Anthony Masters

This character, Anthony Masters, is 51 years old in 2022, based on his/hers birthday, which is 1971.

## Personal Info

### Age

49-50 (2021)
50-51 (2022)

## Details

### Occupation

Mercenary (formerly)
Instructor of Unity Force Academy
Ally of the Unity Force (both currently)

### Powers/Skills

Photoreflexive memory
Mimicry
Master acrobat
Master combatant
Master marksman
Superhuman agility

### Hobby

Battling and training heroes and villains

### Type of Hero

Enigmatic Mercenary

**Tony Masters** is a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent turned mercenary and assassin, better known as **Taskmaster**. He possess the ability to replicate the physical skills, be it combat or athletic, of anyone he observes thanks to his photographic reflexes. Overtime due to the growing number of superheroes he decided to put his skills to better use, becoming a teacher based out of the Taskmaster's Academy to train government agents, villains, heroes and henchmen alike.

Taskmaster is an ally of the Unity Force, who serve as one of Unity Force Academy's instructors.

## Appearance

Taskmaster wears a militarized body suit, wields an energy blade, and dons a helmet that resembles a stylized skull. He also wears a gray hood, and the costume has darker colors overall.

## Personality

Being a contract mercenary, the mysterious Taskmaster prides himself on professionalism and completing his job. He shows patience as he is not content until he has learned everything about his target before completion and adding their abilities to his already vast skillset. Given the high-grade military nature of his equipment and recon points, it’s unlikely Taskmaster is drawn by money but a desire to encounter a worthy opponent in his line of work. He appears both intrigued and enjoyed about the possibility of Spider-Man being this individual but repeatedly looks down on his capabilities. Even after he is defeated by the wall-crawler, Taskmaster casually implies that he is not worth his client's time nor money.

## Abilities

**Artificially Enhanced Physiology:** Tony was born with the ability to duplicate other abilities that he either saw someone else performed or watched on T.V. After injecting himself with a experimental Nazi version of the Super-Soldier Serum, his brain capacity begin to absorb knowledge instantaneously. The serum also altered his brain chemistry to make him hypercognitive in the area of skill observation and retention. This particular serum was an elaborate modification of the adrenal steroid cortisol, which even enhanced Tony's short-term memory.

* **Photographic Reflexes:** Tony's primarily 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. Tony is able to duplicate almost any physical activity after seeing it done by someone else only once. Taskmaster can use this ability to master complex gymnastics routines and play difficult pieces of music. However, he 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, Tony can retain duplicated moves indefinitely. When facing an opponent, he has already studied countless 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 precisely as to fool voice recognition software although he must practice a voice to ensure he has perfected it enough to fool such devices.
	+ **Physical Movement Prediction:** Tony can also do things such as figuring out the sleight of hand techniques of a master poker cheater simply by watching them. He has often shown the ability to actually 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 Agility:** Due to his photographic reflexes, Tony can push his body past it's natural limits, allowing his agility to match that of Spider-Man and Daredevil's superhuman agility.
	+ **Superhuman Reflexes:** Due to Tony's photographic reflexes, his reaction speed is greater than that of a normal human. He easily caught a crescent blade thrown at him from behind 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 Speed:** Due to his photographic reflexes, Tony can push his body past it's 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 giving him a limited form of superhuman speed. However, he can only maintain his heightened state for minutes before risking temporarily physical damage to his body.

**Master Martial Artist:** Taskmaster is easily known as one of the greatest formidable armed and unarmed combatants in the Marvel Universe. He truly mastered all forms of martial arts including modern and historical styles, boxing, wrestling, swordsmanship, archery, marksmanship, juggling, gymnastics, aerial acrobatics, and sleight of hand. Taskmaster learned the personal fighting styles of countless individuals, such as: Ant-Man, Batroc the Leaper, Black Crow, Black Knight, Black Widow, Blazing Skull, Boomerang, Bushwacker, Black Panther, Captain America, Cat, Constrictor, Daredevil, Deadpool, The Destroyer, Elektra, Falcon, Hawkeye, Iron Fist, Iron Man, Moon Knight, MVP, Nomad, Oddball, Punisher, Silver Samurai, Redshirt, Shang Chi, Solo, Spider-Man, Swordsman, Tigra, Tombstone, Tumbler, US Agent, Warbird, Winter Soldier, Wolverine, Zaran, and many others. During the Siege on Asgard, Taskmaster's combat skills were shown to be so advanced that he easily defeated two Asgardian soldiers by outwitting them in both armed and unarmed combat. He has trained numerous of criminals in basic hand to hand combat.

* **Advanced Pedagogy** Given the number of students that he's taught, Taskmaster is adroit in training students in any of the many styles that he knows.

**Master Tactician:** Tony is a master strategist and tactician (seen particularly in combat with Iron Man and against both Captain Americas during the Siege of Asgard).

**Weapon Mastery:** Due to his powers and his use of different peoples' fighting styles, Tony has become a master in all melee weaponry, including swordsmanship from Black Knight and Silver Samurai. He has displayed skill with billy clubs from observing Daredevil, as well as knife fighting from Winter Soldier.

**Master Marksman:** Tony is a master in the fields of marksman. He has the marksmanship of Hawkeye, Punisher, and Bullseye. Tony also has self-marksman skills, making him extremely proficient with throwing projectile weapons, archery, and firearms.

**Master Assassin:** Tony is a master deadly assassin. Captain America has stated that Tony is considered to be one of the most dangerous men alive.

**Meditation:** Tony learned meditation techniques in Tibet that allow him to slow his breathing and heart rate and survive for extended periods of time without air, this also means that to the untrained eye he will appear to be dead. He also claims to have learned forensic methods from CIA Agents and Mossad Operatives.

**Physical Strength**: Tony is able to lift at least twice his body-weight, enabling him to lift 375 lbs.