Invincible has been one of the most faithful comic book adaptations in decades, thanks in no small part to co-creator Robert Kirkman's direct involvement in the series, but that doesn't mean there still haven't been changes. Some have been as big as expanding the roles of characters like Machine Head, while others have been as small as some gender-swapped superheroes.
On the surface, those latter changes can be insignificant, as was the case with Green Ghost. Meanwhile, others had wider ramifications, such as Shrinking Rae, who eventually outlived her male comic book counterpart. While her survival wasn't wholly dependent on the series turning her into a woman, it allowed her to enter a relationship with Rex Splode, adding an extra layer of tragedy to his death and sacrifice.
In the latest episode of Invincible, "Give Us a Moment," a weeks-long rumor that another key superhero, Tech Jacket, would be gender-swapped has finally been confirmed. Renamed Zoe and voiced by Zoey Deutch (yes, really), she's the newest member of Team Invincible in their fight against the Viltrumite Empire.
However, Tech Jacket being a woman isn't the only change Invincible made with the character.
Who Is Tech Jacket?
Originally called Zachary "Zack" Thompson, he debuted in his own comics of the same name as a high school student who found a crash-landed spaceship with a dying Geldarian, wearing an advanced suit of armor called a Tech Jacket, which all Geldarians are given at birth. To save Zack's life from his ship's impending explosion, the alien gave Zack his Tech Jacket, bonding it to him permanently.
Tech Jackets enhance the strength, speed, and durability of their wearers, but since Geldarians were already a feeble species without them, the physical boost was negligible. However, before Zack, no other species had ever worn a Tech Jacket, and since humans were much stronger than Geldarians, Zack's Tech Jacket became even stronger.
In addition to the physical enhancements, the Tech Jacket allowed Zack to fly. Not to mention, he could summon an array of gadgets and weapons with a thought, which he used to scare off loan sharks harassing his family (with his father later becoming his guy in the chair).
For anyone vaguely familiar with comic book characters, one might think Tech Jacket was a riff on Jaime Reyes' Blue Beetle, who was similarly permanently bound to a blue alien spacesuit. However, surprisingly, writer Robert Kirkman and artist E. J. Su actually beat DC Comics to the punch by four years.
Eventually, the Geldarians whisked Zack away to their homeworld to help in their fight against the Kresh. After some training, Zack quickly became their strongest warrior, easily crushing them singlehandedly, and was hailed a hero. After their victory, Zack was allowed to return to Earth with the symbiotic alien technology and became a superhero.
By the time Allen and Nolan recruited him, he was a college dropout attempting to grow a beard. But in the latest episode of Invincible, Zoe doesn't seem to have even graduated high school yet, appearing the same relative age as Oliver.
How a Gender-Swapped Tech Jacket Could Change Invincible
Fundamentally, nothing in the plot of Invincible should change now that Tech Jacket is both a woman and younger. However, the dynamic between her and other characters could be significantly different in the impending Viltrumite War and beyond.
So far, her personality isn't all that different from Zack's in the comics, with an equally cocky attitude and an appreciation for praise. But what makes it harder to gauge any other differences is that Zoe is younger than she should be in the series at this point, seemingly a high schooler who her father still scolds for swearing.
But being younger didn't seem to stop her and Allen from bonding by the end of the episode, with the two becoming quick friends after they were separated from Invincible and his family, hitching a ride on the side of a Viltrumite ship and opting to play video games to pass the time.
The comics never explored their friendship all that deeply, with Allen having to literally tell Telia (and the reader) that he and Tech Jacket were friends, despite barely interacting outside of fights. The above panel was one of the few instances in which they even talked socially, which was still them on a job for the Coalition.
It's possible the series could show more of their friendship than the comics ever did before they eventually reunite with Mark, Nolan, and Oliver. The latter of whom also seemed far closer to Zoe than he ever was to her male comic book counterpart.
However, there's one more character who wasn't mentioned and could change drastically now that Zoe is a woman: Lin Hiyashi, the Geldarian princess—Zack's alien girlfriend in the comics.
Zack was straight in the comics, but with him being a woman now in the animated series, will this mean Zoe will be a lesbian, or will Lin also be gender-swapped to compensate for the change?
Considering there aren't any plans for a Tech Jacket spin-off series, it's possible that Zoe could end up more involved in the plot of Invincible moving forward than her comic counterpart ever was, and maybe even have the chance to explore these questions. After all, fans already had an entire episode dedicated to a story that never happened in the original Invincible comic.
It's even possible the series is setting up Zoe and Oliver as a couple, but with his accelerated aging and his future, very alien wife in the comics, that seems unlikely unless the series plans to make even more changes. It'd be appreciated if the series didn't gender-swap another character only to pair them up with one of the other male characters, like with Shrinking Rae and Rex.
The rest of the season should shed far more light on this new interpretation of Tech Jacket, her friendship with Allen, and how she'll help in the impending war.
