WARNING: The following contains spoilers for both Black Widow #1 by Kelly Thompson, Elena Casagrande, Jordie Bellaire, and VC's Cory Petit, as well as Iron Man #2 by Christopher Cantwell, Cafu, Frank D'Armata, and VC's Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
The X-Men have had plenty of colorful villains throughout the years. While right now they're busy with what could be considered more internal affairs, they were once a very public team with an equally spotlighted rogues gallery. One of the deadliest of the X-Men's foes, Arcade, has been making a name for himself by terrorizing new heroes as of late. In doing so, Arcade has not only reestablished himself as a serious threat, but has also broken out of his usual mold in horrifying ways.
Arcade grew up as a spoiled rich kid. When his father cut him off, he cut his father's life short the very next day to ensure his inheritance. This vast fortune was used to establish his Arcade persona as an assassin with a penchant for constructing elaborate Murder Worlds, trap filled, isolated locations where his targets would meet their end through a series of rigged games.
Best known for being an enemy of the X-Men, Arcade has branched out in recent years. During the Avengers Arena storyline by Dennis Hopeless and Kev Walker, Arcade abducted sixteen teenage superheroes and forced them to fight to the death for his amusement. Through his cybernetic drones and technological marvels, Arcade supplied this Murder World with hazardous weather conditions and cyborg assailants to keep the young heroes on their toes. While the survivors were eventually saved, multiple teenage superheroes lost their lives, and Arcade escaped and put the footage up online.
In Iron Man #2, the Armored Avenger faces off against Carl Creel, aka the Absorbing Man, in another of Arcade's Murder Worlds. This one is based on a classic arena boxing ring, and sees Creel absorb not only Iron Man's armor, but its power source as well. As he is being beaten, Iron Man realizes that Arcade is closer than expected, and unmasks the referee as the villain to end the fight before Creel kills him. This Murder World seems to be more of a money making scheme than anything else for Arcade, with bets being placed on the fight from all over the globe, but that doesn't mean that Arcade has given up his work as an assassin.
The newest volume of Black Widow features Arcade in a role much more reminiscent of his early appearances. Working for an unnamed group that includes Red Guardian, Arcade has kidnapped Natasha Romanoff and placed her in what appears to be a normal and loving home. The former Black Widow doesn't seem to have any memory of her previous life, and even though she has only been missing for three months has a husband and child that is at least a year old. Under constant surveillance from Arcade, the assassin is staying on top of his job, whatever that may be, even if Red Guardian seems to be having some regrets.
Seeing Arcade directing his efforts at the non-mutant superhero community not only highlights how deadly and seemingly unstoppable the villain is, but also how far removed from the rest of the Marvel universe the X-Men and mutant kind have become. Now that they have their own island nation, even if they'll have to fight to the death to keep it, the X-Men have turned their attention to more political matters regarding their community and the sustainability of their species. Hopefully there will be a Krakoa left after X of Swords for Arcade to wreak havoc on when things are all said and done.