Fingered for a murder he didn’t commit - the death of Maria Hill, another comic book character who “dies” with the regularity that most people get seasonal colds - Taskmaster sets out to clear his name by saving the world from a doomsday machine called The Rubicon Trigger. Except the device can only be disarmed by three specific individuals in the same room at the same time: Phil Coulson, Okoye and Ami Han. But how to gather them? Unless you steal their biometric signatures and one person replicates all three. Enter: Marvel Skeletor!
Taskmaster: The Rubicon Trigger is the most contrived book I’ve read in years. I understand that most books are contrived to some degree but it’s too nakedly obvious in this one - like you’re basically reading Jed MacKay’s outline and notes rather than the finished product.
It’s too neatly set up: here’s the problem, and here’s the solution that only Taskmaster can do. Why does this doomsday machine exist so that only three very specific people can disarm it - were those three involved in its creation? It’s not mentioned that they were so why them? And it’s just the right number of people too for a five issue miniseries: issue one introduces the dilemma/character, issues two to four deals with each of the three individuals, and issue five wraps it all up.
Watching him work through each character is predictable enough - whatever the obstacle, we know Tony is going to get through it, because that’s the way this miniseries is constructed, so it’s never exciting to read - but it’s also not clear how his powers work. He can imitate people’s gait and body language, but can he do that just by watching someone from afar, rather than being in close proximity to them? If the latter, how long does he need?
Because in the first issue, he says he was watching champion golfers to prepare for his golf tournament - so could he have just looked at footage of Coulson, Okoye and Han rather than actually meet (and inevitably fight) them in person? I doubt many readers of this one will know the character well enough to know this so some further information would’ve been better to include.
Also, those three characters are “good” guys, right - couldn’t Fury just ask all three to gather to shut down this device and save the world (again), which is what they do anyway? Is it even necessary to involve Taskmaster - and why does he act exactly like Deadpool?!
Beyond-contrived setup, unentertaining story, and an inconsequential, convoluted ending, Taskmaster: The Rubicon Trigger is pointless, forgettable crap through and through.
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