Taskmaster #2 // Review
One of Marvel's greatest assassins is in big trouble. The world thinks he killed someone he hasn't. It shouldn't be that big a deal. He's really good at staying alive. The problem is that he's being trailed by some very powerful people. He runs headlong into Marvel's iteration of a certain Man of Tomorrow in Taskmaster's second issue. Writer Jed MacKay has fun pitting a resourceful mortal against a superhuman god in an enjoyable installment drawn by Alessandro Vitti. MacKay takes a Marvel criminal and hands him a really, really simple Lex Luthor-style scenario that really has no business being anywhere near as entertaining as it is.
Former S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Maria Hill is dead. Everyone thinks Taskmaster killed her. Now Black Widow is after him. Thankfully he's got the aid of super-spy Nick Fury, who is going to help him theoretically clear his name. It's a complicated process that's going to land Taskmaster in a comic book shop tracking down Phil Coulson. Coulson isn't the real danger. The real threat is a superhuman Superman analog that works for Coulson. A hero named Hyperion. He's faster, stronger, and much more devastating than anything that Taskmaster should be able to handle. Things aren't going to be easy for him.
All other intrigues aside, this issue's heart and soul rests in a conflict between Marvel's Superman and a normal human with some of the best fighting training and instincts imaginable. Anyone familiar with Superman-related conflicts with supervillains will know how a conflict like this is going to transpire with the villain as the title character. Still, MacKay makes it fun and exciting with a really well-crafted script that mixes planning for the encounter with the encounter itself. The alternation between past planning and present conflict gives the story enough momentum to overcome the foundations of what could have been a very, very dull and predictable encounter.
Vitti brings drama to the page with some interesting effects. While this is far from the first time that a comic book superhero battle has happened in a comic book shop, the visual of a comic book shop in a comic book still has considerable impact. The physicality of a human/superhuman conflict between a title villain and a superhero antagonist feels very, very appealing. The contrast between a formidable human and a ridiculously powerful superman pounds its way across the page with style and flash.
MacKay twists the artifacts of a totally mundane slugfest and turns it into something really, really enjoyable. Superman has been around for the better part of a century. Put him in a different costume with a different identity in a different universe, and he's still going to interact in the same way he has in thousands of various conflicts stretching back to the later 1930s. Somehow MacKay has managed to stage a Superman-style slugfest in a way that makes it feel fresh and exciting, courtesy of a charming villain.
