Few Marvel villains lay a more accurate claim to being an equivalent toThe Jokerthan Arcade. The phrase"Marvel’s Joker"gets tossed around a lot, as everyone loves to compare and contrast heroes and villains, especially whenever pitting DC Comics against Marvel. Any antagonist can carry a maniacal laugh or a nihilistic philosophy for the world, but only one from Marvel truly embodies the spirit of what Joker represents.
Arcade made his comic book debut inMarvel Team-Up#65, published in 1977. He was introduced as an assassin hired to kill Bill Braddock, one of several individuals suspected of being Captain Britain. The story quickly established his ties to the criminal underworld and his flair for violence. Add the disturbed mind, ambiguous origins, real name, and unnerving laugh, and readers have for themselves almost a spitting image of The Joker. What truly embodiesThe Clown Prince of Crime’sspirit are the unhinged examples of evil on Arcade’s resume.
10Arcade Forced Young Heroes to Fight to the Death, Killing One in Front of His Girlfriend
Avengers Arena#1 by Dennis Hallum and Kev Walker
The sheer concept ofAvengers Arenais enough to earn Arcade some points as Marvel’s most heinous villain.He kidnaps a horde of superpowered teenagers to fight to the death for his own amusementinside Murderworld. He doesn’t stop there, as he threatens the life of Hazmat, one of thestrongest heroes you’ve never heard of. She was one of the most defiant of his captives, refusing to follow his orders. Moments before he tries to kill her, her boyfriend, Mettle, begs Arcade to take him instead. Without hesitation, Arcade obliges him.
Murderworld is the name of a virtual deathtrap-style amusement park created by Arcade himself. Murderworld first appears inMarvel Team-Up#66 by Chris Claremont and John Byrne.
The Joker has never hesitated to kill children in the DC Universe, but even he’s never created a battlefield to force them to kill each other for fun. Killing one of these kids in cold blood in front of his romantic partner just adds insult to injury.Maybe Arcade’s even more heinous than The Joker.
9Arcade Killed His Own Father to Steal His Money
Avengers Arena#7 by Dennis Hopeless and Alessandro Vitti
One of the similarities shared by The Joker and Arcade is that both have ambiguous origin stories. Much like how The Joker likens his backstory to having multiple-choice answers, Arcade has often given conflicting accounts of his upbringing. Most of these accounts don’t feature anyone who can corroborate his claims or provide evidence that he is telling the truth. One of these accounts sees him as the young heir to a billionaire’s fortune.
As a child, his father deemed him worthless and undeserving of inheriting his money. Whether Arcade’s father was right to tell him that is up to interpretation, but young Arcade certainly believed him. So, on the dawn of his 21st birthday, as a rebuttal,Arcade decided to kill him and take his money by force.This is how Arcade discovered his lust for murder, putting him on the path he’s on today.
8Arcade Turned Central Park into a Killing Field for Kraven
Amazing Spider-Man#17 by Nick Spencer and Humberto Ramos
In the first part of the"Hunted"storyline,Kraven the Hunter’s cloned sonconspires with Arcade, utilizing his skills as the world’s foremost architect of death machines. In one of Arcade’s most ambitious schemes,he and Kraven kidnap Spider-Man and his most vicious villains, trapping them inside Central Park, which is closed off from the rest of New York City by an impregnable dome created by Arcade. Things worsen for Spider-Man when Arcade and company unleash an army of robots set to attackeveryone.
There’s a reason why The Joker has so many supervillain team-ups. Joker is efficient at what he sets out to do, and what he sets out to do is often diabolical.Arcade is similar in that he has diabolical plans that other villains know he can pull off. This is no different.
7Arcade Tortures Wolverine and Drives Wendigo Into Mindless Cannibalism
Wolverine#8 by Saladin Ahmed, Daniel Warren Johnson, and Martín Cóccolo
One thing The Joker and Arcade have in common is that they make formidable adversaries for any superhero they face. While Batman is The Joker’s primary rival, his manipulative and chaotic tactics can unsettle just about anyone. Similarly, Arcade, although he debuted in a story featuring Spider-Man and Captain Britain,has frequently clashed with Wolverine, especially in this story, which features Wendigo,a kid named Leonard who was transformed into a Marvel herodespite his cannibalistic curse.
In the midst of Logan trying to get him to control his urges,they’re ambushed by Arcade. The supervillain wants to push Wendigo’s buttons and send him over the edge,like how Joker always wants to bring the worst out of people.To prove his point, he tries to goad Wendigo into eating people like a mindless monster.
6Arcane Framed Wolverine for a Series of Murders
Wolverine/Gambit: Victims#1 by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
When five women are all murdered in a similar vein to Jack the Ripper, Gambit investigatesto figure out who killed his friend, Alexandra Davies, an undercover detective who was among the victims. He stumbles upon Wolverine, who not only winds up framed for these murders, but remains unsure of how he wound up in London with blood on his costume and claws. This is an elaborate meddling on behalf of Arcade, with the help of Martinique.
