APPROVED: BACKGROUND_1 Origin
There is little in the way of officially history on the mercenary known as Taskmaster, only that, as a young child, he was found to be exceptionally gifted in an unusual way. Possessing an advanced and alternate form of photographic memory called "photographic reflexes", the young Tony Masters learned he was capable of copying nearly any physical action he can see, instinctively replicating the action with little effort. He also learned how to expand upon these copied abilities, able to perform variations of them with time, until he could use them as if they were his own.
After using his powers for his own personal gain in his younger years, the man who would become Taskmaster instead chose to involve himself in criminal activities, as they were far more lucrative than more noble intentions of other individuals with gifts, such as Batman and other non-powered superheroes. After several confrontations with various 'heroes', the Taskmaster was born, and he adopted his trademark costume, and began to use his photographic reflexes and an advanced serum found in one of his heists to become fairly successful as a mercenary. He spent much of his time earning high-dollar contracts training combatants for various groups and governments, even doing a stint training some members of the CIA and FBI in exchange for amnesty from his crimes.
After the events of release of powers held by The Spectre, Taskmaster sees a whole new wide world of opportunities in the various powered beings…namely more people to work for, more people to learn from, and overall, something more interesting.
APPROVED: PSY1 Honor
Taskmaster possesses a sense of honor when it comes to repaying his debts, as he frequently assists those who have done a favor for him, especially if the favor earned him a paycheck.
APPROVED: PSY2 Greedy
Taskmaster is somewhat greedy, frequently taking on jobs just for the large paycheck attached. He has been known to do jobs pro bono, but those frequently come with fringe benefits, like presidential pardons, and access to advanced technology.
APPROVED: PSY3 Motivation
Being primarily motivated by his want to craft a reputation and the warm, fuzzy feeling of a bank account in the millions, Taskmaster enjoys doing what he wants, generally.
APPROVED: PSY4 Goals
Taskmaster's goal is to acquire large amounts of wealth, assemble a lifetime's worth of knowledge of the fighting styles of various heroes, villains, super-sorts, and non-super sorts, train a bunch of lackeys that belong to someone else for an exorbitant amount of money, and preferrably retire on a beach somewhere before getting too filled full of bullets and broken bones.
APPROVED: POW1 Photographic Reflexes
Taskmaster's photographic reflexes are less a super-power and more a quirk of his brain and physiology. After observing any individual, he is able to replicate their movements, effectively instantly transmitting what he sees into intrinsic muscle memory, assimilated at amazing speed. This skill can be used practically, such as copying a variety of fighting styles from various beings, to the more mundane, such as watching a violinist and being able to play an extremely complicated and advanced musical piece on the instrument with no effort. Taskmaster is also able to assimilate this knowledge by watching people through visual mediums, such as television or videotape/DVD to commit their skills to memory. Even extraordinarily fine muscle movements can be copied, such as the movement of vocal cords to copy a voice accurately enough to fool voice recognition software.
APPROVED: ADV1 Loaded
Taskmaster is quite finanically well off, though not nearly as much as he would like to be. He wealth measures in the millions, though a significant portion of it is tied up in his gadgets and in bribes to several influential figures to keep him out of jail.
APPROVED: ADV2 SHIELD
Taskmaster has contacts in SHIELD, and has done work for them in the past, the rewards of such having gotten him out of several unpleasant situations.
APPROVED: ADV3 AIM
Taskmaster has trained a great deal of AIM's soldiers in combat techniques, and therefore has earned quite a few favors from the organization.
APPROVED: ADV4 HYDRA
Taskmaster has trained a great deal of HYDRA's soldiers in combat techniques, and therefore has earned quite a few favors from the organization.
APPROVED: SKILL1 Omnicombat
Taskmaster has studied the fighting styles of almost every martial art in existance that he has been able to get access to, whether in video or in person. He possesses a wealth of combat styles from various super beings, making it his life's work to do so. He is trained in nearly every conceivable weapon that has been seen or used, barring extremely exotic arms and armor…but this is frequently irrelevant as he picks up on their use instinctually through his photographic reflexes.
APPROVED: SKILL2 Olympian Build
Taskmaster has his body in peak physical condition, his constant training keeping him on the edge of human physical perfection, operating at the Olympic or beyond stage in his physical abilities. He would easily win most events at the Olympic games.
APPROVED: SKILL3 Polyglot
Taskmaster is able to commit 8 languages to memory at any one given time, and these frequently change as needed.
APPROVED: SKILL4 Military Training
Taskmaster has received military grade training equivalent to SEAL level in military skills such as marksmanship, survival, repelling, skydiving, long-distance swimming, running, and military tactics. He is also familiar with the use of military-grade aircraft and land vehicles, such as fighter jets, bombers, helicopters (both transport and attack), cargo planes, hovercrafts, and various other sundry vehicles (Jeeps, etc).
APPROVED: SKILL5 Explosives
Taskmaster is also intimately familiar with explosive devices of all sorts, running the gamut from homemade IEDs to military grade fuel-air bombs to C4.
APPROVED: FLAW1 I'm Only a Man
Taskmaster's abilities, while bordering on the superhuman, aren't actually. He is limited in his abilities to replicate what a human in his condition could accomplish, leaving feats such as lifting cars and flying firmly out of his reach. While he is capable of blurring the lines between human and superhuman by copying hyper-fast movements, he cannot do so for long, as he only possesses the human limit for endurance.
APPROVED: FLAW2 Memory Loss
As a side effect of the serum that he took to enhance his abilities, and his photographic reflexes, Taskmaster suffers from frequent memory loss. He is able to retain his combat knowledge and other instinctual/intuitive knowledge, but at the expense of forgetting conversations he had a few days ago, or not remembering that he was married and has a child.
Taskmaster isn't a particularly well known public figure, and he likes it that way. Those with criminal connections would likely know of a man who calls himself the Taskmaster who does mercenary jobs if the paycheck is right. He's also known to be a maddening opponent for law enforcement and "low-level" supers due to some yet unknown ability.
Those who have connections with SHIELD, AIM, and/or HYDRA, however, know a great deal more. Taskmaster is a mercenary, of course, but does most of his work training various henchmen/agents for those organizations, as well as for other various governments and paramilitary groups. He's rated a high class threat by SHIELD, as he has been able to best a significant portion of their agents with little effort.
