Antecedent to Arcade

The Defenders never faced the villain Arcade and his Murderworld amusement park, but they came close. In a trip to the 31st century, the non-team instead encountered the host of Super-Death Sweepstakes (Defenders #28). With his showy personality, bow tie, and technological traps, the future game-show host was cut from the same cloth as the modern-day assassin.

Defenders. Vol. 1. No. 28. October 1975. "My Mother, the Badoon!" Steve Gerber (writer), Sal Buscema (artist), Frank Giacoia & John Tartag (embellishers), Joe Rosen (letterer), Al Wenzel (colorist), Marv Wolfman (editor).

Arcade made his comic book debut more than two years later, in Marvel Team-Up #65 (January 1978).