ECHO

 

ECHO

Real Name: Maya Lopez

First Appearance: Daredevil (Vol. 2) #9, May 1999 (As Echo); New Avengers (Vol. 1) #11, September 2005 (As Ronin)

Powers: Echo possesses photographic reflexes: Anything she sees someone physically do, she can then duplicate. This refers only to physical actions, not superhuman powers, and is limited by her own body's fitness and ability to perform. Nonetheless, she has duplicated culinary skills by watching cooking shows, recreated observable musical talent like the piano, can fly or drive any vehicle like an expert after watching someone else do it, and has assimilated various fighting styles by watching martial artists in person or on video. This includes general disciplines such as kung fu or judo, and also the specific styles of individuals like Daredevil, Iron Fist, and Bullseye. After observing someone in action, she is generally able to anticipate and counter their every move, and can switch instantly between different fighting styles to keep her opponents off balance.

Maya has used various weapons in the past, such as a Vibranium-infused bo staff, nunchaku, throwing stars, tonfas, and a katana blade. Because she is deaf, Echo is virtually helpless in darkness, and so her Ronin outfit was apparently equipped with night vision lenses.

As a host for the Phoenix Force, Echo can draw power from the cosmic firebird. She can fly with the assistance of the Phoenix aura, using it as a defensive field, for propulsion, and to telekinetically strike out at her environment. Phoenix fire can burn like real flame, melting metals or igniting flammable materials. Echo uses the Phoenix Force to augment her strength by adding power to her blows. She can also conjure tangible constructs of Phoenix fire to express her learned skills, such as a piano or her tonfas. Maya sometimes manifests the Phoenix aura as a flock of normal sized firebirds instead of a single giant bird aura. She can direct these familiars at a distance or infuse Phoenix energy into other animals and lifeforms, using them as conduits and carriers for her power.

FINESSE

 

FINESSE

Real Name: Jeanne Foucault

First Appearance: Avengers Academy (Vol. 1) #1, August 2010

Powers: Finesse is a polymath, possessing an advanced mind and intuitive learning abilities. She believes herself to be the daughter of the Taskmaster, having inherited a version of his photographic reflexes. She is indeed capable of replicating any physical action or fighting style she observes, and keeps herself trained to the peak of human capability to make full use of her assimilated skills. Unlike the Taskmaster, Finesse actually possesses a more general intuitive learning capacity, beyond photographic reflexes. She has a eidetic memory and can rapidly assimilate other skills that are both purely cerebral in nature and cannot be learned through observation: She is self-taught in various languages, computer hacking and programming, lip-reading, etc. She is phenomenally observant, able to interpret body language for mild behavioral cues, and recognize datum and patterns that would typically escape the notice of others.

TASKMASTER

 

TASKMASTER

Real Name: Anthony Masters

First Appearance: Avengers (Vol. 1) #195, May 1980

Powers: The man who became the Taskmaster was biochemically enhanced by a mnemonic primer, an experimental solution which opened his mind to rapidly assimilating new skills and abilities. This gave him an ability most commonly referred to as "photographic reflexes". Through observation, Taskmaster can break down any form of simple or complex action and imprint it onto his implicit muscle memory. He can duplicate any action he sees, including playing a musical instrument, preparing a gourmet meal, performing rope tricks, etc. His skills are limited to what he can see: He can mimic the ability to play the piano, but not how to read sheet music, and watching someone play Beethoven's 2nd would not allow him to play Beethoven's 9th.

Taskmaster has mastered the fighting styles of numerous super-heroes and villains through personal contact or watching videos of them in action. Short exposure to their skills allows him to mimic specific moves, but extended observation has enabled him to perfectly duplicate their entire set of movements, attacks and counterattacks as one smooth fighting style. As a side-effect of his studies, Taskmaster can predict and reflexively defend against the attacks of anyone he has observed in-depth. He also mastered the skill of breaking down a fighting style after he intuitively learned it, enabling him to "manually" teach the style to the students at his various Academies.

Taskmaster is limited by his human physique in some cases: He cannot duplicate the Iron Fist, for instance, or Spider-Man's more elaborate leaping and bouncing. He can assimilate and "map" techniques onto his reflexes that are beyond his physical capabilities, but cannot fully mimic skills that require a superhuman physique to accomplish. He has accelerated his reflexes to near superhuman speeds at times by mimic techniques by video while watching them on fast-forward, but attempting to force his body to move that fast is extremely unhealthy and quickly exhausts him. He was also able to assimilate Redshirt's Shi'ar avian physique-based fighting style to predict his moves and mimic at least some of his actions, but not all of them.

In his original costume, Taskmaster employed a variety of weapons patterned after those used by super-heroes, letting him combat them with their own tricks. This included duplicates of Captain America's shield, Daredevil's billy club, Black Knight's sword, Hawkeye's bow and arrow, Punisher's guns, etc. Later on, he adopted a tactical body suit equipped with an image inducer for holographic disguises, a standard set of handguns and swords, and photonic weapon systems in his gauntlets that could generate energy-based shields, sais, and even webbing. Taskmaster was briefly able to augment his abilities through a procedure enabling him to outright mimic superhuman powers by observation, but this modification quickly faded away.

Eventually, the full side-effects of Taskmaster's powers were revealed. The "implicit" muscle memories he has assimilated over the years have largely overwritten his "explicit" memory: His personal history, childhood and so forth. He may be able to perfectly identify someone's accent, down to the country and region, but can't remember if he's ever personally been there. These personal memories still exist, but are buried deep within his subconscious most of the time. Learning new skills with his power buries any further memories he has developed since the last use of his powers. Taskmaster makes his way through life using a combination of his reflexive actions and the guidance of his wife Mercedes Merced, who poses as a representative of "The Org" that gives Taskmaster his assignments. Beyond that, he apparently relies upon elaborate bluffs and acting to make it through his every day existence.