Everybody loves Jeff the Land Shark, Marvel Rivals' standout star, except the people who have to play against him

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This baby shark can do do do one

Jeff the Land Shark as he appears in Marvel Rivals
(Image credit: Marvel/NetEase Games)

If you're not a Marvel Rivals player, you might take a look at Jeff the Land Shark and think he's just an adorable little guy - after all, he's a baby shark that acts like a dog, smiling as he runs to chomp, chomp, chomp the bad guys. But just a few days after the hero shooter's launch, fans have begun to recognize Jeff as nothing less than an absolute terror.

Among the Marvel Rivals characters, Jeff is a Strategist hero - basically a Support character, to borrow the parlance of Overwatch. He's got a variety of healing abilities that can keep allies in the fight, but the reason everybody's growing to hate the little guy is because of his ultimate ability. Called simply "It's Jeff," it lets him swallow up enemies and allies alike within a huge AOE range and then spit them wherever he darn well pleases.

Jeff’s Sacrifice from r/marvelrivals

As we started to see when Rivals was still in beta, the contrast between Jeff's cute, cuddly look and the absolute havoc he can wreak in a match has created a whole lot of salt in the community. Redditors are dropping posts and comments like "Jeff’s ult makes this game insufferable" and "he's blatantly the most busted hero in the game." My favorite, though, is this: "The worst part about Jeff is how cute he is. I am trying to hate you, you lovable little fuck."

The way people talks about Jeff, you would think he is committing crimes against humanity 😭 from r/marvelrivals

For now, the question is whether Jeff is truly OP, or if players just haven't internalized the ways to counter his abilities just yet. After all, players who were around for the early days of Overwatch might remember just how much everybody hated Bastion at the start, only to realize he wasn't actually broken - we just all needed to get good. And impressive Jeff counters are already starting to take shape. I guess we just need to wait and see if the devs think Jeff's worthy of a nerf.

Jeff the Land Shark - The comic history of Marvel Rivals' most adorable and divisive Strategist hero.

Dustin Bailey
Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.