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There were too many white dudes in the Invincible comic says co-creator Robert Kirkman, but genderflpping Tech Jacket in the Prime Video cartoon is a step to "correct" it

Robert Kirkman admits Invincible’s early lack of diversity — and how Amazon's Prime Video show is changing it

Tech Jacket
Image credit: Various

We all make mistakes. And by 'we' I mean all of us, celebrity comic creator-turned-film-and-tv-tycoons included.

In the current season of Prime Video's Invincible, co-creator/producer Robert Kirkman saw an opportunity to begin correcting something that had apparently been nagging at him for a while: almost every character in his superhero comics (and now superhero animated series) was white men. 

“One of the downsides of Invincible is [co-creator] Cory Walker and I were like 23 and 21 when we started that book, and your default when you’re not really paying attention is yourself," Kirkman tells The Wrap's Casey Loving. "Every time we introduce another character, ‘Oh look! It’s another white male! Who knew?’"

In the comics, Invincible is presented as a white male. When it came time to adapt it as an animated series however, Kirkman and his crew adjusted it so he is Korean-American.

Related: Popverse Picks: The best Invincible characters (according to me!)

Kirkman and Walker, who are both intricately involved in the Invincible comic book's adaptation into animation, saw an opportunity to further correct the predominance of white men in the series with the animated introduction of the hero Tech Jacket — aka Zack Thompson in comics. Despite the character originally having its own standalone series, Kirkman said it was more important to offer a different perspective than what was in the show than to be note-by-note the same as the comic, so Zack Thompson became Zoe Thompson.

"Tech Jacket has his own series and his own stories and is definitely a fully well-rounded character, but I think in the context of Invincible and the way we adapted the Viltrumite War storyline, if Zack were to show up, there’s not a lot that you’re gonna get from that character that you’re not getting from Oliver or Mark," says Kirkman. "There’s just a lot of similarities there."

With Tech Jacket now Zoe Thompson underneath the suit, it opens the door to give a very different point-of-view than the series' two primary heroes in Mark (Invincible) and Oliver (Kid Omni-Man).

All in all, Kirkman said it was a "shortcoming" that he and Walker hadn't noticed when they were creating the comic but are now doing "our due diligence to correct." 


Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant: Chris Arrant is the Popverse's Editor-in-Chief. He has written about pop culture for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel, Newsarama, CBR, and more. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. (He/him)

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