Vigil Posted December 18, 2005 Report Share Posted December 18, 2005 In the fine tradition of polling and in the spirit of "what if?" here's another match up made in comic book heaven. In one corner you have Deathstroke the Terminator. Everyone knows him, here, and knows what he's cpable of doing. To make it really interesting let's say this is the Deathstroke from Identity Crisis. That's Slade at his baddest. In the other corner, you have the Taskmaster, that little known forerunner to the Midnighter. Let's say he's appearing fresh from his appearance in Avengers #195 where he gave the team a little bit of a run for their money and a bit of a wake up call. The situation: both have been offered the role of main enforcer in Luthor's new SSOSV but only the survivior will be given the position. The setting is the streets and alleys of New york. They have 24 hours to find and eliminate each other. Who would win? Vigil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted December 18, 2005 Report Share Posted December 18, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. Gah!?!??! I don't think I could call this one. As near as I can Tell, Taskmaster can copy anyone's agility and skill level. That leaves Slade with a strength/toughness advantage and that's it. Both guys like to "Set the Stage" so to speak and I think the fight would be one long cat and mouse game as each tries to lead or force the other to a spot they've set up for the occasion. Taskmaster simply isn't as tough as Deathstroke, so if he get's caught he's in trouble. And I'll ignore the "Watching Spiderman in fast forward to gain inhuman speed" bit from his series. That's just dumb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vigil Posted December 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. Wow! I didn't know about the FF Spidey thing, I never picked the mini-series up, but boy does that sound dumb. It could also be disastrous if he watched ift on FF then accidentally hit STOP half way through and logged that in his memory. Could make for some awkward phtographic reflexes moments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted December 18, 2005 Report Share Posted December 18, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. Hmm, unless it's been changed recently (which is entirely possible) Taskmaster is a devoted coward. At least, he became one after getting his butt kicked so many times. He pulls off an impressive offensive display, but if it fails, he runs. If Deathstroke can withstand Taskmaster's initial assault, which I think he could, then it's all Deathstroke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.J. Posted December 18, 2005 Report Share Posted December 18, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. Some good stuff here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vigil Posted December 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. hmmm. seems I wasn't the first to think this up, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trained Chicken Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. Taskmaster has better toys, so I vote for him. Aren't they kind of the same guy though? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vigil Posted December 19, 2005 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. Maybe somewhat similar in appearance and function but very different power and personality wise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Suleyman Rashid Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. So Taskmaster uses his high-speed martial arts thingy to punch deathstroke around, and "harder-to-put-down-than-a-pissed-off-rhinoceros" Slade ignores it and puts Taskmaster in the hurt locker. There comes a point where superior skill just cannot keep up with superior physical power. If a martial artist cannot hit a person hard enough to keep the person he is hitting from just overpowering him, the martial artist's skills might as well not exist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supreme Serpent Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. The situation: both have been offered the role of main enforcer in Luthor's new SSOSV but only the survivior will be given the position. The setting is the streets and alleys of New york. They have 24 hours to find and eliminate each other. Who would win? Vigil Not to spoil the fun, but... As noted, Taskmaster is a coward, and much prefers behind the scenes work to direct confrontation. He'd decline the challenge, acknowledging Slade as being better for the job of enforcer, and offer to work training minions as well as getting the other SSOSV villains better skills and dry runs against someone who can simulate the fighting styles of folks like Batman, etc. If it came to the actual contest anyways...Deathstroke would win a straight-up fight. But Taskmaster would likely arrange to fight Slade not alone, but with his latest class from Thug school and a few hero-copy guys along for the ride. All together, I think they'd take Slade down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enforcer84 Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. No offense guys, if cutting and running when your offense doesn't work Slade's a coward too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyendasky80 Posted December 19, 2005 Report Share Posted December 19, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. How can you say "no offense" and then just throw that out there? Do you think your little preface vindicates you of all offensive content? This is a civilized forum and you can't just come in here, accuse someone of cowardice and then make it all better by saying "no offense." Jeez, at least be a man and state your insults with certainty and real venom. Nah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Powerhouse Posted December 20, 2005 Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. Deathstroke beats him like a red headed stepchild. DS has a significant strength, stamina, and reflex advantage over TM. At best, TM has the strength and conditioning of a human of his height and build who exercises intensely while Slade can one handed slap Cyborg up and over his head with little apparent effort. While TM may have the skills of many combatants (and that's nothing to sneeze at), he's limited by his human condition. I'll look into but he can't be as fast as Spidey... impossible. Slade reacts to the Flash. What else... oh yes, TM is a coward who lacks heart. Captain America vs TM? Cap because he has the will to win. By contrast, Slade has been through hell and back and will not quit until the job has been completed. TM is also an arrogant idiot who, in attempting to mimic Daredevil, flipped into a taxi cab's path and got smacked up. Slade can plan almost as well as Batman. