About

Tech Jacket Gender Swap refers to memes and viral discourse about the superhero Tech Jacket, or Zoe Thompson, being gender swapped from male to female for the Invincible animated series. In the comics, Tech Jacket is depicted as a man named Zack Thompson. Zoe first appeared in Invincible season three, episode seven, and continued to appear in the show in future episodes. Memes about the character's female gender swap experienced a surge in popularity in late March and early April 2026 as Invincible season four ran on Amazon Prime Video.

The character's gender swap inspired some controversy online as fan artists began drawing and posting artwork of her that was deemed inappropriate, as, in the show, Tech Jacket is shown to be a teenager. Her voice actor, Zoey Deutch, also became the subject of some online criticism over allegations of being a supposed Zionist and supporter of Israel regarding the Hamas-Israel conflict.

Origin

Tech Jacket (Zack Thompson), a superhero who fights using a power suit, first appeared in his own comic book series, Tech Jacket, a spinoff of Invincible. He later went on to appear in the Invincible comics.^[1] The gender swapped version of Zack Thompson, Zoe Thompson, first appeared in the animated Invincible series in the March 6th, 2025, episode titled "What Have I Done?"^[2][3]

In early April 2026, during the run of Invincible season four, memes and fan art about Zoe Thompson became increasingly popularized on sites like TikTok and X / Twitter. Many of the memes specifically reference her being gender swapped.

One early example is an edit posted by TikToker^[4] @gin115198 on April 1st, 2026, garnering over 3.5 million views in six days.

Spread

On April 1st, 2026, TikToker^[5] @bliss_1240 posted a video where someone reacts negatively to Zoe Thompson's design in Invincible, garnering over 2.1 million views in six days.

That day, Den of Geek^[6] published an interview with Invincible showrunners Robert Kirkman and Simon Racioppa, where Kirkman talks about gender swapping Thompson, quoted as saying:

"We decided early on that it would be interesting to gender swap this character […] We started thinking about who Zoe would be instead of Zach. There are some exciting things that come up when you change that character. The vibrancy of that character and the energy that she brings is so much more affecting coming from Zoey Deutch. She’s just a really, really cool character that we’re having a ton of fun with.”

Later on April 1st, 2026, X^[7] user @ThatzFlamez posted a piece of artwork that adapts a scene from the comics but with the female Thompson, writing, "Saw people complain that a Tech Jacket panel can't be adapted now so I propose a solution," garnering over 26,000 likes in six days.

On April 4th, X^[8] user @EminderTurvina posted fan art of Tech Jacket that gained over 33,000 likes in three days. The artwork proved controversial with some, who found her pose and design inappropriate considering her age. In the comics, Tech Jacket is 19, but she is thought to be younger and potentially a minor in the animated series adaptation.^[9]

On April 6th, 2026, TikToker^[10] @necrozma.fan posted a meme about Tech Jacket gender swap haters "switching up" and supporting the decision when they realized that she was underage, garnering over 150,000 views in a day.

Zoey Deutch Zionist / Israel Criticism

Tech Jacket's voice actor in the animated series, Zoey Deutch, became the subject of criticism among some in early April 2026 for purportedly voicing her support for Israel regarding the Hamas-Israel conflict.

Deutch, who is Jewish, has not made a statement supporting or denying her support of Israel, but spoke about Israel during an interview in 2018, where she said, “The food and the people were amazing. They really live for the now, and no one was confused with my argumentative personality there. They really got me. It was a revelatory experience.”^[11]

On April 4th, 2026, TikToker^[12] @z1th0s posted a meme calling Deutch a Zionist that uses an AI video of Tech Jacket, captioned, "The Tech Jacket VA realizing that her character actually saves children instead of b0mbing them," gaining over 320,000 views in three days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References