Marvel Had Its Own Version of Jigsaw 27 Years Before Saw, and He Should Be an X

It has been 49 years since Marvel Comics introduced a villain who was a deadly gamesmaster, almost three decades before Saw brought Jigsaw to the world. Arcade is a hitman in Marvel Comics who doesn’t kill people in one-on-one battles. Instead, he is a gamesmaster who creates Murderworlds that serve as giant death traps. He then makes his money by tailoring them to specific superheroes for other villains who pay him exorbitant sums of money. He isn’t always successful, but his entire joy comes from watching the games themselves rather than from how many people actually die in his traps. However, every failure in his career has caused his reputation to drop.

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Despite that, Arcade’s Murderworlds have killed several heroes, and he has enjoyed a level of success over his career. His first appearance came on October 25, 1977, in Marvel Team-Up #65 by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. This saw Spider-Man teaming up with Captain Britain to deal with Arcade. However, since that time, he has become a villain to the X-Men more than to anyone else, and he would be perfect in an X-Men property when their era begins in the MCU.

Arcade Debuted in Marvel Comics 49 Years Ago

Arcade’s origin story remains a mystery, and while he has given different accounts of his past life, none of them have ever been substantiated. Instead, he has simply given falsehoods about his past to confuse his enemies, as well as for his own amusement. That is what makes Arcade really stand out. He isn’t an evil, vindictive villain. He is just a man who knows how to create great death rooms, and he does it because it amuses him and makes him happy. That is also a good reason why it is hard for heroes often struggle to defeat him.

In Marvel Team-Up #65, Brian Braddock (Captain Britain) comes to America as an exchange student and is immediately set up to live with Peter Parker, who is also attending the same university. Before they really have a chance to get to know each other, Arcade is introduced as the finest assassin in the world. The Maggia hires him to eliminate Brian Braddock because he is one of several people they believe might be Captain Britain, and while they are taking care of those in the U.K. and Europe, they want to hire Arcade to eliminate Brian in the United States.

After the obligatory battle between Captain Britain and Spider-Man, as all heroes must do when they first meet, they end up being captured by Arcade with a garbage truck trap. That led to the next issue, titled “Murder World,” and it was time to see Arcade’s first-ever deadly games, at least in the pages of Marvel Comics. In this case, it was a literal game, as Spider-Man and Captain Britain were stuck in a giant pinball machine that Arcade was playing. This led to several unique death traps, but Spider-Man and Captain Britain escaped, as did Arcade, who claimed he would rebuild and this time invite Spider-Man back for a rematch.

Arcade Has Proven to Be Marvel’s Deadliest Gamesmaster

While it seemed that Arcade would become a Spider-Man villain, he instead ended up focusing more attention on the mutants and became an X-Men villain over time. However, while he gave the various X-Men teams a lot of problems over the years, his deadliest games came in the pages of Avengers Arena by Dennis Hopeless and Kev Walker. This was an 18-issue ongoing series that saw Arcade abduct 16 young heroes and send them into Murderworld, where they had to kill or be killed.

These captives included three members of Avengers Academy, among them Mettle, who was killed in the very first issue of the series. There were five members of Braddock Academy, with Apex, Kid Briton, and Nara all killed in the series. In an ironic twist, Kid Briton was a teenage variant of Brian Braddock, tying him back to Arcade’s Marvel debut. Nico Minoru of the Runaways was also killed, although her Staff of One resurrected her. Finally, Juston Seyfert and Red Raven were both killed, making Arcade’s death total an impressive seven, with one of them resurrected.

While the future of the X-Men in the MCU remains a mystery, the only real indication of their conflicts is Mister Sinister. That said, it would be a great place to bring in Arcade. There have been rumors of Disney+ shows based on mutants, and there will be mutant-based spinoffs; Arcade could be great in one of those. He was the main villain in Uncanny X-Men #123–124, by Claremont and Byrne, the same team that created him in Marvel Team-Up. If the MCU wants to bring in someone fresh, having Arcade in a New Mutants or X-Force project could be the way to go.

What are your thoughts on Arcade being part of the MCU’s X-Men reboot? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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