Story Synopsis: Tech Jacket Vol. 1: The Boy From Earth
A boy gets an advanced piece of alien technology in the form of a suit of armor, but can he handle the new responsibility this new power brings? Find out in this week’s Comic Rewind, Tech Jacket Vol. 1: The Boy From Earth.
Zack was just your average teenage boy. He had a girl he loved, but she may or may not have felt the same way about him. His dad was barely keeping his hardware store afloat and had to borrow money from some bad people to do so.
The Geldarians were at war with the Kresh and had been for some time. Things were starting to turn dire as the Kresh were winning the war. The Geldarians were an advanced civilization, but their bodies had become weak so they invented suits of armor called tech jackets.
On a scouting mission to see if they could find a highly advanced civilization to give a tech jacket to or enlist their help the Geldarians’ scout ship was severely damaged. Their only choice was to land on Earth. The protocol was for the ship and the tech jackets to explode if the user died in the presence of a primitive race.
The Prime Directive Broken
Zack was walking and saw the ship crashing so he investigated. One of the Geldarians wasn’t quite dead. Zack tried to help him, but the Geldarian only had seconds until his tech jacket exploded. In an act of mercy he transferred his tech jacket to Zack and saved his life.
This unknowingly to Zack led to Zack being accused of murder. However, Zack just may have been the Geldarians only hope in their war against the Kresh.
Tech Jacket Vol. 1: The Boy From Earth was written by Robert Kirkman with art by E.J. Su. Image Comics published the volume in 2007.
Tech Jacket Is Very Early Kirkman And It Shows In Parts
I’ve been rereading Invincible and Tech Jacket shows up in that comic eventually. However, I didn’t know anything about him. His backstory isn’t really explained in that comic and he seemed like it might be an interesting backstory.
This is an early comic by Kirkman and it shows. The story was pretty basic and simple. I don’t mean that in a bad way. It just lacked the depth and complexity that Kirkman’s Invincible and Walking Dead had a bit later in his career. Su’s art is also very simple and looked like it was done by an artist with less experience.
If Young Comic Readers Need A Introduction To Kirkman Than Tech Jacket Is A Great Choice
I liked this comic and could see what a great comic this could eventually turn into. However, this was just a practice run for Invincible and Kirkman’s other superhero comics. This was also more of a young-adult comic which was a little weird after reading so much Invincible because that book is very mature.
If you like Kirkman’s storytelling or have a younger comic reader who you want to introduce to Kirkman then this isn’t a bad comic to recommend. However, keep in mind this is early Kirkman and isn’t at the level you may be accustomed to.
Rating:
3.5/5
