The Taskmaster's only superhuman abilities were that of his photographic reflexes. He was able to duplicate almost any physical act he sees after seeing it done by someone else only once. Due to these reflexes, he can do things which border on superpowers. For instance Taskmaster has discovered that after watching martial arts movies on fast-forward he is able to briefly duplicate the moves at a greatly increased velocity, effectively giving him a limited form of super-speed. However, as he does not have any sort of enhanced endurance, this puts a great strain on his body and he is only able to fight in this manner for short periods of time or risk injuring himself.
He can also copy the subtle muscle movements of others so precisely that he can at times do things such as copying another persons voice so precisely as to fool voice recognition software. He can also do things such as figuring out the sleight of hand techniques of a master poker cheater simply by watching them. He can even duplicate the nearly superhuman abilities with thrown projectiles which Bullseye exhibits, or approximate the agility of someone like Spider-Man, at least up to a point that doesn't require superhuman effort. He is also capable of using this ability to master complex gymnastics routines and play difficult pieces of music. However, he typically prefers to use this ability to copy the combat skills, both armed and unarmed, of costumed crime-fighters and expert martial artists from around the world, typically seen through watching videos of them in combat situations. He has often shown the ability to actually predict an opponents next move before they make it if he has studied their fighting style enough. Opponents who are skilled at improvisational fighting styles, or who have a more random unpredictable style are less likely to have their moves predicted by Taskmaster (such as Deadpool). The Taskmaster is a master strategist and tactician (seen particularly in surprisingly successful combat against both Iron Man and two Captain Americas simultaneously during the Siege of Asgard).
Studied Characters: Taskmaster learned personal styles of these individuals from watching videos or from combat: Ant Man, Batroc, Black Widow, Boomerang, Bushwacker, Blacklash, Black Knight, Black Panther, Captain America, Genis-Vell, Cable, Daredevil, Elektra, Falcon, Fatale, Firestar, Gambit, Hawkeye, Iron Fist, Justice, Libra, Machete, Marc Spector, Oddball, Puma, Luke Cage, Punisher, Razorfist, Shockwave, Silverclaw, Silver Samurai, Spider-Man, Shatterstar, Swordsman, Tigra, Tumbler, US Agent, Warbird, Wolverine and Zaran.
Taskmaster is a defensive-minded all-around-character most suited to keep-away strategies and counterattacks, punishing any careless opponents who would rush in too quickly. In particular, his Guard Master attacks and Aegis Counter are useful counters to brutal rushdown characters like Wolverine or Zero, allowing Taskmaster to counter brash overhead or low-aimed attacks.
