31 Days of Scans - Day 22

Favorite Villain. If I ever get around to those supplementary entries to my favorite characters list, there is one villain who would jump ahead of today’s selection on the list. But one of the things about Dr. Doom – spoiler alert! – I like is he doesn’t always have to be the antagonist. He usually is, but there are enough times where his interests coincide with the heroes they can be uneasy allies. This guy, though, is always a bad guy.

I know I said I was going to try and avoid doing too many that would just be a rehash of the Favorite Character posts, even if they were a viable option, but there’s no better choice. I was trying to think of a possible manga/anime option, but all the ones I can think of were effective villains because I found them really annoying and easily hateable. I really wanted to see someone kill Gendo Ikari for example, or Vegeta (even after he wasn't the villain), or Legato Bluesummers. I think a favorite villain ought to be one I'm excited to see, not one that produces a response of, "Oh Christ, this guy again. Well, maybe he'll die this time." So, Arcade it is, then.

Everything I said last summer still applies. He’s still great at hitting people’s buttons, and making them practically throw themselves into his traps. However cavalier his attitude might seem, he clearly takes his work seriously enough to do his research on his targets.

He still loves to win, but loves to enjoy himself even more. And he's savvy enough to recognize being Captain Britain's arch-foe really doesn't have much future to it, so better to angle for a rematch with Spider-Man.

And in spite of his general code of kinda-sorta fair play, where there are ways out of his traps, if you can find them, he's still a bad guy. He won't bat an eye at inflicting pain on someone, including a bunch of teen heroes, if he thinks it's worth the time.

I still think you can use him as an adversary against practically any character, and someone could get some mileage out of his excellent track record of capturing heroes.

Arcade puts Braddock through the wringer, and bounces back from an inevitable defeat by preparing for another inevitable defeat in Marvel Team-Up #66, by Chris Claremont (writer), John Byrne (artist), Dave Hunt (inker), Andy Yanchus (colorist), and Tom Orzechowski (letterer). Arcade gets the drop on Anya Corazon and Reptil with complete indifference in Avengers Academy Giant-Size, by Paul Tobin (writer), David Baldeon (penciler), Jordi Tarragona (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), and Dave Lanphear (letterer).

Favorite Marvel Characters #6 - Arcade

Oh, if only I had gotten here a couple of months sooner, he'd still be alive to enjoy this honor.

Character: Arcade

Creators: John Byrne and Chris Claremont

First appearance: Marvel Team-Up #65

First encounter: I owned Marvel Tales #201, a reprint from Marvel Team-Up of Spidey and Captain Britain meeting/fighting, then being captured at the end, but I'm not sure Arcade actually shows up until the next issue, which I didn't get for many years. It's probably either X-Men Classic #50, which is a reprint of Uncanny X-Men #146, or it was that black-and-white reprint of his first run-in with the X-Men (from issues #122-124) I bought at the school book fair. You might have seen those, they don't reprint the story as it was, with the panel layouts and such. Rather they stagger three or four panels on each page, so there's no real flow, but you still get the story, at least.

Definitive writer: Chris Claremont

Definitive artist: Dave Cockrum.

Favorite moment or story: Almost any Arcade story is a good one, as long as there are deathtraps and he's having a good time. But I think my single favorite moment is from Uncanny X-Men #146. Arcade had been captured by Dr. Doom, and so Ms. Locke has abducted some of the X-Men's loved ones to force them to rescue him. They fail miserably. Even as the X-Men struggle to escape from the traps Doom's set them in to test them, and Arcade's chances of survival drop, he's unperturbed. So much so, he casually strikes a match off Doom's armor to light one of Doom's high-quality cigars. I just love the cheek it takes to do that.

Why I like him: 'Any fool can kill, ladies. I wanted to do it with style.'

That quote from Arcade always sticks with me. Normally I'm not a big fan of villains who just kill, your Carnages, your more recent Joker, whoever else. But with Arcade, it isn't about the body count, which is good, because he usually fails to kill his targets. It's the way he tries that's fun.  He's an opportunity for writers and artists to throw any crazy thing they can conceive of at the hero. Giant pinball machines, twisted funhouse mirror versions of the heroes, cartoon critters, whatever has a sense of twisted whimsy.

