Gourt Home::Gourt :: Arcade (comics)
Arcade is a fictional character and supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe. He first appeared in Marvel Team-Up volume 1 #65 (January 1978), and, because of the uniqueness of his mannerisms and deathtraps, he became one of the most popular villains in the Marvel Comics universe, and went on to do battle with many other superheroes in the Marvel Comics universe. Although the superheroes' confrontations with him rarely last more than one or two issues (making him more of a "guest villain," he has done battle with more different superheroes from more different franchises than any other comic book villain.
Character biography
A combination of evil genius and hitman, Arcade affects a manner of dress and speech that makes him appear to be a comedic character. This is part of his overall theme, which extends into his preferred method of murder, an underground Not-so-Fun House of colorful deathtraps, usually decked out in cheery colors and disguised as an amusement park, which he has dubbed "Murderworld".
Arcade's backstory, up to and including his real name, remains largely unknown even to this day. This is mainly the result of his uncanny knack for escaping once he has been defeated. Because of this dubious talent, Arcade has never once been captured and, consequently, all information about his life prior to his first appearance is what he has decided to disseminate. Given his propensity for deception, this origin story can hardly be taken at face value.
According to the man himself, he was born into an extremely wealthy family and lived for much of his early life in, depending on the telling, a ranch in Texas or a mansion in Beverly Hills. At the age of either eighteen or twenty-one, again depending on the telling, his allowance was cut off by his father, who declared that he did not deserve it. In retaliation, Arcade murdered his father, thus inheriting all of the man's vast estate.
Now independently wealthy and free to do as he pleased, Arcade became a freelance assassin, traveling across the world, killing people in rather mundane fashions, and amassing even more wealth than he already had. But he quickly grew bored with doing business as an ordinary hired killer and resolved to find a way to continue his work in a manner more suited to his sensibilities.
Discovering an aptitude for technology, Arcade designed and built Murderworld, a subterranean evil lair disguised as a very deadly amusement park. From this base, and with the help of two mysterious assistants named Miss Locke and Mr. Chambers, he reemerged as the world's most expensive hitman. For the price of $1 million (actually a token sum, since Arcade doesn't need the money and, in any case, never turns a profit), he will tailor Murderworld to exploit the specific weaknesses of his target and then watch, with unconcealed glee, as they are killed by the variety of colorful traps strewn throughout the facility.
However, one of his "gimmicks" is that he always deliberately leaves each target a small chance of survival. One time, when the girlfriend of one of his captives begged him "If you're going to kill them, at least have the decency to do it quickly, painlessly!" Arcade laughed and replied, "Decency's dull... besides, miss, your way, they're dead and that's that. My way, they've got a chance. Not much of one, but a chance." This sets Arcade notably apart from most other villains who use deathtraps, because while most villains believe that their death machines are infallible (an overconfidence that usually betrays them), Arcade likes to give them a chance on purpose, for the sport of it. This is one similarity with Batman's nemesis, The Joker, another villain who uses deathtraps just for the challenge.
Since his first attempt to slay the unlikely duo of Spider-Man and Captain Britain, Arcade has tangled, at one time or another, with a large number of heroes and teams of heroes. In addition to battling the X-Men, X-Factor, Alpha Flight, and Excalibur as groups, he has attempted to kill many individual members, usually in pairs. Examples of this include Gambit and Wolverine, Colossus and Shadowcat, and Iceman and Angel. Other would-be victims of Murderworld have included Longshot, Green Goblin (Phil Urich), Doctor Doom, Ghost Rider, and the Micronauts.
In Agent X #5, it was revealed that Arcade also has some doctor skills as he used them to save Agent X's life.
In recent comics, it was revealed that Madripoor Island-ruler Viper had bought one of Arcade's Murderworld, and caught the Queen of England and Storm's X.S.E.-team in it, though they eventually managed to escape from it even without their powers. Since then, Arcade has apparently returned to his criminal status, together with Ms. Locke, and had formed Murderland. He captured the Fantastic Four's Thing in it, together with some other costumed individuals, in the likes of Iron Man, Nighthawk and the Constrictor. He had the Thing battle robot-versions of all of the Hulk's past forms, such as Mr. Fixit and Maestro.
Powers and abilities
Arcade has no superhuman powers but is a bona fide genius with knowledge of technology far ahead of conventional science, particularly in the fields of robotics and mechanical and electrical engineering. Usually, when he appears to be captured it turns out to be a robot.
Other versions
In the Ultimate Universe, Arcade is portrayed as a gaming prodigy who invented a literal first-person shooter. His sister was killed by Magneto in the bridge explosion in Ultimate War, giving him a hatred of mutants. When the Ultimate Universe version of Longshot is found guilty of murdering a Genoshan politician, he is sentenced to participate in a reality TV show in which he is stranded on an island and hunted by Arcade. As Arcade makes his way through the island jungle, he encounters three X-Men trying to save the prisoner. He dispatches them easily, though, and is about to kill Ultimate Nightcrawler when Longshot knocks him unconscious.
Similarly, the television series Evolution reimagines Arcade as a high-school gamer named Webber Torque (who calls himself Arcade), who is tricked by a disguised Mystique into believing that the X-Men's mansion security console and Danger Room is an elaborate video game and using it to attack the X-Men, who he believes to be game characters. Despite nearly killing the X-Men, this version of Arcade is not evil, and apologizes for having played the "video game" without permission. Oddly he does not recognize any of them to be the X-Men, or as his friends.
In the 1980's television series, "Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends", Arcade is portrayed as a half-rate supervillian with a pixelized appearance and reign over all things electronic.
in video games
Arcade appears as the main villian in the video game "Spiderman X-Men: Arcade's revenge" (1992) for the Super Nintendo Entertainment system.
External Links
Fictional American comics characters | Fictional New Yorkers | Ghost Rider villains | Spider-Man villains | X-Men villains
"Arcade (comics)"