Given their place as one of the best fighters in Marvel's comic world, I'm still surprised at how the MCU timeline naturally has had some complications along the way as a result. With so much to focus on and so many interconnecting threads and storyline to balance, one common complaint with the MCU is that it leaves major storylines, cliffhangers, and characters unaddressed for years.
While this can lead to some major payoffs - like cliffhangers getting answers when you least expect them, or storylines tying into one another in ways that enhance both of them - it also means sometimes aspects of the overarching story can have some unfortunate aspects and dimensions. This ends up being the case for one character in the MCU, despite their immense potential for the franchise's fight scenes, and despite the fact they have a central role in two Marvel movies in the timespan of close to half a decade.
Taskmaster's Introduction In Black Widow Didn't Get Time To Show Who The Character Is
Black Widow's Story Leaves Us With Little Info About Taskmaster By Its End
The MCU took Taskmaster's story in a different direction to the comics - making the character instead the daughter of the overseer of the Red Room training facility, General Dreykov, who controlled his own child's mind so he could turn her into a perfect weapon for him via a chip he had implanted in her. While different, this premise is one that had real potential for the MCU, and allowed Taskmaster's story to be more immediately tied to Black Widow's story while also providing a more sympathetic picture of the character that suggested a redemption arc could be possible for her.
Black Widow did provide Taskmaster some big action scenes, and brought some big changes in the character's life via freeing her from the General's control, but limited Taskmaster's on-screen potential by giving us very little time to see Antonia Dreykov acting under her own free will or volition, meaning we end the movie knowing incredibly little about the character. With minimal looks at Taskmaster's personality, motivations, or whether she'd serve as a villain or hero going forward, the character is reduced to almost feeling like a plot device to some degree, tampering with how interesting her premise is.
Though this seemed something of a shame, it was one that appeared like it could and would be addressed later down the line, since future releases could show what Taskmaster was like when not controlled by the chip in her neck, and delve into the character's own motivations and story going forward as a seeming free agent. Ultimately, it may be the fact that Black Widow seemed to so much be the start of a larger story for Taskmaster that made her second appearance all the more surprising.
Thunderbolts* Arguably Got Even Less Time With Taskmaster
Taskmaster's Story Seems To End Early In Thunderbolts*
Thunderbolts* killing off Taskmaster does make sense for its story, as it underlines that the team are comprised of more grounded assassin and super-soldier types than the likes of the Hulk or Thor. Indeed, this moment shows just how different the story of the group that will become The New Avengers is from the original MCU Avengers, since a character who was promoted to be a prospective part of the team is instead murdered in its opening scenes.
However, the fact this makes sense for the story doesn't erase the fact that it finishes Taskmaster's arc in a way that prevents any further exploration or more significant narrative beats. With Black Widow seeming to tee up Taskmaster's story for bigger things and a chance to actually delve into Antonia as a character down the line, seeing Taskmaster be killed by Ghost early in the movie when the main cast are all sent to kill each other by Valentina works to surprise the viewer, but also cements the wasted potential of the character.
This is particularly true since it means she barely gets chance to say more than three lines in her entire 4-year-long MCU story, and no real opportunity to show her fighting skills off in Thunderbolts* itself. Though it doesn't seem there would have been time to include more of her battle prowess - since there isn't really an opportunity to kill her off the same later, and a longer battle would have derailed pacing - this means we see very little of a character that Marvel and the MCU hype up as one of the franchise's most naturally gifted fighters using her abilities while in control of herself.
Similarly, the teased potential of Yelena and Taskmaster discussing and commiserating over the events of Black Widow (and Natasha's later death) are glossed over, with Antonia barely seeming to react to seeing Yelena despite their extremely complicated history. Given Belova both helped save Taskmaster from a lifetime of servitude at her father's hands years prior and also is the adoptive sister of sorts of the woman who tried to kill Antonia along with her father to begin with, there seems to have been a lot of narrative potential that goes unused as a result.
The MCU's Taskmaster Story Misses Out On A Lot Of The Character's Potential
Taskmaster's Comic Stories Aren't Fully Reflected In The MCU Character's Limited Story
Given the extensive comic history Taskmaster has had during the almost 50-year-long stretch that the character has been a part of Marvel's story, the fact the MCU's version of this story appears to end after having barely begun seems somewhat surreal. As a character who is a perfect opponent to almost any other MCU figure, it seemed like Taskmaster could have worked for a massive range of roles and served as a Swiss Army knife of sorts for when the MCU needed to present a challenge to one of their heroes or villains.
With Black Widow leaving it vague as to whether the actual person behind the Taskmaster mask was a hero or villain, it also seemed there was real potential in of exploring Antonia as a more morally ambiguous character, which the MCU has had great success with between characters like Loki or Agatha Harkness. Instead, Taskmaster's story ends up a footnote in the annals of MCU history, and one that seems at least a bit of a waste, even if the circumstances behind it do make sense.
Thunderbolts*
- Release Date
- May 2, 2025
- Runtime
- 127 minutes
- Director
- Jake Schreier
- Writers
- Eric Pearson, Joanna Calo
- Producers
- Kevin Feige
Cast
Yelena Belova
Bucky Barnes
- Franchise(s)
- Marvel Cinematic Universe
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