The next time Taskmaster got a mini-series all his own, it was after Siege had wrapped up. Taskmaster had been working for Osborn, but in the aftermath, finds a huge bounty placed on his head by the mysterious "Organization" he often works for, claiming he's actually a mole for Steve Rogers. Taskmaster has to track down the Organization to find out what's going on, and an innocent waitress named Mercedes gets sucked into the whole mess.
It's made messier because of how Fred van Lente treats Taskmaster's power. The first mini-series treated Taskmaster as essentially a mutant, having had his photographic reflexes since childhood, and with perfect recall of his entire life. van Lente changes it so Taskmaster didn't get these abilities until he was an adult, and that they're artificial in original.
What's more, and what creates all sorts of problems, is that while Taskmaster's excellent at recalling specific skills, he can't hold on to the context of how he acquired them. He can speak German, but can't recall when he learned it. Certain things act as triggers in his "memory palace", but it requires a step-by-step process through his past to get to the truth, which is far different from what he thinks.
In that sense, the story is grim and more than a little sad. Taskmaster endlessly repeating the same sin, feeling the guilt without remembering the cause. At the same time, van Lente and Jefte Palo also fill the book with bizarre concepts that seem more than a little tongue-in-cheek.
AIM agents preparing to attack Taskmaster by activating performance enhancers that make them bulk up, while they chant "Death. By. SCIENCE!" The Don of the Dead, a SHIELD agent turned costumed cartel leader, who performs songs about his exploits to keep the people loyal to him. A Bavarian castle in the Andes full of copies of Hitler's brain, with an entire village of Peruvians convinced they're Hitler.
Oh, and the guy truly behind everything is a no-name who survived working for every secret organization ever and refers to his new group as the Minions' International Liberation Front. Yeah, the initials spell exactly what you think they do. So, it's kind of crazy, but it keeps things from getting too heavy before the real emotional payoff at the end.
Palo's art is much more textured and rougher than the Udon Studios' guys. No manga influence. His Taskmaster doesn't show off the same fluid grace theirs did, tends towards quick and to the point violence. When Taskmaster uses someone's skills, Palo will overlay a greyed panel of that character on Taskmaster. It's makes for a nice contrast. The Udon guys with tend to draw Taskmaster starting a move, and then an after-image of whoever he'd copied might finish it. More than one after image if he switch from say, Daredevil to Spider-Man while navigating a laser security grid.
It made the process seem fluid, while Palo's makes it something that switches on and off abruptly. Use skill, turn off skill. Activate other skill. It makes sense, with the story suggesting the more he learns the more it crowds out his memories. Don't give the skills any more space in his skull than he can afford.
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