CAPTAINS AMERICA versus TASKMASTER

The Hammer Falls Part 2 of 3 (Marvel)
Where: Avengers: The Initiative #34 When: May 2010 Why: Christos Gage How: Jorge Molina

The Story So Far...
When Tony Stark fought to bring about a new Superhero Registration Act -- he failed to fully consider what would happen if it all fell into the wrong hands!

A secret invasion by Skrulls allowed Norman Osborn to oust Iron Man and replace him as the "Iron Patriot" at the head of a reformed intelligence agency and Commission of Superhuman Activities.

In his hubris, Osborn conspires to bring about a siege on the City of Asgard that finally signals his dark reign has gone too far. Captain America returns to lead an assembly of Avengers against their dark counterparts, arriving just in time to join his temporary replacement against The Shadow Initiative's leader: Taskmaster!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Draw 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Draw 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Steve Rogers 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Steve Rogers 5 (Marathoner)
Agility: Steve Rogers 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Taskmaster 7 (Living Weapon)
Energy: Bucky Barnes 3 (Explosives)
Total: Steve Rogers 28 (Metahuman)

That isn't a misprint! We're getting two Captains America for the price of one!

Steve Rogers is fresh off an apparent assassination, and excursion through time, dropping-in on his temporary replacement, Bucky Barnes, for the ultimate All-American team-up!

We got a brief glimpse of the stand-in when the Secret Avengers took on The Hood in New Avengers #54, but Bucky is best known as Cap's World War II fighting buddy who was thought dead until he reemerged as Winter Soldier.

The duo are taking on a classic Steve Rogers rival who's studied all his moves and learned to imitate them exactly!

Taskmaster possesses "photographic reflexes" that allow him to utilize the fighting techniques of anyone he observes. Cap is one of Taskmaster's stock favourites, leading him to frequently travel with a similar disc-shaped shield. He also favours the swordplay of Black Knight and the marksmanship of Hawkeye.

This intimate understanding of fighting styles means Taskmaster can anticipate and counter familiar studies, but therein lies a potential weakness.

Deadpool #2 showed that an unfamiliar and unpredictable opponent can get the drop on Taskmaster, negating some of his expertise. Deadpool's penchant for absurdity helped him win that fight, and again in Cable & Deadpool #36.

Bucky's programming as a Russian assassin means he's a very different fighter to Cap, and although we learned of a secret history involving well known characters, it's entirely possible he never encountered Taskmaster as The Winter Soldier!

Even if their activities did lead to a meeting, we can't forget that Taskmaster is a supreme fighter -- but he isn't infallible. Moon Knight once used the shock & awe of crashing a plane and staring down death to bamboozle him. It's entirely possible the teamwork of Captain America and Bucky could lead to defeat!

The Tape: Steve Rogers & Bucky Barnes Ranking: Steve Rogers (#7)

What Went Down...

Avengers fall out of the sky like raindrops across the battlefield and Taskmaster begins weighing up his options. A besieged Norman "Iron Patriot" Osborn spells a back-up plan that could keep him in favour with powerful friends -- win or lose.

With shield raised, Taskmaster rushes to Osborn's aid, charging towards an attacking Captain America who doesn't see it coming.

Fortunately for the recently returned hero his erstwhile replacement has his back covered and opens fire!

Taskmaster blocks the bullets with his shield and raises his sword to challenge the original Captain America.

The mercenary has been looking forward to a rematch with his old nemesis, as well as the professional opportunity to outdo Crossbones by killing the legendary hero with more permanence than his previous assassination.

Cap responds dismissively, so Taskmaster aims to make a lasting impression, continuing to deflect Bucky's gunfire as he slashes his sword across Captain America's defending shield.

A break in the shooting gives Taskmaster the opportunity to turn the tide of battle. With a single pivot he smacks Cap in the face with with his shield, and hurls his sword at Bucky with enough accuracy to knock the pistol from his hand!

