Anthony Masters (Earth-616)

## Anthony Masters

**Children:**

* Jeanne Foucault (daughter, allegedly)

**Taskmaster** (*Anthony "Tony" Masters*) is a human mutate and former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent turned mercenary and assassin.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

**Photographic Reflexes:** Taskmaster's primary superhuman power is his photographic reflexes. He can watch another person's physical movements and duplicate them without any practice or training, no matter how complex. He is able to duplicate almost any physical activity after seeing it done by someone else only once. He can use this ability to master complex gymnastics routines and play difficult pieces of music. However, Taskmaster typically prefers to use this ability to copy the combat skills, both armed and unarmed, of costumed crime-fighters and expert martial artists from around the world. By reviewing recordings of movements periodically, Taskmaster can retain duplicated moves indefinitely. When facing an opponent, he has already studied countless forms of martial arts and can virtually predict his enemy's attacks. He can also copy the subtle muscle movements of others so precisely that he can at times do things such as copying another person's voice so as to fool voice recognition software, although he must practice a voice to ensure he has perfected it enough to fool such devices.

* **Superhuman Intuition:**Taskmaster can also do things such as figuring out the sleight of hand techniques of a master poker cheater by watching them. He has often shown the ability to predict an opponent's next move before they make it if he has studied their fighting style enough. Opponents who are skilled at improvisational fighting styles or who have a more random, unpredictable style are less likely to have their moves predicted by Taskmaster.
* **Superhuman Speed:** Due to his photographic reflexes, Taskmaster can push his body past its natural limits, allowing him to temporarily move at speeds twice as fast as a normal human. He has discovered that, after watching martial arts movies in double speed, he can briefly duplicate the moves at double speed, effectively granting him a limited form of superhuman speed. However, he can only maintain this heightened state for minutes before risking temporarily physical damage to his body.
* **Superhuman Reflexes:** Due to Taskmaster's photographic reflexes, his reaction speed is greater than that of a normal human. He easily caught a crescent blade thrown at him by Moon Knight without even looking. He was also able to deflect bullets with a chain and even catch a bullet that was shot at him.
* **Superhuman Agility:** Due to his photographic reflexes, Taskmaster can push his body past its natural limits, allowing his agility to match that of Spider-Man and Daredevil.

### Abilities

* **Hand-to-Hand Combat:** Taskmaster is easily known as one of the greatest formidable armed and unarmed combatants in the universe. He truly has mastered all forms of martial arts including modern and historical styles, boxing, wrestling, swordsmanship, archery, marksmanship, juggling, gymnastics, aerial acrobatics, and sleight of hand. He has trained numerous others in hand-to-hand combat.
	+ **Acrobatics**
* **Strategy and Tactics:** Taskmaster is a master strategist and tactician.
* **Armed Combat:** Due to his powers and the use of different peoples' fighting styles, Taskmaster has become a master in all forms of melee weaponry, including swordsmanship and knife fighting.
	+ **Swordsmanship**
	+ **Archery**
	+ **Firearms Proficiency**
* **Marksmanship:** Taskmaster is a master marksman, which he mimicked from Hawkeye and Punisher. He also has self-taught marksman skills, making him extremely proficient at throwing projectile weaponry, archery, and firearms.
* **Assassination:** He is a master assassin. Captain America has stated that Taskmaster is considered to be one of the most dangerous men alive.

### Weaknesses

**Unpredictability:** Taskmaster is unable to copy Deadpool's moves due to his unpredictable nature and fractured mind. Deadpool has defeated him on more than one occasion because of this.

**Memory Limitations:** When Taskmaster copies something new, it pushes old memories out of his brain in a form of amnesia. For example, he is only able to retain a total of eight languages. Additionally, as a result of long-term exposure to the enhanced cortisol contained in the modified Super-Soldier Serum, Taskmaster's hippocampus suffered severe damage, resulting in him having difficulty recalling specific and/or explicit memories. For example, he can recognize a place or landscape from a photo or painting but cannot recall if he actually visited said place.

## Equipment

**Taskmaster's Suit:** Taskmaster wears a specialized armored suit that is designed with some level of protection. He has also been shown sticking to walls, suggesting that he has special gloves and perhaps boots which can approximate Spider-Man's wall-crawling ability.

* **Wall Crawling**