Ultimate Taskmaster Idea

[The Overlord]

Here's an idea I had for Ultimate Taskmaster, he's a mutant with photographic reflexes (meaning he can perform an action by observing someone else performing it, without special training). Taskmaster uses this ability to train metahuman terrorist groups like the Brotherhood. However Taskmaster isn't motivated by ideology, he is a amoral SOB and will train anyone if they can afford his fee. This makes with an enemy and potenial ally of the Ultimates.

 

[Korinthian]

How is this different from the 616 guy?

 

[The Overlord]

How is this different from the 616 guy?

Not whole lot, but then again some characters don't need to be changed a lot to fit in with the ultimate Universe (Kingpin and Mystique are almost exactly the same in both universes.) The only difference is Ultimate Taskmaster would be a mutant instead of a ringer and would train terrorists instead of henchmen.

The main difference is by training metahuman terrorist he would be a little more modern, similar to the guys who run al-Qaeda traing camps. Now if you really want to twist things, you could make Tasky a pro mutant terrorist, who cares about idoelogy instead of money, but I always liked the amoral Tasky myself. Depends if you want UltimateTasky to be a full villain or a semi villain. The problem with the ideologue version is that he seen tons of those type chracters in the UU (Magneto, Longshot, etc) and I think the amoral SOB version is more fun, but if you have a better idea, be my guest.

 

[Willverine]

Sometimes, less is more even when they "Ultimatize" an existing, 616 character. It's great when the writers can come up with a whole new way to showcase an old character, but for the Taskmaster I don't think a total overhaul would be neccessary. I've always thought Taskmaster was an extremely cool, but underutilized character, especially for his abilities. That, and for a long time, his get-up was pretty goofy... or maybe it's just me who's not a big fan of skull masks with cowls and buccaneer boots.

I haven't had a chance to read the series, but I've seen the redux of the Taskmaster done awhile back, which looked like a major improvement looks-wise. Honestly, I think at this early point in the Ultimate line, he'd make a great addition. Perhaps Loeb and Joe Mad could make him a healthy addition to Ultimates v3... and honestly, he could easily work as either hero or villain. Thinking about it, he would make an excellent "drill instructor" type for Fury's new recruits to SHIELD and his superhuman task forces (wether or not the Ultimates will still be a part of that in v3 remains to be seen), or the "coach of the supervillain all-stars", getting paid to teach would-be suppervillains how to defeat the objects of their rage, maybe showing established villains how to get revenge on the heroes who humiliated them in the past. The possibilities are limitless... but the basic premise of the character is fine the way it is.

I'm always anxious to see what the creators can do with 616 characters, especially if they have a spotty history in their original manifestations.

As anyone who's read Marvel comics for as long as I have, there were tons of characters who had all the potential, but because of bad writing, looks (think 70's and 80's Marvel especially) or what have you, never really "took off".