Murderworld is a 2022 comic book storyline published by Marvel Comics, released as a set of five one-shot specials.
The titular Murderworld is supervillain's Arcade's murderous amusement park, a place of Deadly Games and hi-tech horrors. Arcade's clashed with the likes or Spider-Man and the X-Men, with little success. He's kidnapped teen heroes to run his own Battle Royale Game, with horrific results. And now he's running an Immoral Reality Show.
Two hundred people - normal people, without superpowers - are invited to compete. The winner walks away with a hundred million US Dollars. Everyone else dies.
And young documentary maker Paul Pastor is invited to report on it.
The first part of the story, Murderworld: Avengers, was released November 16, 2022.
Murderworld provides examples of the following tropes:
- The Bad Guy Wins: Arcade successfully kills off all the contestants and gets away long before Black Widow arrives.
- Bait-and-Switch: Murderworld: Moon Knight ends with the Moon Knight LMD being destroyed by Black Widow, who's come for Arcade's head, saving the last two contestants. Unfortunately, Murderworld: Game Over reveals that this is but another LMD, with the real Black Widow not arriving until the game is already over and Arcade is long gone.
- Boom, Headshot!: How Paul is killed, shot in the head by Miss Locke.
- Call-Back: Previews at the end of Murderworld: Avengers reveal that the Black Widow is on Arcade's trail, aiming to get back at him due to the events of her last series.
- Cringe Comedy: Once it's revealed that the Moon Knight LMD talks in a completely different way from how the real Moon Knight talks, Arcade asks why they didn't have him stay silent while facepalming.Arcade: This is embarrassing.
- Deadly Game: Arcade has gathered 200 competitors for his games. Only one will survive.
- Decoy Protagonist:
- Paul is set up as the protagonist, invited to witness the games only to find he's forced to compete. Then his mutant powers manifest and it looks like he might be able to survive. And then Arcade has him executed by a sniper. The story, then, focuses on Eden Abraha, a former MMA fighter
- Eden is somehow incapacitated to the point where she can't function as the main character, switching it up to Marina Komarova, an agent of HYDRA.
- Didn't See That Coming: Arcade is furious when Paul manifests mutant powers and obliterates the robot Avengers. He rectifies that by having Miss Locke shoot him dead.
- Dwindling Party: By the Moon Knight issue, there's only four characters: Eden, Alex, Marina and Vincent Patillo, the Leap-Frog. At the end of said issue, only Alex and Marina are alive, saved by Black Widow. Finally, the last issue ends with only Alex alive.
- Hope Spot:
- Paul's mutant powers manifest, destroys the robot Avengers, and the surviving contestants make it to safety. And then Miss Locke shoots him in the head, because the contest is only for normal humans.
- Just when it looks like the last four survivors have Arcade right where they want them, it's revealed that the entire "backstage" that they broke into was just another set up, with that Arcade and all the staff being just more LMDs.
- Game Over starts with the Black Widow saving Marina and Alex before Marina attacks her, revealing her as another LMD.
- Never Trust a Title: The Murderworld titles proclaim that four different parts of the Marvel Universe are involved — Avengers, Spider-Man, Wolverine and Moon Knight. They're around, but they're actually killer robots involved in Arcade's game.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Alex is the ultimate winner of the game, but it turns out other people videotaped his escapades, revealing him as an adulterer for having sex with Eden and a murderer by killing Marina, thus the only thing he can do now is take up whatever Arcade has.
- Rescue Sex: A paramedic named Alex saves Eden from one of Arcade's traps. When they reach one of the bunkers, she thanks him with sex.
- Shout-Out: One of the things the Moon Knight LMD says is "In the name of the Moon, I'll punish you!"
- Sequel Hook: Game Over ends with Black Widow being invited to the next season to give her a chance to kill Arcade.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Despite Paul being a mutant and being killed by Arcade, when Black Widow calls Captain Kate Pryde for help, she's told Krakoa can't help - she's stuck in space and the red tape that is binding just about everyone else is binding Krakoa.
