Welcome to the big leagues for the best Street Leveler around. Rules are simple, two men enter, one man leaves. All fights are to the Death, KO, or Incap. All characters have what is considered standard gear to them. Winners move on to the next round to earn respect and entertain the masses who wish to learn more about them. Without further ado here are today's contestants.
This guy is a martial arts assassin, the guy who can with a look mimic your moves. The Taskamster, and sporting his popular Udon Gear which makes any fight a up hill struggle.
In the other corner is the survivor of the Zombie apocalypse time and time again, a man who takes down hordes of biological nightmares with a pistol half the time. Leon Scott Kennedy.
Battle here starting 100 feet apart from the middle.
11 & 12: Makes his way through a laser grid by copying Spider-Man and Daredevil agility and reflexes.
13: Copies Punisher and Spider-Man reflexes to kill a couple guards.
There's another instance which I'm hesitant to mention, but when Taskmaster and Deadpool first fought, Taskmaster had time to identify, dodge, and announce Deadpool's movements.
All and all I see no real doubt as to who is faster of the two.
Strength/Striking Power
Now there there aren't too many feats of this, but I'll just lay some out.
@frisky4: So you were using scans from that respect thread, when he said if he did not know if it was around anymore I immediately found it and was going to post it. I did not because I thought to myself if you did not see it(strider's respect thread) then if I put it up I am only giving you more scans to argue with.
You have been using scans from it so I was cautious for no reason.
@frisky4: So you were using scans from that respect thread, when he said if he did not know if it was around anymore I immediately found it and was going to post it. I did not because I thought to myself if you did not see it(strider's respect thread) then if I put it up I am only giving you more scans to argue with.
You have been using scans from it so I was cautious for no reason.
Leon Scott Kennedy is one of the main characters of Capcom's Resident Evil franchise. A former police officer, Leon's very first day on the force had him swept up into the Raccoon City Outbreak, an international incident where the T-Virus leaked into the population and turned a city of over 300,000 citizens into deadly zombies and mutants. Despite his minimal training and lack of any real experience of any kind, Leon's will to survive and instinctive survival skills allowed him to fight his way through the city, confronting a myriad of powerful monsters and experiments beyond just your typical zombie, and be one of the less-than-dozen citizens to escape the city alive. After escaping, the United States Government saw in Leon the potential to be their greatest defense against bioterrorism, and blackmailed him into joining them. Trained to perfection by US-STRATCOM, one of nine Unified Combatant Commands of the United States Department of Defense, Leon's potential was quickly reached as he mastered every skill necessary to become the Government's one-man-army in favor of upholding national security. After over a decade of service and fighting, Leon has overcome every odd and defeated every opponent to ever stand in his way, be them superhumans, former rival agents, or even entire armies, and singlehandedly saved the nation and even the whole planet more times than anyone can count. Now he is the highest ranking and most respected agent in the entirety of the D.S.O, and only takes orders directly from the president himself.
Now before I hop into how and why Leon would eventually defeat Taskmaster, I'd first like to get into some quick scan debunking.
Speed/Agility/Reflexes
1: Catches a crescent dart thrown by Moon Knight from behind. Keep in mind Moon Knight has been able cut bullets in half with those same darts.
True Moon Knight can usually intercept bullets with his darts, but he was also half dead when he tossed one at Taskmaster. Still impressive but I imagine a gallon of blood loss would have affected him, regardless of how much pain he can handle.
3: Just some gunblitzing.
Taskmaster was pretending to be one of the guards and shot them all from behind when they were completely off guard. Not impressive, anyone could have done that. If you wanna talk about draw speed, you'd be hard pressed to prove Taskmaster has an edge over Leon Kennedy. He's completely on par with Chris Redfield, a man who's training and gun handling is so refined, he's able to beat superhumans like Albert Wesker on the quickdraw.
Chris beats Wesker on the draw and shoots the gun out of his handLeon however is able to match Chris
7: Jumps over and through bullets.
