Fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have been waiting more than a year now for Black Widow, a film that was originally set to debut last May. While we still have to wait a couple more months to see the film, a collection of brand new character posters were dropped online and since there's nothing else to talk about, fans are making their own fun. Right now, that fun is focused on Taskmaster, who is a character who is as mysterious as he is, awesome, or hilarious, depending on your point-of-view.
Whether the live-action design for Taskmaster is "good" or not seems to be an open question. Some fans seem to love the design, while others really do not. This poster gives us our best look yet at the character, which is very much going for the comic book accurate skull that the character is usually portrayed with. For some, this really seems to work.
However, not everybody seems to have the same opinion. While the look of Taskmaster in the comics, with a skull for a face, works fine in that medium, it doesn't really work in the same way in the Marvel Cinematic Universe where things are, if only slightly, more "real." So this Taskmaster is wearing armor and he has what appears to be a helmet that is also designed to look like a skull. For some it feels more like the knockoff, generic version of the character than the brand name.
Overall the Marvel Cinematic Universe has done a stellar job of bringing comic book characters from the page to the screen in a way that has worked remarkably well, but nobody is perfect. Taskmaster was going to be a difficult character to work with and people have had very different opinions of the level of success ever since he first appeared in the marketing materials. It's possible the look will work better in the movie than it does in a simple poster, though some are pointing out it might work even better in a popular video game. And let's be honest, at the rate at which Fortnite is collecting characters from films and TV, there's a better than even chance this character is going to appear in Fornite looking just like this before too long.
However, there are some people who are actually looking at a very different poster in the recent Black Widow collection. While most are looking at the Taskmaster poster, others have their eye on the character poster of British actor O.T. Fagbenle. The other five characters that have been given their own poster are suited up like your normal Marvel heroes, or villains,, while Fagbenle, who plays the role of Rick Mason, a former contact of Black Widow, is just a dude in jeans. This has led many to suspect that he could actually be Taskmaster.
Whatever you think of Taskmaster, you'll be able to make your final decisions on whether the look works when the movie hits theaters and Disney+ Premiere Access on July 9.
