Arcade is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in 1978's Marvel Team-Up (vol. 1) #65, the creation of writer Chris Claremont and writer/artist John Byrne. The character is a combination of an evil genius and a hitman who carries out his assassinations via various elaborate traps, often referred to as Murderworld. Arcade's first intended victims were Spider-Man and Captain Britain but since Arcade's Murderworld games always leave the outcome up to chance the duo defeated Arcade and escaped with their lives. Over the years Arcade has targeted a multitude of Marvel heroes, often focusing on the X-Men and associated members of X-Factor, X-Force and Excalibur. In what is considered the "game changer" for Arcade, Avenger Arena, he managed to kidnap 16 super powered teens and forced them to fight each other for survival in his latest version of Murderworld; unlike most Murderworld schemes, this endeavor yielded several casualties.