You mean jumps around randomly while bullets go all over the place. That's not speed, Taskmaster is just showboating and making all kinds of pointless moves while bullets miss him. Now I'm not saying he isn't a bullet timer, but Leon has him beat here, he's able to outrace actual walls of gunfire from squadrons of highly trained marksman and spec ops soldiers. Just like Taskmaster, speed and agility are Leon's main thing, but unlike Taskmaster that doesn't mean he's a show-off.
Let me put it this way: If Leon were one of those soldiers shooting while Taskmaster jumped around like an idiot, Tony would be dead. But if Taskmaster tried to shoot Leon in one of these scenes, nothing would change.
2: Catches a goddamn bullet.
4-6: Blitzes a bullet timer who was able to catch a bullet. He didn't lay a hand on Tony.
Well to be fair, the bullet catch is more of a trick or technique than sheer speed. Isley learned it and practiced it, and then Taskmaster learned it after seeing Isley do it, it's not a coincidence that that's the first time Taskmaster caught a bullet. Regardless it's still impressive and Isley is very fast, but then Taskmaster admitted he would have been creamed had it not been for his double speed, a technique which was completely forgotten about after UDON. Even if we count it, double speed could end up doing more harm than good since it causes extreme stress to Taskmaster's body. If Leon can just last long enough, Taskmaster will end up severely injuring himself, and then beating him from there should be easy.
You might say that Tony will be smart enough not to push his body too far, but honestly I think Taskmaster needs double speed in order to outmatch Leon. At their base levels, Leon might not be as fancy as Taskmaster and catch projectiles just for fun, but I don't think efficiency should be criticized, and his feats speak for themselves. If Taskmaster admitted that he couldn't keep up with Isley at his normal level, then he probably wouldn't be able to keep up with a Tyrant either, considering Tyrants are supposed to be the perfect bioengineered war machines who in addition to their immense power, can also deflect assault rifle fire off their arms from point blank range, catch missiles in between their fingers and redirect them back at the shooter, sidestep tank shells when their faces are pressed right against the turret, spin around and catch Lickers by the head in mid-leap, dash fast enough to leave after images, and speedblitz a character from 20 feet away who can dodge sniper rifle fire at point blank range. All in all, very comparable to Isley the bullet catcher, if not far faster (keep in mind rifle bullets travel at twice the speed of a pistol and then tank shells travel twice as fast as them). Tyrants are literally portrayed as capable of moving their bodies faster than bullets, and their reflexes match (meaning it's a lot easier to dodge a bullet since those only have one trajectory whereas a Tyrant is alive and can change the course of its attack). Safe to say that Taskmaster at his normal levels, both in terms of the double speed thing AND consistency of his feats, wouldn't last long against a Tyrant in close quarters combat, but Leon is able to take them on and outmaneuver them almost on a regular basis.
Granted he isn't fast enough to effortlessly dance around Tyrants, but at the same time it isn't the hardest thing in the world for him either, as long as he's focused he can dodge them forever, in all the games and movies he's literally only been tagged by a Tyrant once which was after getting blown off his feet with a rocket launcher (and it did work as you can see in the last gif with Leon in the Tyrant's clutches, but even in that position he was able to dodge it's punch) but other than that he's untouchable. So like I said, even though Leon doesn't pointlessly showboat and act like a Mexican jumping bean like Taskmaster does, that doesn't mean his abilities are any less than Taskmaster, continuously evading a Tyrant in close quarters combat is honestly about as good as it gets for a peak human.
8: Blocks a bullet with chains. Yes, that's Tony in the Deadpool suit.
Impressive.
9: Blitzes a room full of armed guards with his blades.
Well those were just average guys, they might have been impressed by Taskmaster's speed, but he probably wasn't actually moving any faster than Leon or most peak humans do. Killing five men in the time it takes someone to yell out "I-I can't get a bead on him! How can he move that fas-" isn't overly impressive.
