One of the best mercenaries in the Marvel universe, Taskmaster might seem like a straight-up villain to most, but not only is he sometimes an antihero, but he also has a truly tragic past that led him to be such a talented assassin and fighter. Tony Masters is the forgotten civilian identity of Taskmaster, an incredibly skilled mercenary-for-hire who uses his "photographic reflexes" to copy and beat major players in the Marvel world. A 2010 arc explores how the former Shield agent came to be an assassin,
First introduced in 1980 as a foe of the Avengers, Taskmaster spent the better part of 30-years known simply as an extremely dangerous mercenary with no real agenda of his own outside of taking money from the highest bidder. Taskmaster's photographic reflexes have allowed him to copy the martial arts skills of Shang-Chi and Elektra, the hand-to-hand combat abilities of Captain America and Black Panther, and the marksman prowess of Hawkeye and The Punisher. He has also been a violent teacher and trainer for many different organizations, often using his combat experience to train villains' henchmen en masse.
2010's Taskmaster, from Jefte Palo and Fred Van Lente, follows the titular character is he is accused of leaking sensitive information about the various criminal underworlds he has been employed by to Steve Roger's new SHIELD initiative. It is revealed that, because of his photographic reflexes, he experiences declarative memory, which is an inability to either store specific memories or make entirely new ones, meaning he has no memory of his past, who he is, or how he came to be Taskmaster. He is able to avoid the multiple groups of villains who are after him with help from a woman who works for "The Hub," a part of the secretive "Org," who calls Taskmaster with his missions and to remind him of who is.
While battling a large group of different underworld criminal groups Taskmaster escapes a diner with a waitress named Mercedes Merced. During his struggle, it's revealed that Tony Masters was a SHIELD agent who was on a mission to take down the Nazi scientist Horst Gorscht, who was working on his own version of a super soldier serum. Tony, always wanting to be the top SHIELD agent, injected himself with the concoction, giving him his abilities to absorb knowledge instantaneously. Furthermore, it's revealed that Mercedes is in fact Tony's wife, another former SHIELD agent. She was assigned to be Taskmaster's handler and after SHIELD fell following the events of Siege, Mercedes went rogue and continued to help Tony out of her love for him.
Mercedes struggles every time he forgets who she is, and while Tony is eventually able to remember who she really is, it's only temporary and his memories of their marriage are quickly lost. Mercedes is left heartbroken and defeated, back to just being Tony's handler for his mercenary work. There is no doubt that Taskmaster is a violent man, but the tragic truth behind how he gained his powers and his work with SHIELD prove that he is not evil to his core, just complex and misguided.