First Appearance of Taskmaster: Avengers #195 vs #196

Taskmaster first appeared in a brief cameo in The Avengers #195, cover-dated May 1980, and made his full debut in The Avengers #196, cover-dated June 1980. Both were written by David Michelinie and drawn by George Pérez (Wikipedia). PriceCharting lists #195 as "1st Appearance (Cameo) Taskmaster" and #196 as the first appearance of Taskmaster.

In practice collectors treat #196 as the main key and #195 as the cheaper cameo book, and the prices below show how wide the gap is.

Taskmaster is Anthony "Tony" Masters. His power, which Wikipedia calls photographic reflexes, lets him copy any physical movement he sees immediately and precisely, which is why he fights with the moves of the heroes he has watched. Later stories added a cost: each new technique he takes in pushes out existing memories, so his own past keeps eroding (Wikipedia).

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Black Widow (2021) made Taskmaster a woman, Antonia Dreykov, played by Olga Kurylenko, who completes missions for the Red Room until Natasha Romanoff undoes her brainwashing (Wikipedia).

PriceCharting values retrieved September 25, 2026:

• The Avengers #196 (first full Taskmaster): ungraded $38.63 (about three sales a week); 4.0 $42.83; 6.0 $44.00; 8.0 $86.75; 9.2 $123.85; 9.8 $625.00 (about one sale a month)
• The Avengers #195 (cameo): ungraded $8.01 (about two sales a week); 4.0 $22.64; 6.0 $50.18; 8.0 $71.82; 9.2 $93.00; 9.8 $105.00 (about two sales a year)

In 9.8 the full-appearance issue is worth about six times the cameo on the same date, while in 8.0 and 9.2 the two are much closer. The #195 figures rest on only a few sales a year, so they can move a lot. PriceCharting figures are estimates built from recorded sales of CGC-graded copies; when a grade trades only about once a year, one sale can push it above the next grade up.

A cameo is a brief showing, often a panel or two, before the character's real introduction. Collectors pay most for the first full appearance, and the Taskmaster prices are a clear example. When a listing says "1st appearance" for #195, it is correct but refers to the cameo; the story that introduces Taskmaster is in #196. Read what makes a key issue for how collectors rank these.

Photograph the front cover straight on, then the indicia (the small print on the first page or inside cover with the title, issue number and date). ComicLens reads the title, issue number and cover from the photo, matches the likely issue with a confidence indicator you can correct by hand, and shows a reference price range that moves with the grade you pick. For The Avengers #196, make sure the number reads 196 and not 195, since the cameo issue is worth far less in high grade. There are free scans every day; the range is a reference estimate, not an appraisal or an offer.

Research and drafting were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed on this page. Prices are the figures shown by the named source on the date given; they change with the market. Pages we tried to open but could not read (Key Collector Comics, Reddit, Facebook, eBay and Fandom returned errors) are not used as sources.