BIOGRAPHY - Page 6
The Skrull invasion devastated the Initiative as infiltrators were discovered in most of the Fifty State teams and base commander Yellowjacket was among their leaders. [Secret Invasion crossover] Although the chain of command was in dispute, Taskmaster was assigned to the Shadow Initiative covert strike team to bolster their dwindling ranks on a mission to Madripoor. An 
Initiative traitor named Hardball had joined Hydra and holed up in the pirate nation, so Taskmaster’s team was sent to extract him. Unfortunately, Norman Osborn rose to power and dissolved S.H.I.E.L.D. during their mission, leaving them with no extraction team. Taskmaster, Constrictor and the others stalled Hydra by pretending to switch sides themselves, until Ant-Man and the new H.A.M.M.E.R. forces arrived to bail them out. [Avengers: The Initiative #20-24]
Norman Osborn had big new plans for the Initiative, and he elevated Taskmaster to base commander of the new Camp H.A.M.M.E.R. in the isolated Nevada desert. Osborn had a Cabal of heavy movers on his side, including Doctor Doom, Loki and the Hood. The criminal kingpin lent his small army of super-criminals to the Initiative as new recruits. Taskmaster would then teach them the skills and discipline needed to operate as public super-heroes, while lining their pockets in the shadows. Taskmaster took easily to the new mission, churning out the former villain teams U-Foes, Psionex, Force of Nature and the Women Warriors for Initiative state placement in a matter of weeks. He and Constrictor also teamed up as senior operators and revamped the Shadow Initiative as a dumping ground for cannon fodder to be dropped on the front lines and soften up the enemy before more valuable assets were deployed.
The new Initiative had several early successes. With the sacrifice of the Shadow Initiative, H.A.M.M.E.R. retook the Negative Zone prison 42 from a riot and positioned several survivors as media heroes for the press release afterwards. However, the heroic “old guard” from Stark’s Initiative proved troublesome. Some heroes disobeyed orders, had to be depowered or even 
taken down publicly, such as when Nevada’s team denounced Osborn and his Initiative. Taskmaster was also obliged to watch over several of Osborn’s powder kegs, like wrangling the unstable but immensely powerful Penance, or blackmailing the base counselor Trauma who turned out to be an avatar of the Fear-Lord, Nightmare. Even the Hood, the chief operating officer and liaison to the Cabal, started to be unreliable and leaving messes behind for Taskmaster to clean up. [Avengers: The Initiative #25-30]
Naturally, Taskmaster was still willing to take jobs on the side when it suited him. Osborn’s rise to power came in part from his kill shot against the Skrull Queen Veranke during the invasion. This shot was successful, thanks to intel Deadpool stole from the Skrulls for Nick Fury, which Osborn intercepted. Because Fury didn’t get the intel, Deadpool didn’t get paid, so now he felt Osborn owed him the difference. Wade offered to split the payday with Taskmaster and hired Tony as a body double to help him infiltrate Avengers Tower and deal with Osborn’s new covert ops unit, the Thunderbolts. It was a risky endeavor for Taskmaster to bite the hand that feeds him and he was even captured briefly while posing as Deadpool, but he managed to slip away from the Thunderbolts and keep his cover intact. [Deadpool (3rd series) #8-9, Thunderbolts (1st series) #130-131]
When Osborn came to Camp H.A.M.M.E.R. for a site check, Taskmaster did what he could to dress up his motley crew of super-villains living the high life on the government’s dime. Norman wasn’t fooled by the pomp and circumstance, and calmly insisted on Taskmaster’s real feelings on the Initiative. Taskmaster went out on a limb and declared the current Initiative was a catastrophe waiting to happen. Super-criminals had a lifetime of egomania and other personality defects that 
wouldn’t be fixed by a halfhearted boot camp. To get real, dedicated but malleable heroes for deployment, the Initiative needed to concentrate on recruited young, powered individuals and shaping them early on to fit their needs. Fortunately, Osborn agreed with this assessment, and congratulated Taskmaster on his insight. He considered Taskmaster ready for a seat at the big table.
Osborn’s Cabal was formed after the Skrull invasion, with power players willing to support each other’s schemes around the world. Founders like Namor and Emma Frost had already betrayed Osborn’s trust, and so there were some open seats. Taskmaster’s first meeting with the Cabal proved to be a disaster. Doom and Namor had an alliance which predated the Cabal, and the 
Latverian lashed out at the Cabal over the Avenging Son’s absence. He struck down Taskmaster with a form of magical plasma blast that left him hospitalized in the aftermath for over a week. Taskmaster wasn’t sure he was cut out for playing in the big leagues, but Osborn made it very clear that this promotion was an opportunity, but not an option. Serve at his side, or die at his feet. [Avengers: The Initiative #31, Siege: The Cabal #1]
Osborn already had Loki and his Goblin persona whispering in his ear, and he decided the best way to consolidate his power was to invade Asgard. The Golden Realm had been reborn hovering outside of Broxton, Oklahoma months ago, and “the Iron Patriot” invented an excuse to bring it down in order to make his Initiative look impressive. Taskmaster knew they were out of their depths with this attack, but his fear of Osborn and his own ego made him go along with it. Tony was tired of copying others and training muscle – he wanted to finally be renowned for his own deeds, rather than playing it safe and collecting a check in the shadows. So, when Osborn said gear up for war, he assembled all the Initiative branches loyal to the current leadership and prepared to topple some gods.