It's been noted in comics recently that Arcade does have a terrible track record of actually killing his targets, but I like that it rarely bothers him. Like he told the X-Men about his first run-in with Spidey and Captain Britain, they beat him on his home court, and he loved every minute of it. They made narrow escapes, had to rescue loved ones in peril, and ultimately survived. It was great fun, for Arcade and the reader. He's a carnival barker, in look and demeanor, and while that can mean the game is rigged in his favor, if you beat him, he'll simply tip his cap to you.

I said it once before, but I've always thought this approach put Arcade a step ahead of all the other bad guys. He's the bad guy who almost understands he's in a story. He doesn't have a persecution complex, isn't deluding himself that he's the good guy, and those darn heroes are the bad guys for stopping him from getting what he wants. He knows he's a bad guy, and the nature of the story is the bad guy loses, in theory in a manner entertaining to the audience. He doesn't care about wins and losses, the important thing to him is to be entertained, which in theory will also entertain the reader. I like heroes who enjoy being heroes, and I guess I enjoy bad guys who actually enjoy being the bad guy.

Which gives him an odd sense of sportsmanship. When he first fought the X-Men, Nightcrawler ultimately reached Arcade's command room and started wrecking it up before he was captured, which enabled the rest of the team to turn the tide. Arcade didn't kill him, rather he returned him to the team unharmed, albeit in a humiliating fashion. If Arcade goes after a hero a second time, it's not out of revenge per se, the way Norman Osborn would attack Spider-Man again, trying to kill him for past "insults". It's that they proved to be good competition, and Arcade would like to see if he can get them again. Like your friend challenging you to a rematch on a board game. I mean yes, Arcade is trying to kill them, but there's no heat or anger there.

Frankly, if people are worried about Arcade looking like an incompetent hitman, reconfigure it a bit. One thing Arcade has proven consistently excellent at is kidnapping heroes. He's aces when it comes to ambushing them to move them to Murderworld. You could hire Arcade to abduct the heroes, so they're out of the way while you pull some other job. If he manages to kill them, great. If he doesn't, well he kept them busy while you did whatever it is you had planned.

Because he really is very adept. Not just at capturing heroes, but putting them through the wringer. He turned Colossus around in no time flat, and he always seems to know the screws to turn. He finds loved ones to use, or he makes facsimiles of them to throw the heroes off their games. While the X-Men were trying to rescue Doom, Banshee, Havok, Polaris, and Iceman were trying to rescue the loved ones from Murderworld. That didn't go terribly well at first, and a robot of Illyana nearly distracted Polaris long enough for her to fall prey to a carousel. He and Nightmare were able to come up with some pretty nasty stuff to throw at Deadpool and Hercules in that issue of Deadpool Team-Up. For Herc it was all his dead kids, and for Wade, it was the voices in his head given a hulking, monstrous, resentful form. Nightmare's powers might have been helping it come to fruition, but I think it was Arcade that helped figure out what weaknesses to attack.

I'm not sure why he's so good at spotting those weaknesses and hammering them. I mean, using someone's sibling or love interest as a lever against them, OK, that's not hard to figure out. But the bit where he could play on Colossus' fears that he betrayed his people, that was pretty good. Maybe because he's kind of divorced from those sorts of relationships. He's observing the whole thing from the outside, so it's easy to see what people in the midst of it don't. He killed his father when Dad cut off his allowance. The person closest to him is his Girl Friday, whether it's Ms. Locke or the new lady, Ms. Coriander. But a major part of their job description is to try and kill him. Because he generally doesn't care whether he lives or not, but the making someone earn his death is a challenge, and that, he enjoys. I'm still not happy Avengers Arena decided Arcade actually cares about losing all the time (or that he cares that crapass villains like Constrictor shit-talk him), but Hopeless definitely got Arcade's ability to see the fault lines in people and trigger them.