He didn't catch the shield, he dodged it and then grabbed it when it bounced off a tree. The shield wasn't a purposeful ricochet by Cap either, it clearly hit the tree and just rebounded into the air, then fell on Taskmaster's hand. You might say that simply dodging Captain America's shield is impressive on it's own, but Cap doesn't throw his shield very hard against living opponents anyway, it's been intercepted by everyone from Punisher to Spider-Man to Deadpool. I'm pretty sure Leon could easily replicate that since he was able to sidestep his own knife when the Verdugo threw it towards his neck at superhuman speeds. The Verdugo itself can sprint almost faster than the eye can see, so the knife would have been even faster than that (people throw things faster than they can run)
11 & 12: Makes his way through a laser grid by copying Spider-Man and Daredevil agility and reflexes.
Not bad, although I think it's fairly obvious that Leon's laser room is much more impressive, namely because his lasers were moving. Taskmaster displayed Grade A acrobatic skill in that scan, but Leon required acrobatic skill AND inhuman reflexes in order to react to the lasers, to analyze their erratic movements in a split second and plan a way to slip his body through their field while coming only a few inches from contact with them. The lasers had no apparent pattern, they just went up and down and forward and back randomly, meaning Leon had to react that much quicker to get through them without being hit.
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I've honestly always thought of this as one of the best feats a street leveler (not just peak human) could have due to the combination of agility and reaction time Leon displays. Uncanny precision, I'm not sure if Taskmaster could replicate this.
13: Copies Punisher and Spider-Man reflexes to kill a couple guards.
He copied Punisher's gun skills, not Frank Castle's famed acrobatic talents. I don't think doing a backflip and shooting two helpless men is particularly impressive, anyone could have done that, all they need to do is know how to backflip, which is rather basic.
Very standard peak human feat, not impressed. Even at his most basic, Leon is still stronger since his melee moves in RE4 are comparable to the highest caliber firepower and can send superhumans flying and crack their skulls, and even bring the strongest of monsters to their knees with a single blow.
2: Cuts through Spider-Man's webbing.
How is that impressive? In fact how is it even strength related? Taskmaster used a sword.
Well the shield was made of pure energy, that might have had something to do with it, otherwise Taskmaster can apparently oneshot Iron Man nowadays. I guess he was lying when he told Spider-Man he couldn't copy the Hulk's strength.
4: Knocks away three people with one shield toss.
That's what the shield is for. Shields are extremely strong on their own and when you're throwing it with the technique of Captain America, you're bound to get results. So this isn't particularly impressive from a strength perspective.
Out of context. Elektra was kicking Taskmaster's ass in that fight until he mimicked Daredevil's style and threw her off emotionally, hence the closed eyes. None of his other styles were working, not even Elektra's own, and she was about to kill him. Taskmaster simply exploited a weakness, likely by complete accident, and one that Leon does not share anyway.
Out of context. This took place when Jessica was a rookie and had no feats. Congratulations to Taskmaster on his ability to beat up young woman. Later in Spider-Woman: Origin #3 when Jessica had more experience, she actually curbstomped Taskmaster while unarmed using his own sword, and didn't even use her powers until it was over.
Gallery
So that's both Elektra and Spider-Woman who have proven themselves superior to Taskmaster. In the Resident Evil series, there's a character called Ada Wong who I would say can definitely be considered a rival for either of them. She's a world class super spy and freelance agent, not much is known about her past but we do know that she is one of the most highly trained and respected fighters in the world, with nearly superhuman agility/flexibility arguably superior to even Leon himself. She was skilled enough to take on and outmaneuver a chainsaw J'avo in midair combat, which is powerful enough to knock people half a mile away with one hit, and obviously was also wielding a chainsaw, and when she was drugged by the Los Illuminados and offered as a sacrifice, she awoke the instant they swung an ax down on her through sheer instinct and managed to dodge it with an acrobatic maneuver. Suffice to say she is extremely skilled and was even able to sneak up right behind Leon and press a gun to his back without him knowing; this is what happened.
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He had her dead to rights in an instant.
