From this I was thinking what could the theme be? If you do not know how Taskmaster works he has the power of Photographic reflexes which means he can learn anything from seeing it once. This makes him an excellent villain who can copy all the good guys and of course we can easily find similar powers like e.g anyone from the Uchiha family in Naruto, So that would be an easy Theme, but I been thinking for a while is the power really why I like Taskmaster so much, while it does feel like relateable power to me in real life.
But what he truly is about is his realistic and pragmatic view of being a villain.
And that is why my theme is
Realistic Pragmatic Villains
This is not about anti-heroes or anti-villains etc this is about Villains who now their limitations and who acts like a real person would, but with super powers and with an evil/selfish agenda.
See I am so tired of the classic, super intelligent villain with great powers but they cannot think out the simplest reasonable plan to beat the good guys. I want a theme about villains that makes some god dam sense (ignoring what their actual powers are if any).
This is Taskmasters aka Tony Masters (yeah named for destiny) first appearance (The Avengers vol. 1 #195 (May 1980)). And this is the villains I hope we all can look up to.
Look how he easily defeats Captain America and Iron Man single-handily (yes this is canon, he easily beats them!).
BUT! He does not try to stay and fight the rest of the avengers, where Ultron or Kang would get hybris and laugh at how easily they could beat Cap and Iron Man, they will always stay and FAIL versus the rest of the good guys.
This is where Taskmaster show he is a true genius intellect. Also note that of course he is considering that this could be his chance to kill the famous heroes and become famous, he is evil and greedy after all. This theme is about relateable villains that displays realistic behavior mainly through pragmatic view of the world.
Taskmaster is a villain who have always managed to escape prison as if he ever loses to the good guys he simply joins them as a shield agent, he has made sure that both Nick Fury and The Red Skulle has is back.
He also goes for the path with least resistance, he mainly works as a trainer for Red Skulle henchmen or as a shield agent trainer, this results in him being a millionaire, while staying completely out of the chance of getting injured, be imprisoned etc. He further, also uses his power to be good at sports, cooking, gambling or normal jobs, e.g being a star quarterback. Basically he uses his powers like a sane person would. Trying to just have a comfortable live as possible. (Probably why he works as Deadpool´s best friend/Rival as he is the opposite of Deadpool´s uncontrolled insanity)
So know when you as me know how cool Taskmaster is and lets not talk about his retcon, that never happened.
The item we want for Taskmaster is a T-Shirt so we can walk around showing that we know what a good villain is.
Item 1: T-Shirt with Taskmaster (Marvel)
This is probably what I would go for or any of the Udon comics when he has a more slim look without the cloak e.g
Item 2: Pod Head With Doflamingo Donquixote (One Piece).
Doflmaningo like Taskmaster likes to play both sides, he knows he is not the strongest character in the One Piece world. And he makes sure to be protected by both the Yonkou Kaido and by the world government by their admirals, he has achieved his dream of being the a god of his own country and he knows not to underestimate Luffy and the other main characters. He is actually the only villain so far to plan ahead and he actually believes the Strawhats to be a treat, on the same time he is also shows a clear pragmatic understanding of moral and ethics, in his classic speech where he declares that how the winner is always justice, how Pirates or the Navy are the good guys depending on who wins and he makes sure to be in the middle so he can easily pick the wining side.
It already exist 4 Pop Head of One Piece Characters. But they are all good guys
And Doflamingo´s evil grin is the perfect Pop head art.
Item 3: Poster art by Akihiko Yoshida
Time for some gaming culture, who is Akihiko Yoshida? He is the man behind art from Ogre Battle all the Ivalice art(FFT,Vagrant Story, FF12 etc) to latest Nier:automata.
For example this modern classic art is made by him with B2,9s and A2:
While Nier, for sure had a a lot of moral ambiguity this about villains right, you know what classic games you where kinda the villain. The classic Tactics Ogre let us cling toghter.
In Tactics Ogre everyone was fighting everyone, no one of the evil guys where really evil, depending on your decision you would either fight your best friend and former leader while for the masses of the game you where the evil person, or you could join them because they where not truly evil. Well basically all the Yasumi Matsuno games are crazy political dramas so everyone is kinda evil, everyone is kinda of a villain and everyone kinda makes sense.
This classic art from Tactics ogre: Let us cling together by Akihiko Yoshida show casing a bunch of kinda villainous character.
4 Item: Landscape Crate Art by Akihiko Yoshida
So as a side note I would also illustrate the inside crate box art with some inspiration by Akihiko Yoshida many amazing landscape art.
Item 5: Wesker´s Glasses (Resident evil)
While we are at game characters, lets not forget Albert Wesker
So suddenly you live in a Zombie apocalypse. What is the best solution hide away and hope you survive for a while? Or turn yourself into a human with zombie powers, not losing your sanity. Yeah easy pick not only is Wesker´s general planing and execution brilliant but his way of turning himself immune to the normal zombies by becoming something in between is a motivation we should all use the day the Zombies comes.
Item 6: Vegeta Blue Plush (Dragon Ball)
The most classic manga/anime villain Vegeta
While Vegeta might to the first glance feel like a typical pure evil planet destroyer. Lets not forget his first appearance in Dragon Ball.
Now Vegeta did end up with Bulma and get 2 kids (Half humans). But he showed a great pragmatic view of it, way breed someone stronger them yourself? In Super we see him not trying to even fight Beerus knowing his strength. Overall, Vegeta has truly grown to be the most realistic and reasonable character of Dragon Ball especially in the newest Super Anime. Where he also show he has as soft spot for Bulma, for this I would love to get a soft Super Sayin Blue Vegeta Plush.
Item 7: Kingpin Cane Pin (Marvel)
Lets go back to comics and Marvel, for some small replica items. I think it would be really cool to get a small version of the classic Kingpin cane.
So like this cane but a small version as a clothing pin, perfect for that Taskmaster T-shirt.
Why Kingpin, hes yet another character who has always struggled of just making money and some dam heroes attacks him. Yet he has many times helped the heroes when its benefaction for him. Hes a huge anti plot armor unless those times when helps the good side :)
Item 8: Red Skull Button (Marvel)
I would like button for your t-shirt based on Red Skull primarily from the Uncanny Avengers version or the classic Dell Rusk disguise, when he tries to take over the US in a political way.
This face but on a button
+
The Vote for Red Skull text on it.
Why the Red Skull, while he is more classical evil then the rest he has learned and realized that he cannot beat the heroes in a battle, in straight combat. So he has taken his later plans by trying to trick people to give him the power.
Ok that concludes my Dream Crate from Loot Crate, a mix of Marvel comics, manga/anime characters and some classic game art and villains.
I am probably gonna end up doing some half related video about where I try to explain why story telling need more villains like this, villains that you actually can say, "I would have done the same".