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Mhoram Posted December 20, 2005 Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. And I'll ignore the "Watching Spiderman in fast forward to gain inhuman speed" bit from his series. That's just dumb. No no no.. he almost sprained an ankle trying to do a spidey stunt, and comment he had to be careful doing that because he didn't have superhuman agility. He fast forwarded Bruce Lee. Upped by about 50% as I recall. And I'd give it to Slade. He just thinkgs faster and is a better tactician. This is a toughie because these are my two favorite mainstream villians, so.... I'd much rather see a mini where they were working together. Slade hires Tasky to fight all the people he plans to go after, so he can then train with Tasky who is fighting in Slade's opponnents' style. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted December 20, 2005 Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. Taskmaster could use one of Hawkeye's asteroid buster arrows. The advantage is that he wouldn't need to get a direct hit to nuke Slade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trained Chicken Posted December 20, 2005 Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. You know, here's where I give it to Taskmaster: He's smart enough to to fight his own battles. He's become quite wealthy training lackeys for other villains. He also beat the combined might of Captain Marvel, Ant-Man (Scott Lang), Carol Danvers and some other schmuck that I hope has been written out of the Avengers. Rick Jones ultimately chased him off with a suckerpunch, but he had the aforementioned group of fairly powerful heroes stymied for a good six panels (which I assume is about two or three turns of combat). OTOH, Slade fought... teenagers. Powerful teenagers, but still teenagers. I mean, that's low even for a supervillain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Mhoram Posted December 20, 2005 Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. OTOH, Slade fought... teenagers. Powerful teenagers, but still teenagers. I mean, that's low even for a supervillain. In Identity Crisis, Slade fought Flash, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman and Canary to a standstill for a few pages. I loved that sequence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Logan D. Hurricanes Posted December 20, 2005 Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. Ok, work with me here... Taskmaster beat up Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel stole her name from The Kree warrior, Mar Vell. Mar Vell shared dimensional space with Rick Jones. Rick Jones hangs out with the Hulk. The Hulk beats the crap out of everyone, and he's green. Beast Boy is green, and he beat the crap out of Slade. Therefore: Taskmaster beat Slade. Simple math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trained Chicken Posted December 20, 2005 Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. Ok, work with me here... Taskmaster beat up Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel stole her name from The Kree warrior, Mar Vell. Mar Vell shared dimensional space with Rick Jones. Rick Jones hangs out with the Hulk. The Hulk beats the crap out of everyone, and he's green. Beast Boy is green, and he beat the crap out of Slade. Therefore: Taskmaster beat Slade. Simple math. Says I gotta spread rep around before I rep you again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
massey Posted December 20, 2005 Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. In Identity Crisis' date=' Slade fought Flash, Green Arrow, Atom, Hawkman and Canary to a standstill for a few pages. I loved that sequence.[/quote'] Sorry, but that scene was atrocious. I wouldn't mind if Slade had defeated them honestly, or with real tactics, but not the way he did. That was as bad as the time Aquaman stuck his hand up out of the water and tripped the Flash as he was running across the ocean. It's not hard to defeat those characters if they forget that they have superpowers and how they work. You might as well go with the first season of the Justice League cartoon, where Superman forgot that he was invulnerable, and so he'd fall down when people would shoot him. Then, later in the episode, he'd remember that it didn't actually hurt, and he'd shrug it off like nothing. Flash: "Oh, yeah, I forgot that I'm actually a lot faster than Slade. And that I can vibrate my molecules until I'm intangible, so I don't have to worry about any land mines. Duh. My bad." Atom: "Hmm, I forgot that I can retain my density when I shrink, so getting hit with a photon isn't going to do anything. I also forgot that I'm too small for Deathstroke to actually see, because I'm dancing in-between particles of light. Black Canary: "I forgot that I don't have to unhinge my jaw to use my sonic cry. I also forgot that I'm just as good as Deathstroke in the martial arts." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trained Chicken Posted December 20, 2005 Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. Flash: "Oh, yeah, I forgot that I'm actually a lot faster than Slade. And that I can vibrate my molecules until I'm intangible, so I don't have to worry about any land mines. Duh. My bad." Atom: "Hmm, I forgot that I can retain my density when I shrink, so getting hit with a photon isn't going to do anything. I also forgot that I'm too small for Deathstroke to actually see, because I'm dancing in-between particles of light. Black Canary: "I forgot that I don't have to unhinge my jaw to use my sonic cry. I also forgot that I'm just as good as Deathstroke in the martial arts." This, in a nutshell, is why I like Marvel better than DC. Most DC heroes have to forget they have powers to be threatened by the villains in their rogues' galleries. With the exception of Iron Man, most Marvel first-stringers have a plethora of credible threats to face monthly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Mhoram Posted December 20, 2005 Report Share Posted December 20, 2005 Re: Super-Villain Showdown: The Taskmaster vs Deathstroke the Terminator. Flash: "Oh, yeah, I forgot that I'm actually a lot faster than Slade. And that I can vibrate my molecules until I'm intangible, so I don't have to worry about any land mines. Duh. My bad." Atom: "Hmm, I forgot that I can retain my density when I shrink, so getting hit with a photon isn't going to do anything. I also forgot that I'm too small for Deathstroke to actually see, because I'm dancing in-between particles of light. Black Canary: "I forgot that I don't have to unhinge my jaw to use my sonic cry. I also forgot that I'm just as good as Deathstroke in the martial arts." Yeah I can see that argument. I just like Deathstroke so much seeing him doing well was nice, as he hadn't been used well recently. His reveal in the Outsiders was much better, and much more in character. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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