- Who's hiding behind Taskmaster's mask
in Marvel's Black Widow?
Monday might not have been the best day for Jared Leto,
because what should have been a home run for him,
the release of the first trailer for
his own Marvel movie Morbius appeared to be
all but overshadowed by the Oscar nominations
given to Joaquin Phoenix for Joker,
as well as a brand new look at the next
Marvel cinematic universe film Black Widow.
So, better luck next time Jared.
But luckily for fans that special look at Black Widow
gave audiences a better on screen look
at the film's villain, Taskmaster.
And this is reinvigorated a popular theory
about who could be behind the mask,
and there's a couple different takes on it,
so let's get into this.
But first, a spoiler warning,
because this episode is gonna be getting into
exactly that sort of territory.
So if you're sticking around, give us a like and subscribe,
otherwise, just plug your ears and subscribe anyway.
Now first of all, who is Taskmaster?
Well yes, I mean that's kind of the point of this episode,
but let's explain who the character is
a little bit in the comics.
Now Taskmaster first appeared in The Avengers back in 1980.
He's mainly a villain, though sometimes he's portrayed
as either an antihero or just a mercenary for hire.
But what makes him so special beyond his
sick ass skull mask and his cool outfit,
are his photographic reflexes.
It's an ability that lets old Tasky boy imitate
the physicality and movements of any person he sees.
And it looks like Taskmaster's gonna be
using this ability to good effect in Black Widow.
In the first trailer we see old Tasky boy
use a bow and arrow similar to Hawkeye,
and in the latest look we see Taskmaster
using a shield, in a way that we can't help
but be reminded of a character called Captain America.
Should imitate America's ass.
- That is America's ass.
- Now it's also important to note that while
Taskmaster might have used the alias Tony Masters,
from Brooklyn I guess,
it's never been absolutely confirmed in the comics,
and it could just be a clever rouse
to conceal Taskmaster's real identity.
Now all of this brings us back to that special look
where we see Natasha Romanoff face off against Taskmaster,
who's copying her moves in real time.
And she gives a very pointed line reading of...
- Who the hell is that guy?
- Who is this guy?
Fans immediately clocked this as odd,
and were quick to point out that this
felt like a misdirect for several reasons.
The first of which being that Marvel
is the king of trailer misdirects like Thor's eye,
Hulk in Wakanda during Infinity War,
Spider-Man's various suits in Far From Home,
the list goes on and on.
And this has reignited two fan theories
that Taskmaster isn't a guy at all.
Now the first option of who could be
behind Taskmaster's task mask is really
another person that we've seen in this trailer,
specifically Melina Vostokoff, played by Rachel Weisz.
While Melina's known as Iron Maiden in the comics,
Rachel Weisz described her character to us at Comic Con
as having gone through the Black Widow training
in the red room five times.
- Melina, my character, has been cycled through
the red room Black Widow system five times,
which is quite a lot of times.
She's a spy and an assassin and she's involved
in some scientific work.
- That's too many times.
Now this would certainly give her
the intense physical prowess we see
on display from Taskmaster in the trailer.
And it's a safe bet that Taskmaster's identity
is gonna be a major part of this movie,
and that identity will mean something personal to Natasha,
whether it's someone from her past
or someone we've seen before in the MCU.
Now we're leaning more towards Natasha's past
because this film is a prequel,
and it's probably gonna be a bit more self contained
than what we've seen previously.
Although, if they did reveal that Hawkeye
was secretly a villain this whole time,
well we'd be on board for that,
but really, the real villain here is whoever
gave Hawkeye that god awful haircut in Endgame.
Just a war crime on his head.
However, there's still a couple of hiccups to this theory,
specifically in the comics, Melina is already Iron Maiden,
definitely not Taskmaster.
And, it appears that in the new look at the film,
Melina is in her white suit in the same location
we see Red Guardian fighting Taskmaster.
So unless she's mastered the art of
the quick costume change, or if they revisit
this facility a few times throughout the movie,
well things are adding up she might not be old Taskmaster.
Unless, this second fan theory proves to be true,
and it's that Taskmaster is not this guy
but in fact there are multiple Taskmasters in the movie.
And this could be an explanation for Taskmaster
being able to have such a wide array of skills.
Now the trailers do show a new generation
of Black Widows being trained,
so maybe the advantage of having a masked villain
is that anybody can swap in as needed,
and this opens up the possibility that
multiple people in the movie are also a Taskmaster.
So you get to be a Taskmaster,
and you get to be a Taskmaster,
everyone gets to be a Taskmaster.
Wouldn't that be a perfect twist for an action thriller
about Black Widow, everyone's the villain?
Well we'll just have to wait and see
if any of these theories actually hold water
about Taskmaster's identity when the film
finally comes out this May.
But in the meantime, tell me, what do you folks think?
Is Taskmaster someone we already know?
Is it just some rando Brooklynite named Tony Masters?
Ey, gabagool, I'm tasking here.
And, do you expect to see any other
MCU cameos in Black Widow?
Iron Man, Spider-Man, anyone?
Let's discuss.
Thank you so much for watching.
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