When Mightygodking was doing his initial burst of "I should Write Dr. Strange" posts, he did one about Dracula, and a person named Patrick C. noted in the comments the great thing about Marvel Dracula was he could work as an antagonist for literally any hero, and it would be great. I think Arcade is the same way. Sure, you can have him go after Spider-Man or the X-Men again. It's especially easy with the X-Men, because there are so many, he could target a different bunch every time and keep busy for months.

But it doesn't have to be limited to that. Send Arcade after Captain America. Maybe beat down Cap with waves of nostalgia for childhood days spent on Coney Island with his mother. Then Cap gets up and shatters all the funhouse mirrors with one shield throw. Send him after the Hulk, let the Hulk tear Murderworld down around their ears. It's fine, he'll kill some normal schlubs (my theory is he can still make plenty of money killing normal people, because there are plenty of people out there who would hate a non-super-hero enough to want them killed in the horribly inventive manners Arcade employs), or occupy some other heroes' attentions for quick cash and just rebuild it. Have Arcade turn the Baxter Building into a Murderworld and pit the FF against it. Have him hire the Heroes for Hire and then test his new designs against them. There is almost no hero you can't have fun throwing Arcade at.

I Guess Playing For Fun Gets Stale

It's been a month since I received my copy of Avengers Arena #7, and I'm still trying to decide if I like the slant Dennis Hopeless put on Arcade.

It makes sense that Arcade would get frustrated by the constant defeats. Given that, it also makes sense he might either give in to despair or try to prove something.

Even so, part of Arcade's appeal to me (and he's my favorite comic book villain), is that winning really doesn't matter much to him. Sure, he'd like to win, kill Spider-Man or whoever. That's how he earns his bread (though I've always assumed he paid the bills off-panel with those boring, ordinary people assignments he complained of the first time he went after the X-Men). But at the end of the day, he's a showman, not a hired gun. He's not Tombstone, where it's business. He wants to enjoy himself, test the limits of his creativity (and sadism). The line of his that sticks with me is (from that first tussle with the X-Men), 'You see, ladies, any fool can kill. I wanted to do it with style.' If he was able to do that, it didn't matter so much if he lost.

In some ways, Arcade is the writer and artist placed inside the book. He's there to be an entertaining threat to the hero, create some nice visuals, some dramatic tension, and ultimately, lose. But so long as he accomplishes the first three things, the last one isn't such a big deal. As a reader, I don't mind that Arcade fails to kill Deadpool and Hercules in Deadpool Team-Up #899. I care that with an assist from Nightmare, he gave Deadpool's caption boxes physical form so they could try and kill him. That's creepy, but also cool.

This attitude put Arcade ahead of a lot of other villains. A dope like Constrictor thinks he's supposed to win, and so he keeps committing crimes, thinking this time it'll be different. When in reality he's a loser there to get swiftly pummeled and probably left for the cops hog-tied with his own coils. So he's always frustrated, while Arcade can enjoy the competition, even as he loses.

Of course lately, Arcade's been getting frustrated himself. Even before Avengers Arena, or his humiliating birthday party, there was Avengers Academy Giant Size, where he went after them and the Young Allies, trying to prove to prospective employers that he still had it. That Deadpool Team-Up issue had some of as well, since he was trying to eliminate a rival in the job market. I don't know what that shift is about. Some move towards greater realism, perhaps. Most people couldn't retain such an upbeat attitude in the face of constant defeat. I'd think that would apply even more so to someone who kills people with no qualms whatsoever, because they are, at best temporary sources of entertainment.

Or it could be the idea that for villains to be interesting, they have to be threatening, and for them to be threatening, they have to be killers. Which is how the Joker got whatever ridiculous body count he has by now. It isn't sufficient to be a taxing mental challenge, or simply a persistent nuisance, there has to be a possibility the villain will skip rope with your spinal cord, or otherwise destroy your life. Which, if you agree with Ms. Coriander's assessment of Arcade, would explain some of this. He's demonstrated he can snatch away heroes and drive them to kill each other, when he chooses. Which is certainly control, since he would dictate when that happens.