Cap recovers quickly and takes advantage of the turn by sinking his knee into Taskmaster's exposed mid-section!

He remembers Taskmaster and his "photographic reflexes" all too well, and reasons that Bucky's lost decades could present a completely unknown opponent for the mimicking fighter.

Bucky tags in and introduces the mercenary to a very different kind of Captain America, brandishing Taskmaster's own sword against him!

For a moment the attack catches Taskmaster by surprise, but as the newest Captain America takes up the offensive, he begins to recognize the man fighting beneath the red, white, and blue. He's studied many World War II newsreels, and as impossible as it may seem, he knows this is Cap's long dead sidekick: Bucky!

Armed with this knowledge, Taskmaster swings his shield just so to knock the sword out of Bucky's hand, and clip him across the chin!

Bucky rallies with an assurance that Taskmaster and his allies will pay for what they've done to America during the dark reign of their administration.

"The flag. This country. The public trust. And for what you and your kind have done to them... I'M TAKING YOU DOWN!"

Taskmaster invites him to try, and the stand-in Captain America responds with seemingly reckless abandon -- charging directly into the line of Taskmaster's downward swinging sword!

The soldier blocks the sword strike with his right forearm -- hiding beneath his uniform the cyborg legacy of his days as The Winter Soldier!

Taskmaster seems unfazed by this revelation, but isn't so nonchalant when a flash in the sky signals the arrival of The Hood and his Cabal.

Bucky presumes the villain is receiving reinforcements, but Taskmaster notes the fighter jets already shooting down the HAMMER Helicarrier. Distractions enough to bring their skirmish to an end as the chaos brings the City of Asgard towards total destruction.

The Hammer...

There's direct overlap between the action seen in Avengers: The Initiative #34 and the concurrent events of Siege #3, but to the best of my knowledge todays featured fight ends as described. You could presume The Sentry's razing of Asgard is the capper.

With only one issue remaining: The Initiative creative team had to juggle contemporary concerns of the Dark Reign era, while also trying to give adequate send-off to some of the B and C list characters who were specific to the series, some since its beginning as a spin-off coming out of Civil War. The result is a slightly disjointed issue of a slightly disjointed series.

Taskmaster was first installed by Henry Peter Gyrich in Avengers: The Initiative #8 as a drill instructor at Camp Hammond. He was to train new recruits brought into the Fifty State Initiative by the government's Superhero Registration Act, kept in line by the threat of exploding nanobots supposedly implanted in his brain.

TM became a bigger focus for the series once he was made field leader of the black-ops Shadow Initiative unit in issue #20. This positioned him perfectly to serve the interests of Norman Osborn, who assumed command of the Fifty State Initiative after he leveraged the events of Secret Invasion to replace an indicted Tony Stark as the head of America's military and intelligence agencies.

That all might sound dreadfully complicated, but like most of these things, it's really a pick 'n' mix situation.

You only need to understand the story you're reading, and you can read as little or as much as you like. These other events add background and larger context to the lay of the land, but they're really not essential to understanding the series, or the story as told from the perspective of Taskmaster.

Siege ostensibly brings an end to the cascading circumstances that were roughly started with Avengers Disassembled, and really got going in Civil War.

The event was essentially designed to put all the pieces back together, bringing Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man back onto the same page after a half decade of sidelining and opposition. Thor had been back amongst the living for a while, but kept to himself, while Cap returned from his apparent assassination at the end of Civil War, having actually rattled around in time rather than death.

The curious irony of Siege is that, although it was arguably the most tightly arranged of Marvel's events -- tying related issues directly to the main battle in the Siege mini-series -- it results in one of the most insubstantial of the era.

Background characters suggest some of the action occurring in other Siege series, but Jorge Molina's pencils are swamped in a necessary palette that ties everything together with a monotonous wash of explosions occurring in the main title.

