Arcade

"Ladies, Gentlemen an' children of all ages -- Arcade proudly welcomes you to Murderworld. Where nobody ever survives!!"

Arcade is a murderous villain from Marvel comics and an enemy of Spider-Man, the X-Men and many other heroes.

History


Arcade gave differing accounts of his past life, and as yet there is no evidence to substantiate any of those accounts. Apparently Arcade told falsehoods about his past to mislead and confuse his opponents for his own amusement.

One of Arcade's accounts stated that he was the spoiled son of a millionaire living in Beverley Hills, California, and killed his own father to acquire his vast sums of money. In killing his father, Arcade discovered that he had a talent and liking for murder. He therefore became an assassin, but was soon bored with killing by ordinary means, and used his great wealth to construct hidden complexes of high-tech death traps designed in the manner of an amusement park.

Arcade killed victims by trapping them within his "Murderworld" for whomever would pay the millions he charged. To Arcade, the game itself was more important than the expense or even the winning. Arcade was also contracted to kill various super heroes, from common foes like Spider-Man and the X-Men, to other targets like Puck and Northstar of Alpha Flight, and Ghost Rider, but these attempts always resulted in failure. Occasionally, Arcade held personal grudges against heroes, trying to kill them for free, such as Captain Britain.

Arcade killed his long-time assistant Miss Locke and mutilated his own face during a plot to frame Wolverine in a complex "Jack the Ripper"-like series of murders. His plot was defeated by Wolverine, Gambit, and his former ally Mastermind (Martinique Jason), the daughter of Mastermind, who left Arcade in a state of delusion.

At some point, Arcade recovered, and returned to his usual modus operandi, capturing heroes such as Spider-Man and the Black Cat but escaping capture.

Arcade and White Rabbit attempted to kill Wolverine and the Black Cat but failed. He appeared to have a relationship with White Rabbit but they broke up.

Recently, he created a new Murderworld, where he battled the New Avengers, but failed.

Arcade had a relation with Miss Locke but preferred to kill her instead of getting too close to her.

Avengers Arena
Throwing a party at his estate for his 29th birthday, Arcade learned that he was being made fun of by the super-villain community. In despair, Arcade let himself be attacked by his new assistant Miss Coriander (having forgotten that he requested she kill him as a "birthday gift"). In the hospital, Arcade admitted to Miss Coriander that he was no longer satisfied with merely playing, as he realized that "winning is everything".

After recovering and giving Miss Coriander his Murder Island to her as severence pay, Arcade fled to his bar, The Hole, in Central Bagalia. As he sat drinking, he was burgled by one of the villains who had made fun of him, Constrictor, but Arcade tricked Constrictor into killing himself on one of the bar's hidden traps. From this incident, Arcade gained a renewed interest in his career and rehired Miss Coriander to help him create a new Murderworld in Antartica. Miss Coriander also provided Arcade a special suit that allowed him to emulate a wide range of superpowers while inside Murderworld's confines.

Inspired by one of his favorite books, Arcade then kidnapped sixteen teenage superheroes (the Avengers Academy's Hazmat, Mettle, X-23, Reptil (Humberto Lopez) and Juston Seyfert, the Runaways' Nico Minoru and Chase Stein, Kid Briton, Ryker, Anachronism, Nara, Apex, Bloodstone, Red Raven, Cammi and Darkhawk) and trapped them in his new Murderworld, telling them that they would be trapped there for a month and would have to kill each other to survive. This, of course, caused the heroes to attack him. However, Arcade used his nanomachine-laced suit to counter their attacks. He then told them to chose the 'weak link' of the group, and that he'd kill that person first. As Hazmat continued attacking him, Arcade chose her for the group until Mettle offered himself in her place. Arcade complied, blowing him to pieces before leaving.

After the young heroes were liberated, Arcade was killed by Hazmat in Bagalia, while she and other survivors of Murder World were trying to infiltrate the Masters of Evil. However, it was revealed that he was actually alive and was imprisoned in a cell next to Cammi.

Powers and Abilities
Arcade possesses no significant or super-enhanced powers; however, he does have knowledgeable-level intelligence especially in engineering and weapons design. He uses his skills to create various "Murderworlds" around the world-- complexes of deathtraps run with highly-advanced computer systems and technology.