There are some ‘minor’ characters that we, as comic book fans, become irrationally drawn to. I’ve got a friend, for instance, who will buy any comic Star Fox is in. I myself have always had a special place in my heart for Taskmaster.From the first time I saw him fighting Spiderman through his guest appearances in Gail Simone’s Deadpool/Agent X I’ve always been fascinated by the skull-face, pirate-attired super bad-ass. He’s got an awesome power, an awesome look (whether classic or UDON-ed up) and he’s been around for thirty years, but is still pretty much a blank slate. I was intrigued to see what Fred Van Lente would do with him in a new mini-series.

Van Lente has a reputation for writing out-and-out fun comics – most notably his run on Hercules with Greg Pak – and he lives up to that reputation here. Anyone who has read Marvel comics for any length of time knows how ridiculous the terrorist organizations in the Marvel Universe are. I love HYDRA and AIM, but at their core they are ridiculous men in bright green or yellow suits. Van Lente delights in this by loading the book with some of the more absurd corners of the criminal underworld and inventing some of his own that don’t seem at all out of place despite being quite quite bizarre. The ensuing huge fight scene is just great comic book action. I’m not familiar with Jefté Palo as an artist, but he really hits it out of the park in the action sequences. I’m a sucker for how the art represents Tasky’s abilities and Palo’s art combines with Jean-Francois Beaulieu’s colours perfectly to create a ‘gritty’ but still fun look that suits the book to a tee.

This comic doesn’t really break any new ground, but it doesn’t have to. It’s a simple story of a framed man on the run from the very people who used to look up to him with an innocent bystander caught in the middle and a shadowy organisation behind it all. That story has been done many times before, but Van Lente is able to put a fresh spin on it. He uses Taskmaster’s status as a relative blank-state not as an opportunity to build some complicated backstory of his own, but as a plot point. Taskmaster isn’t just a man in search of who set him up, he’s also searching for himself. Van Lente throws us the big question of what happens when one man puts so much focus on being the best at what he does that he has no room to remember who he really is. It’s an intriguing spin on the character and I think it’ll ultimately prove to be the best thing about the series as it plays out.

Taskmaster #1 may not be a game-changing comic, but it doesn’t try to be. Sure, Scarlet is perhaps more important and One Month To Live perhaps more groundbreaking, but for my money Van Lente and Palo have put out the most enjoyable book of the week. And what more do you really need?