One of Leon's strongest skills is his knife handling. It's worth noting that in H2H combat Leon and Ada would be on par, but having a knife in his hands just multiplies his skill. Keep that in mind. Even with his sword, I doubt Taskmaster would consistently treat someone of Ada Wong's caliber like canon fodder.
Not bad, but Hawkeye doesn't really set the standard for close quarters combat skill.
7-9: Takes down Venom.
That's Gargan, who hasn't taken him down?
10: Use of pressure points.
That's a nerve strike, not a pressure point (although now I'm just being an ass).Anyway it's decent knowledge, but the thing with nerve strikes/pressure points is that they require such an extreme level of precision, pulling them off in combat is next to impossible. Taskmaster used one on a giant who was laying completely still, that takes no skill at all, you and I could have done it if we just knew where the nerve was.
11: Knows Captain America's fighting style enough to teach it.
Impressive, but knowledge isn't skill.
12: Just taking on multiple soldiers.
Meh, Leon did that when he was handcuffed and unarmed.
Daken didn't seem to be in his right mind in those scans, and Taskmaster kind of sucker-smacked him with the shield. Not much skill displayed there.
15-16: Takes on Asgardian soldiers and beats them.
Not bad, although it would have been more impressive if he was unarmed. If he used his bare hands he would have needed a high degree of skill in order to compensate for their superhuman strength, but Taskmaster used a sword, so all he had to do was stab them, and the fact that he tricked one of them into killing the other proves that he wasn't competing with high class warriors or anything.
17: Easily beats Cat, the guy who consistently matches Shang-Chi.
Not easily, the narration used this as an example of an even fight, it only went quickly because there wasn't time in the issue to drag it out. Anyway Shang-Chi has never really been top tier going by feats, and he's always beaten Cat. So this just puts Taskmaster on par with Shang-Chi.
Durability/Pain Tolerance/Endurance
1: Despite being shot multiple times, he continues to jump around and fight.
2: Doesn't even realize he's been shot in the arm.
Impressive.
3: Is still standing from a blow from an angry Spider-Man.
To be fair, who hasn't tanked a blow from an angry Spider-Man at least once? Spider-Man kind of jobs when it comes to that, presumably he's still holding himself back, I mean just because he's mad doesn't mean he wants to kill. Recently when Taskmaster went against Superior Spider-Man who's morals are much looser, Otto treated him like canon fodder while fighting multiple other characters. I'm pretty sure we can all agree that a serious Spider-Man would punch Taskmaster's head off pretty easily. Now compare that to Leon tanking (not just surviving, tanking, as in he would get back up and be fine) blows from BOWs arguably evenstronger than Spider-Man when they were completely bloodlusted.
He's getting smacked and uppercutted 50 yards away or more straight into metal and cement, by monsters who explode armored SWAT officers and Lickers with their blows, then recovering instantly (and yes he does recover instantly, a gif can only be 10 seconds long so I can't really show the fight continuing, just take my word for it).
I honestly think that Leon and Chris both have the best durability of any video game peak human, possibly any peak human in general. It gets more ridiculous in RE6, prepare yourself. For now though, to be blunt I'm pretty sure Taskmaster can't even effect Leon without a weapon.
4: Seems to be okay after being hit by a car.
He didn't get hit by a car, he got punched into a (stationary) car by Daredevil, and then didn't get back up.
5: Gets up withing seconds of being hit by Spider-Woman's venom blast.
A hesitant blast from a rookie Spider-Woman. Still not bad though.
Conclusion: Despite some things worth pointing out in those scans, Taskmaster IS very fast, there's no way around that. However, his weakness has always been in the power department; guidebooks only list his strength and durability as Olympic rather than peak human, and his portrayal in the comics is consistent with this. At the same time, he has a lot of knowledge when it comes to fighting styles and techniques, but he's a bit of a jobber and is never really top tier. This leads me to believe that despite his immenseknowledge, Tony isn't really that skilled, at least compared to guys like Cap and Daredevil, he lacks that instinct. These are Leon's advantages. He is smarter, he is more versatile, and he is overall more physically advanced.
