Ask the comic guy..

Cafe Society
921

I thought he just had a voice synthesizer thingie…also, it would be a kinda identifiing mark. Didn’t he use to run a business training henchmen for other supervillians way back when?

And I just thought of another Marvel question: have Magneto and the Red Skull ever fought? I know they once had to team up with a buch of other villians and Mag and Dr. Doom almost killed the Skull (which I liked; seeing them hate him really showed how low the Skull was, even to other villians), but did Magneto ever attack him?

922

Frankly, the limits of his powers have never been made clear enough for my liking. Could he acquire the flexibility of a contortionist just by watching one? To what extent is exercise necessary for him?

My geek opinion-he needs to exercise for things like physical strength, stamina and flexibility. He can copy the punching technique of any boxer. But if he wants to throw a punch with any force, he’s got to work out like the rest of us and build up some muscle mass.
Re-His Ranking

It is clear that the TaskMaster can not copy any action or ability requiring superhuman or mystical capabilities. He could perfectly copy the intricate gestures and postures of Dr Strange, but without Strange’s occult power TM couldn’t reproduce the magical effects.

From the Task Master Series TM watches lots of action movies. He is the equal of Chan, Li, or even Bruce himself. But, while plannning a particularly difficult job, TM realizes something. If he watches the films at high speed, he can perform the moves at high speed. TM has a normal human body, however. He can only move at high speed for brief periods before he begins to seriously damage his body and especially his heart.
Thus, the Task Master could not copy the chi abilities of Iron Fist.

Other than that, I’d put TM in the #1 spot. If he can watch Shang Chai, Elektra, or any of the others, he has the same moves they do. More, he can copy the action instantly after watching it. TM learns any move an opponent uses. If one of the other martial artists is better than he is, he just has to hold out. After a few rounds, he’ll be just as good as they are.

Non Spoiler-One of the things I liked in the series was that TM studied not just a person’s individual moves, but their entire strategy. AFAIK TaskMaster is the only villian to realize that Spidey routinely outfights opponents much more powerful by getting them angry and off balance. So TM does the same thing when faced with similiar odds.

 TM won't simply copy Elektra's kicks or punches. He can copy the combinations she uses them in and her entire fighting style.

Sam Hell, unless the person you'd rank as the top martial artist in the Marvel universe fights with  mystic or superhuman abilities Task Master only has to watch enough film of that person to be every bit as good.
923

**

The mini series states explicitly that he does not use a synthesizer. If he can study a voice, he can copy it perfectly. He still runs the school. It’s a steady source of income. But if you can learn something instantaneously, it’s very frustrating and extremely boring to teach the same thing over and over to students who need months to learn.

 I certainly hope they haven't. I cannot come up with any remotely plausible way the Skull would survive. 

 The way I see it- The  Skull would make a brilliant opening attack. Magneto would respond by frying the Skull's spine and rendering him totally paralyzed. He would then inflict 6 million different injuries on the skull. After dying an incredibly slow  and indescribably painful death, the Skull's corpse is delivered to Latveria(Doom and Magneto have shared their mutual hatred of Nazi's and their own devotion their people on several occasions). Doom captures the Skull's soul. "You put millions upon millions of gypsies through hell on earth. I am Zefiro. I am gypsie! I will make a special hell just for you."

How exactly did the other villians of the Acts of Vengance stop the Jew and the Rom from killing the Nazi war criminal?

Doctor Doom
I have an FF issue in which Doom attempts to seat a clone of himself on the throne. Doom is portrayed as a Stalinesque dictator. But, plenty of stories make Doom out to be a man who genuinely loves his country and is good to his people. The Victor Von Doom of 2099 may walk around in armor and build death rays. But the Latverians say prayers for his health before going to sleep at night and kids spontaneously give him flowers.