You can certainly see some of that in his past schemes. He delights in putting the heroes in situations where they have to risk their lives, or get them to jump through his hoops. He forced Captain Britain to sit in a small box and risk drowning, because otherwise his lady (Courtney Ross) would die, and the controls to save her were in said box. He tricked Colossus into believing he'd betrayed Mother Russia and turned him against the X-Men. He got Kitty and Colossus to protect him from Miss Locke on his birthday. It's why he likes using robot duplicates of the people he's killing, to mess with their heads about who they're fighting. It's part of the show, turn their strengths against him, see if they can overcome it and win. It's how he gets his kicks, and I guess that's still in effect. I'm still not sure I like the increased emphasis on winning, though.

I'm Ready For The Weekend Because My Thoughts Are Turning To Murder

I had an idea that perhaps all of Matt Murdock's misfortunes over the last however-many-years it's been for him were because he wasn't really Matt Murdock. He was actually one of Arcade's Murderbots in disguise. Yep, a Murdo-bot living his life, surreptitiously killing and torturing all of Matt's nearest and dearest.

Failing that, we could always learn Matt had been infected with an artificial version of Omega Red's "death spores". Assuming one could turn them on or off remotely, it would be a great way to get revenge. Infect your hated enemy and watch as their very presence slowly destroys their loved ones. Just remember to turn spore production to "off" if they come to see you. Really, I can't believe there isn't some unscrupulous former Soviet scientist in the Marvel Universe selling those. Surely one of the guys who bonded carbonadium to Omega Red was clever enough to keep a few samples for study. Oh, and survive Logan and Maverick blowing stuff up on a covert mission.

One more, a different take on the first one. All that misery and woe was because Daredevil spent an unfortunate amount of time in a highly realistic Murderworld. It wasn't Arcade's first choice to try and slowly grind DD down, but that's the risk of work for hire. Meet the customer's specifications. The upshot to this is, we could theoretically cram years of bad happenings into a weekend, if we figure Arcade utilized some perception altering hallucinogenics, or some sort of subtle sensory input Daredevil's heightened senses were able to perceive which was throwing him off without his awareness.

Fine, that one doesn't explain how people actually keep dying or going nuts, but heck, if Daredevil's occupied in this hellish Murderworld, anything could be happening in the outside world.

The Only Person Who Can Stop Batman Is DC's Version Of Bud Selig

Related to yesterday's post, do you think any superheroes or villains own sports teams? I'm positive there are people in the Marvel and DC universes who own sports franchises and use heroes and villains for their own purposes. Captain America bobblehead night. Hiring Rainbow Raider to render opposing quarterbacks colorblind so they throw to the wrong team.

I can't picture Reed buying one (during those times when he isn't broke). Johnny might do it (if he has that kind of dosh) as part of some elaborate prank on the Thing. Xavier doesn't strike me as the sort either, though maybe he'd buy ad space on an outfield wall. I could easily see Tony Stark buying the naming rights to a stadium*, then Obadiah Stane buys the naming rights to the rival team's stadium. I don't see Lex Luthor being a sports enthusiast (or considering it a sound investment). Kyle Richmond (Nighthawk)? Maybe. The biggest issue would be a known superhero getting okayed to own a sports franchise. The other owners have to sign off, and they might be concerned about super-villains attacking their players, or a rich super-scientist outfitting his players with high-tech equipment. Do Pym Particles count as performance-enhancing drugs?

I could see Bruce Wayne of the '80s or '90s** buying a local sports franchise as part of his "clueless playboy" act. The rich guy wanting another toy. As to whether Bruce could gain approval, I'm sure he could play the clueless schmuck willing to spend big to the point the other owners would OK his inclusion. He'll appear to wildly overspend, then wind up with a franchise worth twice what he paid (and 3 times what it was worth originally). He'd be successful, because as Batman, he's smart enough to develop all sorts of new methods of evaluating players. He'd approve the signing of players nobody else wanted, because his advanced metrics say that guy will play extremely well in their home stadium. He could make Alfred manager. Compared to looking after Batman and his various sidekicks, how hard can running a baseball team be?

