The Taskmaster is one of Marvel’s biggest villains and will transition to the MCU in the “Black Widow” movie…but he still has his weaknesses.
Warning: The following article contains spoilers for Taskmaster #1 by Jed MacKay, Alessandro Vitti, Guru-eFX, and VC’s Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
Taskmaster is a terrifying villain. He’s encountered a number of high profile heroes and has beaten many of them thanks to his photographic reflexes: whatever he sees someone do, he can imitate perfectly. This makes him incredibly formidable, as he has all the physical prowess of the heroes he has previously faced. And yet, despite all of his amazing skills and combat experience, Taskmaster suffers from maladies that no amount of reflexes can fix. In Taskmaster #1, the super-skilled mercenary reveals he has yet another weakness to deal with.
While playing in a Maggia-run golf tournament, Taskmaster is attacked by an unknown assailant. He manages to escape but just barely, thanks to the intervention of Nick Fury. Fury explains that the reason for the attack is simple: Maria Hill has been murdered and Taskmaster’s shield was found at the crime scene. The problem with this is that Taskmaster claims that he didn’t do it. Fury believes him and decides to help Taskmaster clear his name in order to find Hill’s true killer. Taskmaster falls asleep during their drive to an undisclosed lab and it’s during this drive that Fury notices that Taskmaster suffers from sleep apnea.
As incredibly unassuming as it may sound, sleep-apnea is a tough ailment to deal with, especially for a trained assassin like Taskmaster. Aside from the well-known symptoms such as difficulty breathing during sleep, sleep apnea can also cause high blood pressure, difficulty concentrating during the day, daytime sleepiness, and abrupt mood changes including depression and irritability. While it might seem like a rather innocuous condition to have, and a fairly simple one to fix with the use of breathing strips at night, that information in the wrong hands could mean Taskmaster’s life.