Death By "Torchwood": Captain Jack, Ianto Jones, And The Rise Of The Queer Superhero

Few deaths have been more shocking to gay television viewers than that of Ianto Jones in this summer’s Torchwood: Children Of Earth. His death during the fourth night of the BBC miniseries created a huge backlash, none of which surprised me more than claims that Ianto’s demise was an expression of the show’s homophobia.

Created by Russel T Davies, an openly gay writer famous for the complex and empowering Queer As Folk, and starring John Barrowman, who might just be the most boisterously “out” star in the industry, Torchwood has been a bastion of queer pride since its debut in 2006. It evokes a world where homophobia is so non-existent that labels “gay,” “straight,” and “bi” have become irrelevant.

So how does the death of one of TV’s few prominent queer characters involved in a same-sex relationship fit into the show’s socially progressive vision? To my mind, Ianto’s death, rather than being homophobic, serves as a marker on the continuing road to true gay empowerment – a road that has frequently been two steps forward and one step back.

Going back a few years, Xena: Warrior Princess provides a perfect – and often frustrating – illustration of the stop-and-go process of queer empowerment in popular culture. The show’s lesbian theme started out buried in subtext, but by the 3rd season, the two lead characters were professing their love for each other and even enjoying an occasional same-sex lip lock.

Still, the show remained as vague on the subject as possible: the closest it came to openly discussing the lead characters’ lesbian relationship was when a secondary character confessed she wanted to be a “thespian” just like Xena and Gabrielle.

Nonetheless, Xena may have been the most empowering queer character of the ‘90s: this fierce warrior chopping up battalions of thugs with a joyful smirk was anything but a victim. And yet, when the show ended, it was not with a battle cry, but with a whimper. Even this undefeated killing machine had to pay for her sexuality with her life, and in the end, she died for love.

Her death might have been somewhat more heroic than the death of, say, Alan in Torch Song Trilogy or Brandon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry, but to this queer viewer, it was hardly less frustrating or disempowering. If a warrior princess forged in the heat of battle can’t manage to live as a happy dyke, what chance do we mere mortals have?

Like Xena, Torchwood’s Captain Jack Harkness is a complex character often haunted by his past misdeeds. And like Xena, he is a gay basher’s worst nightmare: a queer weapon-wielding, ass-kicking superhero gleefully chewing his way through awesome fight scenes.