Why Taskmaster is the Perfect Villain for Black Widow

Earlier this week, photos from the set of Black Widow surfaced online showing off a villain that looks an awful lot like Marvel’s Taskmaster. While the character’s involvement likely won’t be introduced until San Diego Comic-Con in a couple of weeks (if at all), we still think that the baddie is the perfect villain for Black Widow and here’s why.

Marvel often times falls into this situation where the antagonists of their films are perfect mirrors of the film’s main antagonist. Look at Iron Man and Obadiah Stane, or Iron Man and Whiplash, or Thor and Hela, or Black Panther and Erik Killmonger. How about Ant-Man, the Wasp, and Ghost or what about Captain Marvel and Yon-Rogg? You get the point. In that sense, Taskmaster is a lot like Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow.

An assassin by trade, Taskmaster isn’t a villain with an incredible powerset. For lack of a better description, he’s an assassin by trade and that in and of itself matches the creed and upbringing of one Natasha Romanoff. To add on top of that, Taskmaster is hyper-intellectual with a photographic memory and an uncanny ability to predict the moves of those he spars with. He’s super calculating a master marksman — an anti-Hawkeye if you will. Between all of that laid out right there, I’d say it’s enough to call him a mirror of Black Widow — wouldn’t you?

Taskmaster — or Tony Masters — also happens to be a master of disguise and if this movie takes place during Romanoff’s upbringing, that plot point to could speak volumes as to why she’s had issues with trust in the current era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Story-wise, the two don’t necessarily have much in common — they didn’t share origin stories or anything of the like. But there are plenty of ways you could introduce him to the film. You could introduce him as one of the instructors involved with the Red Room or he could be a competing assassin in Romanoff’s mercenary days. Or perhaps, maybe he was hired to “take care of” Romanoff in the time between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.

Do you think that was the MCU’s version of Taskmaster in those set photos this week? If not him, then who? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or by tweeting me at @AdamBarnhardt to chat all things MCU!

While it’s not confirmed, Black Widow will likely bow May 1, 2020. Avengers: Endgame has re-entered theaters for its second theatrical release ahead of the Spider-Man: Far From Home debut on July 2nd. Captain Marvel is now available wherever movies are sold.