Captain America #334

[history79]

Comments

[lyricalswagger]

I'm quite glad they changed Lemar's codename.

[silicondream]

Yeah, ouch. Pretty weird to have him wearing the outfit of a dead white teenager, too.

[nyadnar17]

It was actually kinda awesome. They directly addressed how problematic it was in the story line that introduced them. I remember being impressed that they thought it through that much.

Same he is dead now.

[obsidianwolf]

Yeah I always tend to think about this incident when you see a modern writer throw an absolute fit when someone points out something problematic about what they've written.

I mean Gruenwald did something racist without realizing it and when fans and the late Dwayne Mcduffie pointed it out to him he did his best to fix it.

[icon_uk]

More details on the incident can be seen here

http://marvel.com/news/comics/15329/remembering_dwayne_mcduffie

[mastermahan]

I do love that story. It gives you a real sense of what both Gruenwald and McDuffie were like.

[leoboiko]

That's actually a good question, I think. Lots of villains could have quite the comfortable life if they used their powers, not even for the good, but just for legit, egoistic capitalism.

[cricharddavies]

Basically, such villains are villains because the writers and editors say they must be villains, and the reasons for that don't say very nice things about the writers' and editors' world view.

[tcampbell1000]

Huh? Examples? You lost me.

[cricharddavies]

Why is Taskmaster a villain, when he could be a successful businessman? Because he's fundamentally lazy, fundamentally a thief, fundamentally uncreative. (The same could be said for quite a few of the mad scientist types; in fact, is said in the Mad Thinker's power description.) Essentially, the narrative involves some very conservative notions about the roots of crime.

Another time when we have Captain America (the real one) noting that a supervillain (the member of the Serpent Squad who can hypnotize people by dancing) could have a very productive career as a respectable dancer, rather than living and working in sleazy dance halls, we get her responding, "Screw you, this is how I gain power". Not addressing the reality that it's not as easy to return to the straight and narrow once you've departed from it as that seems to imply.

[tcampbell1000]

FWIW, as far as anyone knew at this point, Taskmaster *WAS* a capitalist, but also a criminal, and guilty of aiding and abetting even when training the bad guys.

He could be doing very well for himself by just training heroes, but he was cynical enough to believe that the hassle he gets for training villains is worth it because they'll pay better. Cynical, but he might be right: it's not like one can really do an economic study to prove it one way or the other.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Except how could he train heroes?

DD, Cap, Hawkeye all had their own specialized trainers by the time they hit the scene, and then and now, there's little organization to fund training for regular street level heroes. How much money could he make training heroes, as opposed to turning out some better than average cannon fodder?

[randyripoff]

Classic example: the Trapster, aka Paste Pot Pete.

[beyondthefringe]

This may be one of the earliest examples of Taskmaster's potential awesomeness. I always loved his shtick of "I train mooks, I don't fight heroes unless I have to."

[silicondream]

And I love how they emphasize that he's dangerous and needs restraint, but still have him walking around with his mask and costume on. I wonder if he refuses to work in plainclothes?

[tcampbell1000]

I'm amazed at how likable Walker is here. Yeah, he casually talks about sending a bunch of super-criminals on a "suicide mission" and may be mutantphobic, but that just makes it all the more remarkable when he realizes Taskmaster, for whatever reason, doesn't appear to be trying to screw him and develops instant reverse Stockholm syndrome. It also counts for a lot that he's genuinely friendly to and supportive of Lemar.

Plus, last issue, he was scoffing that Cap was a fossil and he was already better; yet now, he's obsessing over those tapes of Cap's battles like Brandon Routh honing his Christopher Reeve. Having set up this impostor to be hated, Gruenwald messes with our expectations here, and that's pretty neat.

[zylly]

Agreed. I'd forgotten he was reasonably sane and intelligent during his Gru-written appearances.

[astrakhan42]

We're also a couple issues away from his full mental breakdown (that'll probably get posted soon). For that, though, Walker is downright terrifying.

[silverhammerman]

I'm surprisingly into this? Knowingly that Walker tends to be remembered as the boorish neoconservative Captain America I'd expected him to be really grating, but this whole setup is actually pretty cool and enjoyable.

[obsidianwolf]

Walker as written by Gruenwald was a fascinating character. He was a neo conservative ass but he did have some redeeming moments and character elements. Then of course between the preassure of the job as Cap, the Skulls actions and other factors it isn't surpising he snapped by the end of his time filling in. Then of course the government decided to brainwash him and alter his memories to salvage him as an operative. There' s a really great b-plot in later issues following Battlestar as he tracks the US Agent down and eventually exposed what the government did to him. Then of course they get away it again by altering his memory to believe he asked them to take away his memories of his parents murder. He leaves still the loyal US Agent and then goes off to West Coast Avengers where his good qualities start disappearing as he vies to be the biggest ass hole in a cast full of ass holes.

[zylly]

I always tend to refer to him as Marvel's answer to Guy Gardner, but he's much more together in this.

[zylly]

Ah, the Taskmaster. Back before they introduced those asinine retcons about being a rogue SHIELD agent with memory issues.

[joetuss]

Was Taskmaster considered a mutant at this time ?

[obsidianwolf]

Not as far as I can recall. I don't think he's ever even been hinted at being a mutant. Unlike Sam whose bird telepathy was hinted to be x-gene derived several times and confirmed once then retconed out then hinted at again. (and probably never to be hinted at again because of Marvel not having film rights to the mutants.)

[sindra]

*le sigh* I miss the Gail Simone/Agent X Tasky so much. He was a skilled merc and shadowy-business type in that run.