Martinique is the daughter of Jason Wyndgarde, a.k.a. the original Mastermind, a mutant artist of illusion. Maintaining his legacy, she adopts his name, but with justice in her mind. When Arcade tells the telepathic mutant that one of the X-Men has been committing Jack the Ripper-style crimes, she jumps at the chance to help, but soon enough, she learns the truth.
5Arcane Killed His Assistant, Miss Locke, Because She Got to Close
Wolverine/Gambit: Victims#4 by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
Continuing from the previous entry,Mastermind assists Arcade with his plot because he tells her that Wolverine killed his longtime assistant,Miss Locke. Using her psi-lock powers, Mastermind invades everyone’s minds in search of the truth. She discovers not only that Gambit and Wolverine have alibis, but also that Arcade himself killed Miss Locke. The two used to play"games,“but when she got a little too close for his comfort and took things too far, going so far as to slash his face, he retaliated by murdering her.
Out of guilt, he created a new game: dump Miss Locke’s body in the street as a killer’s victim, kill four more women, and pin the blame on Wolverine.Arcade is as much of a master manipulator as The Joker.He manipulates Mastermind and manufactures a ruse. Like The Joker,developing a romance with Arcadeis ill-advised for anyone’s health.
4Arcane Destroyed a Mutant Safe Haven in Manhattan
X-Factor#31 by Peter David and Pablo Raimondi
As Manhattan’s mutant population increased, so did anti-mutant racism. In response, local mutants formed their own community in the abandoned ghettos of Alphabet City. Officially known as District X, the area was more commonly referred to as Mutant Town. Taylor, a former Purifier, hired Arcade to take revenge after X-Factor had him exiled from William Stryker’s anti-mutant sect.This led Arcade to activate a series of bombs throughout Mutant Townin an effort to destroy it completely.
Arcade takes The Joker’s Jester of Genocide and brings it new meaning. Joker has killed hordes of people before, but in one fell swoop, Arcade wipes out one-third of an entire species of mutants. The Joker is often stopped by Batman before he can commit actual genocide, but here, Arcade succeeds.
3Arcade Literally Allied with the Devil
Blaze#8 by Larry Hama and Henry Martinez
The one difference between Arcade and The Joker is probably that the latter at least has standards for who he will and won’t work with. At leastJoker draws the line at Nazis. Yet, to a fault, Arcade’s evil does not discriminate, hence why he decides to offer his hand in service to the Devil himself.
Ex-Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze, hires a hooded Masked Monk for his traveling Carnivale Quintano, convinced that some of his artifacts connect to Blaze’s missing children. As it turns out, The Masked Monk is Arcade at the mercy of The High Priest of Baal after signing a contract for new traps.He literally signed a deal with The Devil just to progress his precious Murderworld.
2Arcade Personally Hunts Mutants for Sport in the Original Ultimate Universe
Ultimate X-Men#55 by Brian K. Vaughan and Stuart Immonen
The Arcade of Earth-616 (Marvel’s main continuity) and the Arcade of Earth-1610 have slight contrasts, but at their core,both men are still bone-chillingly vile. The Arcade ofthe original Ultimate Universehas a more refined, straightforward origin story that grounds him in reality. For the Ultimate Arcade, he’s a former gaming prodigy notorious for crafting a first-person shooter called Murderworld. His life is turned upside down when Magneto kills his sister during the Ultimate War.
Compiled inUltimate War#1-4, this event sees the Ultimates/Avengers confronting the X-Men in battle when the former mistakes the latter for working with Magneto, who declares war against humankind after killing 800 humans in the destruction of the Brooklyn Bridge. Magneto demands that humanity surrender to mutantkind, or else the entire population will either be annihilated or enslaved.
Arcade brings his newfound hatred for mutants to reality television,where he hunts mutants on an island for worldwide amusement. This Arcade is not only physically stronger and more imposing compared to the main canon, but also features a wider array of technology, including reverse-engineered web shooters.
1Arcade Ran a Prison for Mutants in the Age of X Reality
Age of X: Alpha#1 by Mike Carey, Mirco Pierfederici, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Walden Wong, Paco Diaz, and Paul Davidson
The Ultimate Universe isn’t the only vicious version of Arcade from an alternate universe. Inwhat is considered Marvel’s worst timeline, Arcade makes a brief yet impactful appearance. In this universe, Arcade, whose real name is Harcourt Teesdale, becomes the governor of a prison specifically designed for mutants called Alcatraz Penitentiary. Mutants are not imprisoned for actual crimes but simply for having the"wrong"DNA, at least according to Arcade. He abuses his power by ordering mutants like Scott Summers to be tortured.
This is a world where the X-Men don’t exist, so Arcade’s misdeeds go unchecked, and few things are scarier than an unpoliced maniac. Gotham City would be thrust into chaos ifThe Joker’scrimes weren’t policed, and his Marvel counterpart has that luxury in theAge of X.
The Joker
The Joker is a psychopathic criminal mastermind with a warped sense of humor. Initially introduced as a remorseless serial killer, the character evolved over time, often oscillating between a prankster and a homicidal maniac. His relationship with Batman is one of the most complex in comic book history, defined by their mutual obsession. Over the decades, the Joker has become an enduring icon of chaos and madness, embodying the antithesis of Batman’s order and justice.