I like the detail of Taskmaster's deep understanding of fighting styles allowing him to identify Bucky Barnes beneath the shiny new Captain America costume. I'm a little less clear why, if this is their first meeting, he doesn't note any surprise that Bucky blocked a sword strike with his forearm. It seems like there's time, but a lot of other things are happening.

The goal of telling micro-stories inextricably linked to a single conflict and place was an intriguing one. It plays to the fantasy of telling a superhero war epic that goes back to Secret Wars, and maybe earlier. Siege may even achieve the genuine sensation of being on the frontlines, but its narrow focus makes everything feel small and just a little inconsequential.

I tend to think Final Crisis achieved a similar result without losing its sense of scope and grandeur. Siege benefits from having clearer long term goals, but even they manage to feel small and perfunctory. Its more of an end than a beginning, and we already knew what to expect long before it arrived.

What followed for Marvel Comics was less a return to good old character-driven comics, and more of a meandering freefall. Siege feels like the first chapter in the next ten years of scattershot comics. They chose to return to the event format shortly after, and each installment seemed more like Siege - "important" by design, but insubstantial and easily skipped by impression.

At some point I imagine I'll return to the main Siege series to take a closer look at its most significant battles. In the mean time, if you'd like to draw your own conclusions about the 2010 event you can check out collected editions of Siege: Avengers - The Initiative and Siege via Amazon links embedded below.

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Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has featured more than 600 battles and ranked over 1000 characters! You can find them all by diving into the Secret Archive for a complete index of featured fights in order of publisher, series, and issue number -- or discover more by following topical links found in each article!

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Winner: Inconclusive (Draw)
#7 (--) Captain America (Steve Rogers)
#58 (--) Captain America (Bucky Barnes)
#991 (+2) Taskmaster

THE SHADOW INITIATIVE versus ROUGHHOUSE & BLOODSCREAM
Avengers: The Initiative Disassembled Part 4 (Marvel)
Where: Avengers: The Initiative #24 When: July 2009
Why: Christos N. Gage How: Humberto Ramos

The Story So Far...
When tragedy claimed the lives of hundreds of children in Stamford, Connecticut, the reckless superheroics of the New Warriors were blamed for instigating the violence perpetrated by the villain, Nitro. Thus, the call to register and police the use of superpowers became the championed cause of Tony Stark, aka; Iron Man.

Whilst battling his heroic opponents in the streets, Stark pushed forward the Superhero Registration Act which helped usher in the Fifty States Initiative -- a program to train young heroes under experienced veterans and guarantee the presence of a superhero team in every American state.

Within the Initiative organization itself is a secretive special operatives branch dubbed the Shadow Initiative. Their activities remain top secret and denied by all levels of the Initiative, allowing them to operate in secret for specific missions. Such an objective leads the group, under the leadership of Taskmaster, to Madripoor, where they track the traitorous Initiative alumnist, Hardball. With the Initiative closing down under assumed control by Norman Osborn, the Shadow group are on their own against the mercenaries of a town without law.

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Roughhouse 5 (Superhuman)
Intelligence: Taskmaster 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Bengal 4 (Olympian)
Stamina: Bloodscream 7 (Unstoppable)
Agility: Bengal 3 (Acrobat)
Fighting: Taskmaster 7 (Living Weapon)
Energy: Typhoid Mary 4 (Arsenal)


- The Shadow Initiative are: Taskmaster, Constrictor, Bengal, & Typhoid Mary.

With the appointment of Tony Stark as Director of SHIELD on the back of plans to register and train all known super-powered heroes, the Fifty States Initiative is passed to ensure a superhero team for every American state. The Initiative pays special attention to the next generation of heroes, erecting a training facility in Stamford, where the tragedy that sparked concerns about hero registration first occurred. Camp Hammond was named after the late Human Torch and is decicated to training the next wave of American heroes.