I doubt he could have done it, but I'd like to think Danny Rand could have bought one at some point (maybe a hockey team). Then brought in his master, Lei-Kung the Thunderer, as the team's manager. Or at the least the trainer. It'd be the toughest, most agile team ever, assuming the players could survive the workouts.

Actually, Arcade would be the perfect person to own a sports franchise. Or at least to design a team's new (taxpayer-funded, naturally) stadium. Players, coaches, fans, they'd all have a ball. . . the size of a truck roll over them if they made the wrong step. Relax, it wouldn't have spikes or anything. Snare traps hidden near the goal line. Basketball rims that are periodically (and randomly) electrified.

OK, that wouldn't work, it'd never pass league approval. If Arcade were going to do that, he'd have to arrange the traps to be subtle, so people wouldn't notice what was happening, or they'd think it was a fluke. The snare trap would just appear to be a poor job of laying sod***. That goes against his style, though. I suppose he could always just modify some team's stadium without consulting anyone, but that's not quite what I was thinking of. And there's always the possibility he would legally purchase the arena. He offered to buy Agent X's amusement park from him, rather than just letting Hayden die and claiming it for himself.

* "Welcome to Tony Stark is Brilliant Arena for tonight's divisional playoff game!" Or perhaps "Tony Stark is the Cool Exec with a Heart of Steel Field!"

** Current day Bruce is too busy with Batman Incorporated to own a sports franchise. Assuming any are left after the earthquakes, plagues, gang wars, and so on. At this point, the various leagues may be unwilling to have Gotham amongst their cities, what with the likelihood other teams' players will get murdered on road trips.

*** Might explain a lot about the Steelers' field. It's not that the grass won't take hold, or that the stadium is designed so the winds at one end are particularly tricky. The designer littered the field with traps for kicks. I'm sure there are still ejector seats in the upper decks, and luxury boxes that will spontaneously fill with cheese foam to discover.

Alex and Mine's Reactions To The Latter Half Of Burn Notice Season 3

During one of my visits to Alex last month, I brought Burn Notice Season 3 along. We'd watched my copy of Season 1 previously, and he owned Season 2, so why not get him as caught up as I could?

My favorite episode of the season is still the one where Michael plays the mysterious guy who pressures Omar, King of the Barrio, into finding the child predator, Rincon. With the snappy outfits, and the various tricks to make himself appear supernatural, it's a style that really appeals to me.

Alex liked that episode too, but preferred the later episode where Dead Larry returns, having used Michael's name while ripping off a cartel. I think he enjoyed seeing Michael actually experience some fallout from taking his friends for granted.

I'd enjoy that episode more if I felt like it truly produced a change in Michael. He does apologize, but in subsequent episodes, he reverts back to not keeping them in the loop, or simply not trusting them to help. Some of it's a desire to protect them, but it feels a lot like trust issues, which is kind of ridiculous considering how often they stick their necks out for him.

One thing Alex and I agreed on was that neither of us was fond of Simon. Alex simply described the guy as "a dick", but for me it's that he's too obviously nuts. Gilroy was also off-kilter, but he had a style I prefer in villains. Simon's too much the modern day Joker. Crazy, likes killing people, doesn't really care about anything except his rep as a killer. It makes him harder to counter because you can't use money or threats against him or loved ones, so I guess that can be interesting. I prefer villains who enjoy their work, but aren't entirely consumed by it. Gilroy and Dead Larry do what they do for money. They both enjoy their work, but also enjoy the perks it brings them. Or Arcade, certainly he enjoys killing, but doing it with style is even more important. And so's the money, or he'd simply abduct random people off the street and throw them into Murderworld, rather than taking on contracts.

I Need My Arcade Fix People

I still haven't gone to get comics. It decided to snow yesterday morning. I was jogging and the roads looked fine at first, but the longer I jogged, the harder it snowed, and the worse the roads got. Moral of the story: Jogging makes bad weather happen. I should never have put that piece of Mjolnir I swiped from that guy's car horn in my shoes. I don't think the road's have been cleared completely yet, and it doesn't seem worth risking it. Maybe all that time in the boonies only getting comics every three weeks taught me patience.