  Is it just an issue of different writers viewing him differently? Or did Doom change after a certain date? If so, when, and why?  Have his creators(I'm guessing Kirby and Lee)  ever said whether Doom was meant to be a dictator, the loving saviour of Latveria, or some combination of the two?
924

The way I remember it, the others, including Kingpin, were perfectly willing to allow Magneto and Doom their vengence, but the organizer (who I believe was Loki, who very likely used magic to do it) convinced them that they should go through with their current evil plot first, then they were free to mince the Skull, who wasn’t too pleased to hear them making such plans.

As for Doom, I’d heard it described this way. He’s a guy who (initally, anyway, he may no longer want to) rule the world, because he thought he was better than other people. The thing is, he might be right. He likely does care for his people, since they are his by birth. It may be like the way a man cares for his dog, but he cares.

Doc, thanks for your TM info. It never occurred to me that he could learn someone’s style while he was fighting them. Remember that old costume he used to have, with the shield, the bow, the billy club, and whatnot?

And, of course, the most important question: could be beat Batman? :wink:

925

And the answer is, of course, no. :slight_smile: It’s been tried, with Prometheus. Frankly, just knowing what the results look like doesn’t give you the years of practice or the flexibility and musculature… or the ability to improvise. Tasky is never going to be quite as good as the real thing.

Sides, Bats has a cool car.

926

The Task Master doesn’t just know what the results look like. He posseses the mutant ability of photographic reflexes. Without digging out the Official Handbook, I can’t say for certain what the limits of his powers are. However, Tasky is already muscular, flexible and posesses the strength level of a man his age who engages in regular intensive excercise.

  One panel of the mini series shows Tasky starting a jump by copying a DareDevil move, pulling twin guns and shooting out sensors by copying the Punisher, and using the skills of certain ninja clan to land soundlessly.

I'd say he can improvise just fine.

Re-Costume
No cape. The rest has been modernized. For a time, Cap lost his shield and was using a glove that generated a force field substitute. Tasky(Thanks E), stole one of the other units. Besides Cap’s shield, he can create duplicates of Spidey’s web lines and a few other things.

927

Years Of Practice-Doesn’t need em. Tasky discovered his power while watching a cowboy do rope tricks on tv. He picked up his sisters jump rope and reproduced the performance flawlessly. While at the local pool, he saw a guy impress the chicks with a complicated dive. Tasky instantly climbed the tower for the first time, jumped for the first time, and again reproduced the dive exactly. Being 12 or so, he had not bothered to think ahead. After hitting the water he realised that he had taken the trouble to learn how to swim. Still this was a problem of planning, not practice. Tasky also has a photographic memory. He never forgets anything. He watches an expert do it once and is instantly an expert. He remains an expert for the rest of his life.

Batman-I say he could. Check out the earlier list ranking the best martial artists of the DC universe. IIRC Bats was not #1. Tasky only needs to study the folks who who outrank the Dark Knight.

928

What a great thread! I can’t believe I’ve missed it until now. I’m not as much of a comic guy as the others on this thread but I read alot and have a good memory. I’ll chip in if I ever have anything worthwhile to add. :slight_smile:

I have a few questions for the more knowledgeable types here.

I love love love Alan Moore’s work. I’ve seen a few mentions of his stint on Swamp Thing and how he completely turned it around. What, precisely, did he do? A general synopsis or link to a website would be much appreciated.

I seem to recall back in the 60’s or 70’s Superman had the ‘super power’ of super-hunger. What was up with that? Was it ever actually used for fighting evil and if so, how? I mean, it’s not like his going to eat Lex Luthor or anything.

What is the general concensus among comic fans regarding anime? Good or bad?
Thanks Fenris for your posts about Miracleman. I saw the part involving Johnny and those bullies when he finally broke down and changed back to Kid Miracleman. Until then I had always assumed Miracleman = good guy. I thought it was a very powerful scene and wanted to find out more about the story behind it. Now I know why I could never find those comics. I guess I wouldn’t be seeing that fight scene in issue 15 any time soon either. :frowning:

HAW HAW HAW

From now on, whenever anyone asks why Clark Kent isn’t recongnized as Superman, this is EXACTLY what I’m going to tell them. :smiley: Everyone is so busy staring at his crotch to see if his penis is as big as they think it is that no one knows what he looks like. HAHAAH

I also wanted to add what I consider to be the best description of a speedster I’ve ever seen. I believe it’s from the Authority but not sure.
Guy 1: We’ve got trouble. There’s a speedster onboard.