So let's examine this battle. Leon's prime advantages over Taskmaster are his tactical awareness, and weaponry. At a distance of 100 feet, Leon has the clear advantage, Taskmaster has copied the shooting technique of Hawkeye and Punisher, but as we've established that doesn't automatically translate into skill. I could argue Leon having accuracy not far off from either of the two originals, not to mention his arsenal of weaponry far surpasses the simple pistol Taskmaster usually carries around. When the battle begins Leon likely won't hesitate to let loose with the assault rifle, and here is where the problem comes: this environment has no cover. None that can stand up to gunfire at least.
Taskmaster literally has no defense against Leon's gunfire besides his own dodging skills, and he can only keep that up for so long, 100 feet is a LONG distance, and I don't trust Taskmaster's skill enough to say he can run through at least four or five whole clips of assault rifle ammo. Keep in mind that Leon's accuracy is next to perfect; in all the games and movies he's appeared in, he rarely ever misses a shot. That is saying a lot when every opponent he's ever faced besides Ada and Chris was a superhuman.
In this gif, Leon is being held at gunpoint by Krauser from about 50 or so feet away, and manages to toss his grapple hook the whole distance straight into the gun's nozzle so quickly that Krauser, despite being capable of dodging bullets, was unable to react.
He's also an expert knife thrower. He's able to chop thin ropes and impale Salazar's hand against a wall both from at least 20+ yards away. The fact that they're small targets is one thing, but Leon is so fast that his knife reached Salazar before the guy could move an inch, he doesn't even bother to properly aim and still maintains perfect accuracy. If Taskmaster gets an advantage but isn't expecting this skill, he could become cocky and give Leon an opening to surprise him either with a knife or his grapple hook.
And OBVIOUSLY Leon's skill with actual firearms trumps his ability to throw projectiles. Keep in mind that Leon isn't just accurate, he possesses what's called tactical accuracy. Obviously Taskmaster is a bullet timer and a pretty great one at that, a character can have perfect accuracy and it wouldn't matter because Tony Masters is faster than the bullets themselves. Agreed? Well that's where tactical accuracy comes in. Leon won't just be shooting at Taskmaster, he'll be shooting around Taskmaster, at where he's going to be, anticipating his movements and boxing him in, until eventually there's no where left to dodge and Taskmaster has to take the bullet. It might take two seconds, it might take 10 whole seconds of constant fire, doesn't matter because Taskmaster can't clear that distance in that time, and without any cover to hide behind, he's helpless.
One of Leon's best feats happens towards the end of Damnation. He and Buddy had just finished running a gauntlet of monsters and had almost no supplies left, only to get back in the city streets and find a Tyrant waiting for them. Buddy almost gives up right at that moment, but Leon just looks around and calmly formulates a plan to get rid of the monster. He charges forward and distracts the Tyrant on his own (that's where those gifs of Leon dodging it come from) while Buddy gathers his Lickers (Buddy could control them). Once Leon gives him the signal, Buddy sends his Lickers to attack the Tyrant whilst Leon falls back and loads up on incendiary rounds, and Buddy uses his Lickers to lure the Tyrant over to a gas tanker, where the Licker jumps onto the back of the tanker just as the Tyrant punches it. Basically Leon tricked the Tyrant into leaking the gas itself, but then the Tyrant is still blocking the leaking gas. This is where the accuracy comes in.
Leon fires two bursts of gunfire; one aimed at the Tyrant's head, which forces it to raise its arms in order to block, whilst the other burst slips right underneath its arm and impacts the Licker right where the droplets of gas are leaking out. Leon landed perfect precision headshots with little time to aim from an incredible distance.
Since Taskmaster has never faced a marksman of Leon's caliber, there's no reason to believe he can avoid getting shot up, and even if Leon can't land any fatal shots (giving Taskmaster MAJOR props here assuming that he can sprint through 100 feet of gunfire and avoid taking any serious shots), the wounds inflicted should be more than enough to allow him to beat Tony in close quarters combat.
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