Within the Initiative organization itself is a secret special operative unit dubbed the Shadow Initiative. The original line-up included Bengal, Trauma, Constrictor, Mutant Zero, and the Scarlet Spiders. Their activities are strictly denied by the Initiative, which, upon the dissolving of SHIELD after Tony Stark was ousted by Norman Osborn under allegations of corruption, leaves the group stranded in the field under the leadership of late recruit, Taskmaster.

- Born in sixteenth century London; Zachariah Ravenscraft served as a physician on board a ship captained by Sir Francis Drake. During a battle with the Spanish galleon, Ravenscraft was mortally wounded and forced to seek the medical aid of a shaman named Dagoo. Using the mystic arts of necromancy, Dagoo saved the surgeon's life with a potion that transformed him into an undying creature similar to that of a living vampire. As Bloodscream, Ravenscraft lives an immortal life, using his powers to nefarious ends, whilst ever searching for the blood of an immortal to complete the potion to restore his humanity at the price of mortality.

Roughhouse is descended from a race of Asgardian trolls, but the details of his origins remain unknown. He possesses the superhuman strength and endurance associated with his lineage, but is said to carry the scars of an abusive childhood beneath his shaggy exterior.

Bloodscream and Roughhouse formed a working partnership on the island of Madripoor, where they were employed as muscle for the crime boss, General Coy. Despite being defeated in Madripoor by Wolverine, the pair have renewed their partnership throughout the years, working as mercenaries and arch-rivals of the clawed mutant.

Math: Shadow Initiative (Ttl) Bloodscream (Avg) Ranking: Constrictor (#566)

What Went Down...
A deluge of rain floods the streets of Madripoor where the members of the secret Shadow Initiative come face-to-face with the mercenary characters that populate this lawless town. Bloodscream & Roughhouse - a pseudo-vampire and troll - old names in the ranks of Madripoor's rogues and hoods.

Barrelling down on the squad leader, Roughhouse sends Taskmaster hurtling into the surrounding urban facade, shrugging off the coiled grappling of former villain-for-hire, the Constrictor. His rampage continues in the direction of the source of the metallic tendrils -- leading Constrictor to wrap his coils around the troll's throat.

Meanwhile, Bengal and Typhoid Mary contend with the vampire-like menace of Bloodscream, whose immortal condition allows him to withstand multiple lethal blows from the sword-wielding femme fatale.

Bloodscream, duelling blade-to-blade with Mary, succeeds in disarming her of the deadly katana, but with a killing blow in sight, his ignorance of Mary's unique abilities prove his folly. Utilizing her pyro-telekinesis, she summons her sword, cutting off Bloodscream's head along with his finishing stike.

With their adversaries seemingly subdued; the Shadow Initiative are forced to come to terms with their predicament as an abandoned cell amidst SHIELD's disassembly. With an entire island of mercenaries, and Hydra on their tail, the group face overwhelming odds, but as Bloodscream soon informs them, they are yet to completely overcome their present opposition.

The pseudo-vampire reattaches his head and attacks an unsuspecting Typhoid Mary. By snatching her arm, he invites a psychological break from the unstable assassin. She ignites the villain and herself with her pyrokinetic flames.

The assault levels yet another potentially lethal attack on Bloodscream, whilst forcing Taskmaster to turn his attentions on a teammate. Effectively victorious, the master fighter calms Mary and orders Constrictor to relinquish his dominance over Roughhouse, redirecting concerns to a conclusion. No longer bound to SHIELD, the group suggest a truce, defecting to HYDRA -- or so it seems...

The Hammer...
Admittedly, the aftermath of the fight presents something of a stalemate scenario, but based on the battle, we declare the Shadow Initiative victorious! Special note: Taskmaster and Bengal didn't get real involved in the scrap, so we'll put them down as assists.

It's nice to finally get competition for June underway after a string of delays pushed this writing back to the start of August. Content is content, in my opinion, but it would be nice if we could gradually work toward being contemporary in our references. I like to think slightly obscure issues such as this will be a valued resource to future readers, but right now, you're probably more interested in more current developments. Assuming, of course, you're actually reading Avengers: The Initiative.

