Taskmaster

In honor of today's character, we're going to assemble this review entirely from words copied from our other pages. How lobstromonous! Taskmaster is armed with the ability to mimic an enemy's every move. We've said several times in the past that Taskmaster would have been an ideal villain for Agents of SHIELD - a lot better than Hive, that's for sure, and a more logical thing for Grant Ward to become. In fact, allow me to quote a review from 2018: "Give him some Deathstroke-style armor (in blue and orange), a skeleton bandana and a light hood, and you're all set: a cool, budget-friendly supervillain!" I'm not saying we 100% predicted Black Widow's version of Taskmaster, but yeah, we 100% predicted Black Widow's version of Taskmaster. Okay, maybe 99.44% - they don't wear a bandana like they're social distancing at Walmart, they wear an actual mask that happens to resemble a skull. It has a metal "face" and dark goggles covering the eyes, fully concealing their identity. Guess Marvel didn't want it revealed too soon that the character is being played by Daniel Day Lewis. Tasky's armor is exactly what we asked for: a suit of tactical battle armor that just so happens to be blue and orange. If the colors were darker, it would look right at home in a CW show. Well, honestly the colors do seem to be darker, in the trailers we've seen so far - the action figure brightens things up a bit, and it looks better for it. The costume is basically a few armored plates worn over a cloth suit (rather than a complete set of armor, like Tony Stark would wear). It's almost like the designers were trying to split the difference between Captain America and Iron Man. Because they recognize the importance of branding, the orange lines on their kneepads and forearm armor form capital T shapes. They wear a hood with a large white panel and an orange hem, but the shade there is lighter than the gray scarf-dealie that drapes around their neck. The figure moves like any Marvel Legend, with swivel/hinge ankles, double-hinged knees, swivel thighs, balljointed hips, a swivel waist, hinged chest, swivel/hinge wrists, double-hinged elbows, swivel biceps, swivel/hinge shoulders, a hinged neck, and a balljointed head. The hood is attached to the head, so it will move around as you pose them, and the lower edge isn't attached to anything - it also sits a little too high to convincingly disappear "behind" the collar. Still, they've got enough articulation to imitate whatever hero you want. And enough accessories, too! Taskmaster doesn't include a piece of this series' Crimson Dynamo Build-A-Figure, because that portion of the figure's budget went to loading them down with all the things they need to be a one-man Avengers team: in addition to the usual options like fists and open hands, they've also got clawing hands (Black Panther), a shield (Captain America), a bow and an arrow (Hawkeye), and a sword (...Ronin? There's no way they'd know Gamora, right?). They've also got a jetpack that lets them fly (Iron Man), but that's not a separate piece. Wonder if they'll also have some kind of electrical attack, too? The shield is a unique sculpt, with their T logo raised above the surface; it's got the usual hinged clip on the back, but why? They dosn't need a peg to plug it into their back when there's no hole there. Taskmaster's movie costume looks pretty cool. It's clearly got its roots in the comicbook look, even more than the Ultimate Spider-Man design does! Hopefully Black Widow is the rare MCU movie where the villain doesn't die, so they can come back and be a recurring thorn in the side of heroes in the future. -- 05/18/20

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