showdown between Natasha and a symbol of her dark past could've been emotionally charged, this potentially thought-provoking drama isn't utilized either.
Make no mistake: Taskmaster is one of the worst missed opportunities in the history of the MCU.