Constrictor remained the sensible voice at Taskmaster’s side, warning him that professionals knew how to stay safe and get paid. Tony was too invested in the big score to listen to Frank, however. When the invasion began, Taskmaster managed to get some kills on the battlefield. He even scored a few taps on Thor himself, although the Iron Patriot mocked Taskmaster for thinking his blows contributed to the Thunder God’s fall at all. Tony took the message loud and clear that Norman had no desire to share glory. When their own god, Ares, turned on the Initiative and was 
killed by the Sentry, Taskmaster saw Osborn’s control slipping away from him. The arrival of the original Star-Spangled Avenger and Captain America’s Avenger loyalists clenched it – Norman was going down. As the REAL Avengers dealt with the insane Osborn and Sentry, Taskmaster grabbed Constrictor and they bailed out on the whole ordeal. The Initiative scam was done for. [Avengers: The Initiative #32-35]
While cooling his heels in Japan, Taskmaster was accosted by Yakuza, who said the Org put out a billion-dollar bounty on his head. The Org claimed Taskmaster made a deal with Steve Rogers to turn evidence on all his past clients, and that’s why he wasn’t arrested following the Siege of Asgard. Taskmaster didn’t know why the Org had turned against him, but he knew he would have to dive deep into his memory palace to track them down. [Age of Heroes #3]
Taskmaster’s mnemonic path to tracking down the Org began at a particular diner, listening to “Heroes & Villains” by the Beach Boys. Though he didn’t recognize it, the song was played as his wedding dance. Though he didn’t recognize her, Tony’s wife Mercedes was already there working as a waitress. As the Org herself, Mercedes had no idea where this bounty had come from and 
needed answers of her own. A litany of Taskmaster’s former clients stormed the diner in an attempt at killing him, and “the Org” tagged Mercedes as an accomplice during the chaos and updated the bounty to include her. Taskmaster found he instinctively trusted the waitress for some reason, and brought her along for her protection on his quest for the Org.
Taskmaster’s “memory palace” guided him and Mercedes back to Mexico and Don de la Muerte, where he was reminded for the first time in years that he used to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. The next stop was Bolivia, as Taskmaster and Mercedes retraced the steps of that fateful mission. In Gorscht’s abandoned laboratory, Taskmaster finally remembered what happened there. He re-learned that Mercedes was both his wife and the Org, and together they started piecing together what was really going on. They returned to the Org’s base of operations in Tierra del Fuego to gear up.
The comically named but relentless Redshirt founded the Minions’ International Liberation Front to take power away from the masterminds and place it in the hands of the henchmen. He dedicated years of effort to assembling information on the mysterious Org so he could fake their credentials 
and place the bounty on Taskmaster, for he was the only figure known to have the inside track on the Org. By tracing Taskmaster’s search for the Org, Redshirt and MILF learned the truth along with him. Redshirt was prepared to face Taskmaster by surgically altering his body so it was capable of learning an alien Shi’ar fighting style which humans could not replicate properly.
Tony was still going mostly on instinct with Mercedes, and he didn’t recall any details of their time together. While fighting side-by-side with her against MILF, however, the sense memory caused the details to resurface. Taskmaster consciously and emotionally reunited with his wife. The fight with Redshirt proved to be a tragedy, then. Redshirt was prepared for Taskmaster’s traditional repertoire and presented a complex new fighting style of his own. Absorbing this new Shi’ar fighting style would overwrite Tony’s new memories, causing him to forget Mercedes all over again. She begged him to do what was necessary to save them both, and Redshirt died in short 
order. Mercedes Merced died a different sort of death when she saw the blank, lack of recognition in her husband’s eyes before he vanished into the night. MILF was gone, the secret of the Org remained, and the relationship between Taskmaster and the Hub continued on as it always had. But the relationship between Mercedes and Tony Masters was once again gone from Taskmaster’s memory. [Taskmaster (2nd series) #1-4]
While scrounging goods from one of his abandoned academies in Nevada, Taskmaster ran across Finesse, one of the new teenaged heroes from Avengers Academy. Jeanne Foucault was a polymath with the ability to learn any skill and adapt any fighting style she observed. Her parents had been criminals, and she believed their similar abilities suggested Taskmaster might be her biological father. Taskmaster sparred with Finesse a little bit to get a feel for her moves before calling a truce. Given his memory issues, Taskmaster had no idea if Finesse was his daughter or not, though he could admit the possibility. In fact, he fought with her in the first place hoping to 
create a sense memory of her fighting style to better remember her in the future. However, Taskmaster could tell her moves all belonged to someone else. In the abundance of caution, Taskmaster shared the secret of his overwritten memory with Finesse, warning her to be on the lookout for similar problems of her own in the future. [Avengers Academy #9]