Taskmaster In Black Widow

Taskmaster in Black Widow

SPOILERS

I see a lot of people complaining about Taskmaster on Twitter.

I understand that this is not the version from the comics, and that his personality traits are not apparent in the MCU version. So I admit that sucks if you love Tony Masters. (But if that is the case, maybe a “real” Taskmaster could appear later? Sorry?)

But a lot of comments seem to be sexist in that (spoilers warning again!!!) Tony has become Antonia in the movie. I literally saw one that was like “I can’t believe Taskmaster Is some Russian woman!” with comments that she was a waste.

I was like, wow, you really missed the point of the movie. They are all just some woman! None of them are trash! If Natasha can have a movie, then Antonia could too!

Argh I mean the use of the term “waste” when the film talked about them (pigs, things, renewable resources).

I thought that was an interesting twist given the subject matter. It wouldn’t work for Dreykov to use a man because he respects men. I thought it was effective in context.

I will admit that I am VERY curious about Olga Kurylenko as the actress for Antonia. There are some shots where her head seems to be CGIed on a man’s body. So I wondered if there was some story there. She was one of the top billed names in the opening, I thought. I’m not really familiar with her work and if she’s a great actress or not but she has appeared in a James Bond movie (with Melina’s husband, not he older one Nat watches) and other films. But all she got to do was blink, really. And wear a facial prosthetic to try to convince us she wasn’t a literal model.

Antonia isn’t “freed” until the end so we can’t expect to see much personality, up until then, which I admit took away from some of the menace of Taskmaster. It’d be interesting to continue the character, perhaps with her taking on a role more similar to the comic book version. She could choose to be a villain or an antihero. It would’ve been interesting if she showed some lingering animosity toward Natasha and, as a result, the Avengers. It’d be nice to have a villain not be created by Tony Stark for a change. (Not that I want that to be Nat’s legacy but... well it’d be better than totally forgetting about her.)

And she’s got a LOT of abilities. If I were Val, I would be talking to her not Yelena. (Not that Yelena wasn’t great.)

She could call herself Tony Masters because fuck her dad’s name, that’s why.

I would love to see an actual disabled person play the part? If Marvel isn’t committed to Kurylenko? Idk