A couple of years into publication, it seems obvious that The Initiative is one of those sleeper titles people will talk about in the future. Born out of the squabble event of Civil War, the series has managed to touch upon each significant Marvel event since, making it one of the most relevant titles to the pulse of the Marvel Universe. Secret Invasion set-up Norman Osborn's rise to power in Dark Reign, a political scenario that connects very specifically to this series, and appears to be right at the top of the agenda of Year Three of the series.

If there was a strength to this title from day-one, it was it's inherent connection to high-concept reflections of Marvel's editorially driven events. Over the past few years, it's been DC that have taken control of their universe-wide "continuity," connecting sequential consequence in ways once considered the domain of Marvel, but no longer. The Initiative is the custodian of this notion, creating many of it's own unique curiosities, (such as the Iron Spiders), whilst remaining a constant reflection of the shifting sands of the shared universe around it.

I have to admit, this has been one of those series that's krept into my frame of interest with regularity, but constantly fell relegated to more "significant" titles through financial elimination. Finally, a quiet week persuaded me to lay down the comparatively reasonable $2.99US, in the interest of getting an overdue taste.

Like the old ham I am, I was attracted to the combination of the six characters involved in today's feature battle. Taskmaster in particular is one of those characters that's long called for a regular role, but for whatever reason, has regularly been overlooked by the powers-that-be. It might've taken a complete overhaul of the political landscape of the Marvel U -- one that's inevitably to be short-lived, probably not far into 2010 -- but at least it finally happened. Makes good sense, too, given Taskmaster's history as a trainer (of folks like USAgent).

I don't know how well it syncs up with their previous developments, but it's also a lot of fun to drift back into the grimey world of Madripoor and bump into forgotten B-listers like Bloodscream and Roughhouse. Particularly in a year that featured Wolverine under the film-inspired spotlight, it's kinda cool to know these slightly cheesy nineties icons are still running around to be used in the future. It's the kind of attention you like to see from the corporates, actually taking full advantage of their lengthy history and universe of characters. Bloodscream might not be a trademark cashcow any time soon, but we seem to have gotten past our phase of eighties-inspired urban stoicism to indulge again in the magic of comics.

Much like Dark Avengers; Avengers: The Initiative will now effectively extend the Thunderbolts concept as Norman Osborn holds his Dark Reign over the Marvel Universe. Whether or not the wolf-in-sheeps-clothing era will be the end of this series remains in the hands of Marvel's dedication to utilizing the unique nature of the series, and promoting it sufficiently. Christos Gage and Humberto Ramos, as creative names in a sychophantic market, are a pretty decent vote of confidence for the title, following Dan Slott and his collaborators.

Ramos' kinetic cartoon style probably won't endear to traditionalists, but this is the kind of title that's arguably laying the foundations for future generations of readers. Osmosis on the internet has probably led a lot of youngsters to adopt the cross-eyed confusion of those who genuinely struggle with the concept of the shared superhero universe, but those more open-minded cartoon networkers are exactly the kind of demographic that Ramos' style could speak to -- inducting them into the Marvel Universe with some of the most interesting tangential characters. Which is how many of us got into this gig twenty-or-more years ago.

For the modern-traditionalists, if you're knee-deep in Dark Reign and considering the Initiative, it might just be worth your while to check this out. 'Cause with a special ops team all to his own, y'just know Osborn's going to get up to no good!

The Fight: 3.5 The Issue: 4.5

To get the whole transition of The Initiative from SHIELD control, to HAMMER, check out the Disassembled collection available in hardcover, and soft TPB at the end of the year. By taking the initiative to use Amazon purchase links provided on the site, you help sponsor future entries of the Infinite Wars. You'll find plenty more collections in the Gift Shop, which features editions containin most issues reviewed in the Secret Archives. Thank you for your patience.