Art by John Byrne, Terry Austin, and Glynis Wein
- Name: Unknown
- Code Names: Arcade
- First Appearance: Marvel Team-Up #66 (Feb ’78)
- Powers: None
- Teams Affiliation: None
Say what you will about the Comics Code Authority, and there are plenty of negative things to be said, but it allowed the genre trappings of superhero comics to evolve in a unique way. So many villains, and heroes for that matter, became reliant on gimmicks to make them stand out in a crowd. This could become grating and miserable when done poorly, but with the right creative team, something amazing happens. Arcade is a character who you can tell but a single story with. He puts heroes in an elaborate death trap and they eventually escape. There is no drama, no twist, just a straight forward cape comic. The difference is that his gimmick allows writers and artists to go bananas with their creativity and do something that no other medium would allow.
Arcade was created by the legendary duo of Chris Claremont and John Byrne for an issue of Marvel Team-Up that introduced Captain Britain to the American audience. The Maggia paid Arcade to assassinate Captain Britain and Arcade attempted to do so with his usual flair. Captain Britain and his new roommate, the amazing Spider-Man, awoke in giant pinballs on a massive pinball table of death. Things looked grim but Arcade was a man of sport. He had never seen the fun in just killing his targets. He wanted to give them hope, a sliver of a chance to escape, and he relished watching the heroes looks for an out to their situation. Spider-Man and Captain Britain were able to escape with their lives and it impressed the contract killer, Arcade was always up for a challenge and vowed to make a trap that could finish both heroes.
Art by John Byrne and Dave Hunt
So here is the beautiful thing, switch out the character names and the carnival gimmick and you pretty much have every Arcade story. Black Tom and Juggernaut paid him to attack their greatest foe, and Arcade accepted. He captured the X-Men right before the Dark Phoenix Saga and was able to transform Colossus into a communist super-soldier known as the Proletarian. The X-Men fought and escaped their death traps, you know, like the deadly bumper cars with razor sharp bumpers, and Arcade escaped. Rinse, lather, and repeat.
Art by John Byrne, Terry Austin, and Glynis Wein
He captured the X-Men several more times in the Bronze Age, often to save his life. His diligent assistant, Miss Locke enlisted the X-Men to rescue him from the clutches of Dr. Doom by capturing their loved ones. The X-Men begrudgingly accepted but sent a covert team of reserve X-Men to take away Arcade’s leverage. They were able to save their friends and family from the carnival traps and Storm was able to use villains’ odd fascination with her to set Arcade free.
Art by Dave Cockrum, Josef Rubinstein, and Glynis Wein
Art by June Brigman, Whilce Portacio, and Glynis Oliver
Arcade kept showing up as a fun villain to put heroes into interesting situations. He continued to show up in Excalibur, threw Wolverine and Gambit into Murderworld, battled Ghost Rider, and in another amazing pitch, tried to assassinate Shatterstar and Adam-X. Still, he stayed in the limelight until he targeted Rictor of X-Factor Investigations. Arcade erected a trap around the entirety of Mutant Town, the neighborhood X-Factor was located in and planted bombs around the area. These bombs were attached to a death trigger in the body of the Purifier’s leader Taylor, a man Rictor had wronged. X-Factor tried to talk Taylor out of his actions but the man was broken. All he wanted to see was the remainder of the mutant ghetto turned to ruins. He killed himself to ensure Mutant Town would burn, and Arcade got his biggest win yet.
Art by Pablo Raimondi and Jeromy Cox
On his 29th birthday, Arcade threw a massive bash. He invited the villain community but was devastated when he heard how much of a joke they thought he was. Wanting to prove himself he constructed a new, incredible, Murder World and filled it with sixteen teen heroes. There, he told the kids they had to kill each other until one remained. Being largely students of the Avengers Academy, he anticipated some resistance and his new suit made him nearly godlike in the arena. He told the kids to pick a weak link, a tribute to be sacrificed first. When no one was willing to make a choice he pointed to Hazmat, but her boyfriend Mettle volunteered in her stead. Arcade blew the boy away to the stunned faces of the other kids.
Art by Kev Walker and Frank Martin
This became the catalyst for the young kids to play right into Arcade’s hand. In the end, they were able to escape the new Murderworld and force Arcade into hiding, but not before they lost six of their own to his machinations. Worse, Arcade uploaded footage of their fights on YouTube, revealing just how wicked these kids could be.
Must Read
Arcade only works in one story, but he works well in it. He got the biggest spotlight in Avengers Arena but that was more as a facilitator, not a character. Literally, any of his Bronze Age X-Men appearances are worth reading, but I struggle to find one that stands out more than others. I was just browsing online and a found an old Bizarro Back Issues article by Arcade fanatic, and X-Men ’92 co-writer, Chris Sims that gave me the answer, Pizza Hut X-Men #4. Guys, in this amazingly 90’s book, Arcade infects the Danger Room and Cyclops and Bishop have to go into cyberspace to purge him with their questionable computer science knowledge. Turns out, it was just a test by Xavier (who is living up to his being a jerk), but that doesn’t stop it from being amazing. You can find this at Pizza Hut’s in 1993 or probably in the quarter bin at your comic shop.
Art by Mike Harris
Ranking
How do you rank someone who is immensely enjoyable but isn’t really a character? Arcade is a plot point and a force of nature, he isn’t really a person. That doesn’t mean I dislike him, far from it, I just don’t know if he is better than the top villain on the list (Apocalypse). Way back when I started this, I called Rachel Summers the X-Man I am most lukewarm about and let me tell you, I would rather read another Arcade story than one with Rachel. Kid Omega on the other hand I think has enough character development that I can’t rank Arcade above him. That leaves Strong Guy and I think Arcade squeaks ahead of him for the sheer fact that he is just more fun. That makes Arcade the new number 17 in the Xavier Files.
Arcade was requested by Tony on Patreon. Thanks for the request. If you want to cut to the front of the line like Tony, we have a Patreon if you want to support it and get a line cutting reward for just a $1 pledge. We just hit our first goal and are now working toward the $25 dollar goal where I review X-Books every week in some form, maybe even interpretative dance.
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Next week we jump down South for that bombshell belle, Rouge! See you then!
Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
