ARCADE

 

ARCADE

Real Name: Harcourt Teesdale

First Appearance: Marvel Team-Up (Vol. 1) #65, January 1978

Powers: Arcade is a baseline human with no superhuman powers. However, he possesses a genius level I.Q. and has a natural aptitude for mechanics, architecture, and applied technology. A brilliant and innovative designer self-taught in many technological fields (including robotics, engineering, and electronics), Arcade can design and adapt most physical technologies to serve his ends. He applies his talents to the construction of amusement park-like complexes which he calls Murderworlds. He owns and has constructed multiple internationally-located Murderworlds and each consists of physical & holographic death-traps, complex robots, and vast control & communication systems. The smallest Murderworlds have been semi-truck sized and the largest is Murderland, but permanent Murderworlds exist in New York City, Paris, London, San Francisco, among other places; Donyell Taylor’s New Warriors once occupied a New York Murderworld. Each Murderworld is disguised and hidden both physically and with the latest in holographic distractions; police led to a Murderworld’s known location have been unable to detect them. Arguably the world’s most creative assassin, Arcade trains anyone willing to risk death in his facilities, and avidly seeks to acquire new technology by means foul and fair.

Arcade’s known technology includes headset-sized virtual reality devices, Shi’ar holographic Danger Room systems, transmutational devices capable of transforming living beings into computer programs (and back), sophisticated robots capable of duplicating the appearance, sound, and smell of those they’re modeled on, and his own stylized 747 jet. Arcade possesses myriad weapons and drugs capable of killing or incapacitating instantly, but he rarely uses these save to set up more interesting death-traps. Notable among these are garbage trucks, which engulf their victims and instantly drug them unconscious, and Arcade’s boutonnière, his personal weapon of last resort, which projects an instant unconsciousness-inducing gas. He has tapped large portions of Earth’s secure (and public) information networks and has access to large quantities of privileged information which he generally uses to create psychologically disturbing death scenarios tailored to individuals’ personal histories.

Arcade employs any number of henchmen, but only two generally see the inner workings of Murderworld: Mr. Chambers, a Scottish electrician/engineer, and Miss Locke, a martial arts expert, master of disguise, and Arcade’s second. Each can run Murderworld in Arcade’s absence.