There was an episode of "Ultimate Spider-Man" recently that featured some X-Men material related in case anyone is interested.

Now, I basically sit with the general consensus of this show that, well, it kind of sucks. Its ok if a show is aimed at younger kids, most super hero cartoons try to be so they can hook kids on comics when they're young. Its marketing 101. But this show is way too blatant, Spidey isn't even really Spider-Man, he is like a really kiddie version of Deadpool in a Spider-Man costume, there is nothing really associative about the Spider-Man character with the character you see on the screen other than the costume and powers. Also, the writing is extremely juvenile and simplistic, its almost like a meeting for the writers of this show is headed by a twelve year old, who has ideas like "Alright, so we will have Dr Doom take control of Iron Mans costume and hijinx will ensue.....yeah!!". Anyway, enough about that.

I will say this, the animation is really good quality. This show, along with its sister shows have the best animation Marvel shows have ever had barring the animes.

So this episode features some X-Men lore. Arcade, who isn't exclusively an X-Men villain is the primary villain, who is actually re imagined into a a young, genius, gamer (sigh) that is actually a mutant that can control machines. Spidey and Cap head to Madripoor, which has the same exact design it had in the Wolverine and Blade Animes. Wolverine plays a major role, whose design is great on this show by the way, he actually looks short and jacked, as opposed to a taller slimmer looking Logan that was represented in some animated interpretations. Finally, Arcade uses a simulacrum of the "Days of the Future Past" post apocalyptic setting, which was very beautifully rendered . A Sentinel shows up and we get a very iconic visual.

Anyways, I am sure a lot of you don't really give a crap about this show, but I just really love animation and love to see my favorite characters and ideas used in high quality animation.

That's not really a re-imagining exactly. Arcade was originally supposed to be pretty young, and a genius. As for the gamer thing, that's not a stretch at all, if you consider his fascination with pinball and other arcade games (as illustrated in most of the original versions of Murderworld).

It's actually a cultural reference that it seems most people don't really catch these days, but for many years pinball was illegal in many places and culturally associated with both teenage rebellion as well as delinquency. A good example of this reference would be in the X-men: First Class movie when all of the of the young mutants are assembled in the government facility, and we see Havok (re-imagined as a troubled loner, fresh out of jail) off playing pinball by himself. Consider that in 1962, when the movie was set, pinball was actually illegal in many parts of the 'States, and that showing him in this role is used to establish his non-conformist and outsider perspective.

Consider also that when Arcade was first introduced, in the late 70's, not only were X-men comics actually being written more for children, but actual arcades were experiencing their hay-day; they were a much more mainstream part of culture, but were still viewed by many as being unsavory experiences for children (which ultimately just strengthened their allure and the fascination children had with them).

And associating gamers with troubled loners still sort of applies now, although the cultural association may be somewhat less anti-establishment.

Well, that was educational. I think the reason pinball was illegal for a time was because of gambling, and it wasn't illegal in every state...though, don't quote me on that.

I am aware that Arcade was influenced by the arcade/video game boom of the late 70s'-early 80s but he was always seemed more of an insane assassin, like a Batman villain. Although he might of always been meant to be young, I always thought of him as at least a twenty something year old adult, making him this crazed, creepy man child. In this cartoons interpretation he was just apparently a teenager who liked video games and could control machines and he was trying to jack some nuclear warheads or something. Just very un-Arcade like.

Somewhat off topic. I understand this show is for kids but I like if Arcade would still use pinball, old carnival game themed traps in modern times. It makes him more creepy now seeing how old and retro that stuff is considered and it can be perceived in the way you would think of an old haunted funhouse or something. Throw in a little of "Jigsaw" from the Saw movie series and you have a great, modernized c-list villain.

as far as I know, that was part of the stigma: that it was a game of chance. Apparently, one of the deciding factors in making pinball a legal pass-time involved proving that there was an element of actual skill involved in the game. I don't remember the details, but I read an article once that told of an expert pinball player playing in front of journalists and politicians to prove that the game should be made legal.

his origin story from when he first captured the X-men for Black Tom, in The X-Men #123 - Listen-Stop Me If You've Heard It, But This One Will KILL You!, was that he was a psychopathic, genius rich kid (not entirely unlike Kade Kilgore), who killed his own parents to fund his eccentric career in assassination. Maybe he was meant to be in his early 20's, though, to me, that's not really any stretch from being a teenager.

mm.. agreed.

@emequious_swerve: also, a little off-topic, but I've always thought that the creation of Arcade's Murderworld never got the credit it was due, considering it predated other reality simulators like the Shi'ar version of the Danger-room, or Star Trek's Holo-decks.

@oldnightcrawler: I have no idea how old he was supposed to be but yeah, somewhere in his twenties, and by todays standards an older man playing video games and stuff like that may not be considered anything unusual, in the seventies and adult obsessed with arcade games might be a little weird. This is just my personal perception of the character though, when I read old stories with him he always strikes me as some sort of creepy, over grown child. I guess he is a character that is dated in a sense.

I always liked Murderworld. They used it in the Marvel Ultimate Alliance video game and it was a pretty crazy level, lol. I don't remember him using holo-projection. From all the old Uncanny issues with him in it I remember everything was real robots and real rooms, although, maybe I am not remembering everything correctly.

The way I remember it, it was a bit of both, sort of like older versions of the Shi'ar Danger-room.

Oh, quit whining! Anything is better than "X-Men: Evolution" Arcade.