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Fans express early disappointment about Taskmaster in Marvel's new Black Widow film

Minimal spoilers for Black Widow

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Posted by John 'Velociraptor' Guerrero • July 9, 2021 at 1:05 p.m. PDT • Comments: 92

Taskmaster isn't the most common character when it comes to fighting games, but he was a welcomed part of the Marvel vs. Capcom 3 roster and wound up being a bigger hit among fighting game fans than his relatively smaller reputation would have led us to predict.

The copy cat villain is back in the public eye as an antagonist in Marvel's new Black Widow film (which released Friday) and is now trending on Twitter, but many are expressing disappointment with how the character was handled. Very minimal spoilers for Black Widow ahead.

It seems those who are taking issue are doing so for two main reasons, the first of which has to do with alterations filmmakers made to the character's traditional identity. The second reason is somewhat tied to the first as fans don't seem thrilled about the lack of development Taskmaster actually gets during the course of the film.

As we saw in the promotional material, Taskmaster's appearance changed a decent bit from his more traditional look. Where one might argue traditional Taskmaster looks closer to a figure you might find in a Dungeons and Dragons atmosphere, the new fits much more into a military, G.I. Joe sort of setting.

At one point in Black Widow, the character takes off their helmet to reveal more of their identity. Said reveal is the subject of some of these tweets, and doesn't seem to have the impact filmmakers were hoping for... at least not at this early stage.

We have to admit we were particularly struck by one tweet in particular that compared Taskmaster to two other less than well-received superhero villains who underwent similar amounts of change to fit the live action films they wound up in.

Here are a few more Twitter responses for the trending topic that caught our eye. Again, at this early stage in the game, the jury is still mostly out as a huge portion of the public hasn't had a chance to check out the new film yet. We'd love to hear your thoughts on Taskmaster and on Black Widow as a whole in the comments, especially if you've had the opportunity to see the movie.

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