Arcade

Arcade is a hitman who is often hired to take out irksome heroes. While he is normally rather successful, Arcade rarely fares well against true superheroes. Despite his prowess in killing people, Arcade refuses to kill them in typical ways, preferring instead to build giant death traps called Murderworlds to kill them, enjoying the game itself more than the actual murder. Due to his inability to kill anyone of consequence, and his exuberant mannerisms, Arcade's reputation among the villain community has declined rapidly, and even young superheroes such as Hazmat have cited him as "the worst bad guy ever."

Arcade was the only son of an incredibly wealthy man. His father despised him for his childish fixation on toys, resulting in an abusive childhood. Fed up with Arcade's continued self-indulgence, his father cut off his trust fund on his twenty-first birthday. In retaliation, Arcade planted a bomb in his father's car and killed him, setting him on a path of murder and villainy by becoming an assassin, adding to his already vast inheritance. In time he became bored with the methods he used for his craft and decided to come up other ways of killing the people he was hired to kill. Combining two of his favorite past-times, Arcade began designing facilities catered to specific weaknesses and fears of his victims, charging one million dollars as his fee and becoming the most sought after assassin in the world. Naming these creations Murderworld, Arcade hired Miss Locke, a martial arts expert and Mr. Chambers, an engineer, to be his assistants and referred to himself as Arcade from then on.

Appearance: Arcade has fair skin. His wavy orange hair reaches the nape of his neck. His eyes are blue. He wears a white tuxedo tailcoat featuring wide lapels. Beneath the jacket, a green waistcoat displays a textured diamond pattern and red piping along the edges. Three gold buttons fasten the vest. Under the vest, he wears a green dress shirt covered in a pattern of small red circles. A large yellow bow tie is knotted at his collar. His hands are encased in white gloves. A black belt with a silver rectangular buckle sits at his waist. He wears white dress trousers. His feet are shod in white shoes featuring red soles and red trim.

Personality: Arcade was an incredibly spoiled and selfish child, traits that remained with him throughout his life. The abuse his father inflicted on him created a deep hatred, resulting in Arcade killing his father with no remorse and a taste for murder. A genius with above average understanding of technology, Arcade was mostly self taught and was solely responsible for the creation and outfitting of each Murderworld he created. Deriving an intense enjoyment of viewing his victims suffer, he would remain in his control room and taunt them, considering it sporting of him to give people he abducted a chance -- albeit a tiny one - to escape. Arrogant and conspicuous, he especially enjoyed creating facilities with the look of fun houses and viewing his victims attempts at escape. Although he was well known having come into contact with many superheroes, he never succeeded in killing any of them and in turn, he always managed to avoid capture.

Self-taught and formally trained, Arcade is an expert in robotics, electronics, engineering, and technology based fields. Proficient in the use of alien Shi'ar technology, Arcade is also an expert computer hacker which assists him in creating environments matched to the fears of his victims. Although capable of hand to hand combat, Arcade makes it a point to avoid physical altercations.

Arcade does not have any extraordinary physical abilities or powers beyond that of an average man. However, when Nightmare teamed up with Arcade, a residue of the demon's fear-creating powers and magic may have remained. Arcade's ability to create Murderworlds tailored to his victims vulnerabilities were what made him most formidable, the environments designed for the express purpose of killing it's inhabitant(s). They can range in size considerably, from the size of a semi-truck to the size of an island and through the use of Shi'ar technology, Arcade was also able to place his victims within video game like worlds.

Arcade utilizes personal weapons and various modes of transportation to defend himself and to capture his victims. His intense need for entertainment has put him in many life threatening situations, making him lose focus and careless.

Rather than being a single location, Murderworld is the name given to the fairground/amusement park style deathtrap used by the assassin-for-hire Arcade. Utilizing sophisticated robotic and holographic systems, Arcade has frequently pitted various superheroes against Murderworld, sometimes for money and sometimes merely for the challenge. Arcade has built Murderworlds under Manhattan, on an island in the Caribbean Sea, in Antarctica, in England, on Coney Island, and numerous other locations around the world.