Invincible Season 4 Makes A Major (And Welcome) Change From The Comics

Spoilers for "Invincible" season 4, episode 5, "Give Us A Moment," to follow.

"Invincible" has finally reached its comic book source material's "Viltrumite War" arc, where Invincible joins several other heroes in fighting the Viltrum Empire directly on behalf of the Coalition of Planets. There are less than 50 Viltrumites left after the Coalition's Scourge Virus decimated them, but each Viltrumite is about as strong as Superman. So, this war doesn't need massive armies so much as exceptionally powerful warriors who can stand head-to-head with the Viltrumites. One of them is the Earth superhero, Tech Jacket.

Tech Jacket is a human with shapeshifting armor created by the Geldarian race. (One might think of Iron Man looking at Tech Jacket, but a better comparison is Blue Beetle/Jaime Reyes, even if Tech Jacket came before Jamie.) The Geldarians are physically weak but technologically advanced. So, to even that out, they created armor that binds to their bodies and interfaces with their minds to create weapons the wearer imagines. Since humans are physically larger and stronger than Geldarians, Tech Jacket is even more powerful than a typical Geldarian.

Tech Jacket first cameoed in "Invincible" season 3, episode 7, "What Have I Done?" They fought and defeated one of the 16 evil Invincible variants summoned to the show's primary universe by Angstrom Levy (Sterling K. Brown). That gives Tech Jacket good odds against other Viltrumites.

"Give Us A Moment" finally gives Tech Jacket some dialogue when Allen the Alien (Seth Rogen) shows up to recruit them. This comes with a twist. In the comic, Tech Jacket is a teenage boy, Zack Thompson, but here, Tech Jacket is a girl, Zoe Thompson (Zoey Deutch). This offers some gender balance to the Viltrumite War heroes, who were all men in the comics.

The "Tech Jacket" comic (created by Robert Kirkman and E.J. Su) actually predates the "Invincible" comics, debuting in late 2002 before the latter came along in early 2003. "Tech Jacket" was Kirkman's first series at Image Comics, and he credits "Tech Jacket" for allowing him to get his foot in the door and build his writing career at the company.

Kirkman chose to end "Tech Jacket" after issue #6 because the sales weren't too hot. If it kept going, it risked being canceled at an unsatisfying place. Kirkman then turned his attention elsewhere and spent about 15 years writing "Invincible" and then "The Walking Dead" simultaneously. He didn't forget about "Tech Jacket," though, hence the eventual retcon that it takes place in the same universe as "Invincible." 

Both the original "Tech Jacket" and "Invincible" are Kirkman making superheroes in the vein of Spider-Man. Zack Thompson and Mark Grayson are both normal teenage boys who get superpowers and then have to balance family life and superhero work. Zack and Mark even look similar, with short black hair, brown eyes, and thin faces. Making Zack into Zoey helps set Tech Jacket apart from Invincible.

While Tech Jacket being a woman has drawn some predictable backlash from online misogynists, I'd remind them Kirkman is heavily involved in the "Invincible" show. He, Tech Jacket's co-creator, approved the change. It's not the first time he's done this, either. "Invincible" previously made the comic's hero Shrinking Ray into Shrinking Rae (Grey DeLisle), the "Walking Dead" TV series flipped Douglas Monroe into Deanna Monroe (Tovah Feldshuh), and Kirkman's new ongoing "Transformers" comic has elevated Autobot Elita One into a Prime. Zoe Thompson fits that pattern.

"Invincible" is streaming on Prime Video.