I had wondered why I hadn't seen the Arcade: Death Game mini-series listed in the new releases yet this month, and it turns out it was canceled, and it'll be released in May as Avengers Academy Giant-Size. Which is kind of annoying. It's still coming out, but I have to wait a few more months, and I was looking forward to an Arcade story. He has his crazy charm, and his particular style means a creative team ought to have some fun with the death traps he concocts. On the up side, it'll turn out a little cheaper as a one-shot than it would have been as a three issue mini-series.

I wonder how differently it'll read as a one-shot, though. One thing I'd expect with the mini-series format is there'd be cliffhangers at the end of either issue 1 or 2, if not both. Cliffhangers don't work for me in a collected format because I tend to read really quickly so by the time I register the cliffhanger I'm already turning the page and there's the resolution. With the separate issues format, I reach the end of the issue, then I have to wait a month (or two weeks) for the next issue. It ramps up my excitement because I don't have the next part there with me, and I want it.

Admittedly, that only works for the first read-through. After that I have all the parts, and can read them consecutively, so it's no different from reading the story as a trade or one-shot in that sense, but then I can appreciate different things about the story I didn't reading it piecemeal.

Villains Have Fans Too

Some of us, as fans of comics, have certain characters that we just love. If they show up in a book, we'll buy it*. You've got your Batman fans, your Spidey fans, Deadpool fans, Red Tornado fans (They exist! They do! Right next to the Land of Unicorns that sneeze gold!**), and so on. Usually it's heroes that people follow.

What I'm wondering is if there are villains who you keep an eye out for. Maybe you're a fan of Dr. Polaris***, or Mysterio, or the Living Monolith, or Scarface and the Ventriloquist. Or Iron Man. Right, right, he's not a villain anymore. You love it when they fight their old foe, but heck, you maybe like it even more when they fight someone new. Maybe things will be different for them this time? At the least, it's a new hero to start a feud with, and the more heroes a villain can claim to be an arch-foe to, the more appearances they may be able to garner in the future****.

I'm not sure I truly have one, but if I do, it's Arcade. I know the whole "amusement park of death" is terribly impractical, but it's still so great. He can use it to throw anything at his targets that he can come up with. He has such a zest for life, even if that involves having one day a year where his assistant tries her damndest to kill him! He's got style, and can take his losses with class. He doesn't usually pout if the heroes escape, he doffs his cap (if he wore one), and looks to the next time.

Plus, while once a prisoner of Dr. Doom, he helped himself to one of Doom's fine cigars*****, and lit his match by striking it against Doom's armor. Even Doom was impressed with Arcade's chutzpah and calm in the face of death.

Yes, I like Arcade, and try to keep an eye out for him. Even though I've bought entirely too many comics with Deadpool already this year (I could practically devote one day of my Year In Review posts to Deadpool comics), I still had to order Deadpool Team-Up #899. Deadpool teams up with Hercules to face Arcade (and Nightmare, but I'm not interested in him). I can't pass that up.

That's me, what about you?

* Then complain because the writer doesn't "get" the character, or the character was used as a punching bag to make the Hot, New Thing of the Moment look cool/badass/dangerous.

** You know, considering some of the characters I like, I probably shouldn't make fun of Red Tornado fans. But I did. The little angel can't win every time.

*** And why wouldn't you be? I'm speaking of the true Dr. Polaris of course.

**** See, Dr. Polaris understands this. He wasn't content simply to humiliate Hal Jordan. No, in the early '90s he branched out and started fighting with the new Ray. Kid was just starting out and Dr. Polaris got in on the ground floor of his Rogue' Gallery. Which, admittedly, never grew terribly much, but hey, with Dr. Polaris, do you need any other foes?

***** Of course Dr. Doom would smoke! No, not because he's a villain. He, like Arcade, has style, and understands that you really should accompany a fine sifter of brandy with a high class smokable.