Hopping onto this week's...Thunderbolts*...motion picture, we're Spotlighting the Taskmaster of the comics! The Avengers first fought Tony Masters *snicker* when he ran his academy of goons, pumping out trained flunkies for various criminal masterminds and terrorist organizations to use as cannon fodder. A mercenary without scruples, Taskmaster's tragic past eventually came to light as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who developed photographic reflexes from a special serum, but this "kinetic memory" cost him his personal memories. Like "Memento," Taskmaster truly lives in the moment, possessing only an echo of the life he's forgotten.
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Spotlight On...
Spotlight On... TASKMASTER!
Team Entry: AVENGERS ROSTER!
To wrap up Avengers Month, we decided it was about time to start a series of articles detailing the roster changes of the Avengers throughout the years. Similar to the X-Men roster article on our sister site, UncannyXmen.Net, this will be an ongoing project updated periodically. The first entry is about the group that started it all, the all-star cast of Marvel heroes from the 1960s that were then replaced by a kooky quartet of underdogs. Familiarize yourself with the origins of the comic Avengers as created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and continued on by Roy Thomas (with a dash of modern age retconning). Read on about.... Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Spotlight On... NITRO!
The narrative direction of the Marvel Universe for years was set when Nitro exploded in Stamford, Connecticut fighting the New Warriors. A bitter old man even before he met the Kree, Nitro became truly evil when he gained his powers. An untrustworthy partner with no regard for human life, Nitro has burned several other super-villains who tried to work with him in the past. An Atlantean war criminal, a prisoner in Latveria, responsible for the death of Mar-Vell, hunted by Wolverine, Genis-Vell, Penance... Everybody HATES this guy, but no one has managed to fully end the threat of Nitro.
Spotlight On... MAELSTROM!
When the 1992 Marvel trading cards picked a character quote for Maelstrom, they chose "Get behind me, Thanos! I shall make whatever evil you have wrecked seem like child's play!" The son of a Deviant and an Inhuman, the history of Maelstrom and his father Phaeder was intricately woven into the Marvel Universe to explain why so many scientists followed the same paths of cloning and genetic engineering. Maelstrom despised both sides of his family tree, and any ties to his humanity died with his elderly father. Since then, Maelstrom has grown to threaten the Earth, the universe and even the concept of reality itself with his ever-escalating schemes. Maelstrom has been quiet for many years but, if he were to return, the fundamental forces themselves might tremble.
Spotlight On... GRAVITON!
Earlier this month, we shared a week of lame X-Men villains. This week, we flip the script with a set of genuine villains who have threatened the Avengers over the years. Franklin Hall is master of a fundamental force, and could have been as epic as Magneto. The only thing limiting Graviton is his petty desires and lack of imagination. Able to shape gravity with his mind, Graviton is incredibly dangerous especially after he embraced nihilism as a philosophy. A man with the ability to unbind the gravitational field of the planet and a desperate need for approval is a frightening mix.
Update on... the VIPER!
Another cross-site update, today we add the former Madame Hydra to MightyAvengers.Net's Spotlights on nefarious villains. Nihilist, terrorist... freedom fighter? The Viper is a militant foe to the common order of society, willing to give her own life (and more often the lives of others) in pursuit of her cause. Sometimes reasonable enough to cooperate with Spider-Woman or the X-Men, other times so insane that even the Red Skull had to reign her in, one should never trust the Viper or turn one's back on her for long.
