A manacled Wasp, Yellowjacket and Ant-Man listen as Taskmaster demonstrates his skills battling some trainee henchmen, then explains his origins, describing how, as a child, he realized he could perfectly duplicate any physical feats of skill he witnessed after a single viewing. He used this ability to become a high school football star, then decided to turn his talents to crime to make money, setting up his training academies (see NOTE). He chastises Solomon for misusing the Institute’s equipment for his own ends, creating Selbe and drawing attention to the operation; a terrified Solomon dies of heart failure. Before he can deal with his prisoners, the Avengers smash through the wall, alerted to the captives’ predicament by ants signaled by Ant-Man. As they overpower his men, Taskmaster flees, battling past Iron Man and Cap, but Jocasta delays him long enough for the Avengers to catch up. Temporarily blinding them with a flare, he makes it to his aircraft and escapes. Impressed by her actions, Cap apologies to Jocasta for the group for often overlooking her, and promises that will change.
Taskmaster watched footage of heroes in action to learn their skills and fighting styles.
Letters page includes LoC from Kurt Busiek, future Marvel writer. Uncle Elmer’s real name is given in TM:WY #2, ’95. Task #3, ’11 reveals Taskmaster gained his powers as an adult, but that memorizing others’ moves overwrote his own memories, and that he lies to cover this up. Thus the childhood he describes here is a falsehood. His recollection of witnessing Spider-Man, Cap and Iron Fist’s fighting techniques is true, and presumably correspond to fights the heroes had, but insufficient detail is shown to allow for identifying those fights’ placements in those characters’ chronologies.