Guy 2: Where is he and how did he get in?

Guy 1: ‘Where’ is everywhere at once. I’m working on the how.

929

DocCathode & Ranchoth:

I interpreted Gordon’s remarks in a different way:


I didn’t take him as meaning “Whatever he does is okay, as long as we don’t get hurt.” I took him as meaning “We don’t know whose lives he’ll destroy…but I do know that, if we kill him right now, we’ll have completely abandoned our commitment to law, and he will have destroyed our lives by driving us to turn our backs on our most important principles.”

Still pretty bad writing, if you ask me, but not as callous and out of character as you suggest. I could be wrong, of course, but that’s how I read it.

930

What creative team would you put together to revitalize Jack Kirby’s FOURTH WORLD concepts once and for all? How far would they be allowed to change things? Bring back Tigra? Kill off the Deep Six? Take the chracaters out of the DCU and put them in VERTIGO?

931

Sorry if this question has been asked already, but it’s late, and I haven’t taken the time to read the entire thread.

In the DC Universe, is it common knowledge amongst the general public that Superman’s weakness is kryptonite? Or is that something that only the superhero/villan/government community knows?

932

Community, at the moment. Kryptonite is exceedingly rare… to the point where it’s not been seen in ages.

933

While at the local funny books store yesterday, I noticed they had a new batch of figures in the bargain bin.

 They had the recent Sinestro and John Stewart(my spelling is almost certainly wrong. It's the weekend and I refuse to expend the effort to look it up) figures, but not the rings they came with.

They also had what seem to be the rings packaged with Power Ring(of Earth 3) and Alan Scott, though they didn’t have the figures.

I have the non-adjustable, glow in the dark GL ring released as a premium when Mosaic came out.

I know that DC has made busts of Scott, Jordan, Sinestro, and Rayner, each of which came with a ring. They also made a Jordan ring and lantern set for the low, low price of $300.

Which Brings Me To-

 How many GL rings have been made over the years?
934

They have Power Ring’s ring?

Gotta get me one…

935

I can’t think who else the ring would belong to.

It’s pale green. The face is a triangle with a white x/star cut into it. This matches my memory of PR’s ring. Since I bought SuperWoman(also of Earth 3) from the same bin, I know that DC made a figure of at least one member of the Crime Syndicate.

936

Power Ring It Is

Now if only DC could see the wisdom in selling anodized aluminum rings and power batteries for $30 instead of cold cast resin for $300.

OTOH it is possible to cast and anodize aluminum at home. Sure hazardous chemicals and potentially lethal amounts of electricity are involved, but I think the risks are acceptable. Doctors Connor, Von Doom, Demonicus, Octavius, Morbius, and Banner stand behind me on this.

937

Whaqt better use of that spare room than for potentially world-shattering experiments?

But The Wife thinks it should be a sewing room with a treadmill…

938

Nice action figure, though I feel that Power Ring should have a black uniform with green highlights.

939

It wouldbe easier to machine a ring from a small block of aluminum with a small hobby lathe. One green LED and one watch battery later and ta-da!

940

OK, I’ve got a comics question:

I just finished reading the TPB of “Bruce Wayne - Murderer?” that I checked out of the library. The TPB ends with Batman busting out of prison, essentially abandoning his Bruce Wayne identity, and alienating Oracle, Nightwing and Robin.

I’m not a regular Batman buyer, but I’m definitely aware that in the current story arc, “Hush”, at least Bruce Wayne is back to his old, playboy self.

So…the questions, for anyone who’s a regular Batman follower:

  1. Who did kill Vesper Fairchild, and why?
  2. Why was Batman/Bruce so unwilling to let his regular bunch of friends help out? Was he just being unreasonably stubborn, or was there something he was hiding from them as well?
  3. Has he reconciled with them since the whole affair has blown over?

Chaim Mattis Keller