Arnold "Arnie" Roth is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer J. M. DeMatteis and artist Mike Zeck and first appeared in Captain America #268, published in April 1982. Arnie is a childhood friend of Steve Rogers, the civilian identity of the costumed superhero Captain America. Decades later, the pair are reacquainted after Arnie is targeted by Captain America's adversaries Helmut Zemo and the Red Skull. Later in his life, Arnie would assist with the "Captain America Hotline" created to field tips pertaining to national security before dying of bone cancer.
Arnie was the first openly gay character to appear in a mainstream superhero comic. The character was conceived by DeMatteis as part of his effort to develop Captain America's supporting cast and explore how the character "had surrounded himself with people who represented American diversity", though as a result of editorial dictates at Marvel and the restrictions of the Comics Code Authority, DeMatteis was forced to communicate Arnie's sexuality exclusively through imagery and subtext. Though the tragic bent of stories featuring the character has been the subject of criticism, he has been praised as a positive media representation of gay men in the context of a 1980s media landscape characterized by homophobia and backlash against gay men amid the HIV/AIDS crisis.
Fictional character biography
Arnold "Arnie" Roth was born in the 1920s on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. A childhood friend to Steve Rogers, Arnie frequently protected the weak and infirm Steve from local bullies. After becoming aware of his homosexuality as a teenager, Arnie began to pursue girls and cultivated a persona as a playboy to compensate, causing him to drift away from the introverted Steve. During World War II, Arnie joined the U.S. Navy while Steve received an experimental serum that turned him into the costumed superhero Captain America. Arnie was able to discern that the secret identity of Captain America was that of his erstwhile friend after seeing the hero in newsreel footage. Sometime after the war, Arnie began a long-term romantic relationship with a teacher named Michael Bech, but also developed a gambling problem.
Some time later, after a now-middle aged Arnie discloses that he knows Captain America's secret identity following a night of drinking, he is approached by Helmut Zemo with an offer to pay off his gambling debts in exchange for the information. When Zemo kidnaps Michael to force Arnie's cooperation, Arnie reconnects with Steve to appeal for his help, though in an ensuing confrontation between Captain America and Zemo wherein the consciousnesses of Arnie and Michael are placed into mutates controlled by Primus, Michael is killed. Though Arnie recovers physically from the ordeal, he is soon targeted by the villainous Red Skull as part of a plot to destroy the lives of Captain America's closest friends. As part of his torture at the hands of Red Skull, Arnie is dressed as a clown and forced to participate in a performance in which he disparages his sexual identity and Michael; Captain America intervenes and rescues Arnie, and assures him that his identity and love for Michael are not shameful.
Arnie recovers but leaves New York to move to Florida, where he loses the weight he has gained in his middle age, and one point works as a publicist for the Avengers. Years later, an aged Arnie returns to New York to assist with the "Captain America Hotline" created by Steve to field tips pertaining to national security, becoming the manager of a costume shop used as a front for the operation. After Steve discloses that he is dying due to a breakdown of the serum that gives him his superpowers, Arnie confides that he has himself been diagnosed with terminal bone cancer, and has little time left to live. Soon after, Arnie is hospitalized; in their final moment together, Steve kisses Arnie on the forehead, thanks him for his years of friendship, and Arnie dies shortly thereafter.
History
Context and development
Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter instituted a "No Gays in the Marvel Universe" policy in the 1980s, in response to public backlash against a scene in The Hulk #23 (1980) in which Bruce Banner is accosted and threatened with rape by two men at a YMCA. LGBT expressions in comic books were also restricted by the Comics Code Authority, a system of comic book content regulation. Consequently, the sexual orientation of LGBT characters in comics published by Marvel could for many years only be communicated through subtext, as in the case of Northstar in Alpha Flight, and Mystique and Destiny in Uncanny X-Men.