Marvel Rivals is finally live in its wide release, and among all the Web-Slingers, Super Soldiers, and Gods of Thunder that populate the game's expansive roster of Marvel characters, one special li'l guy is capturing players' hearts (or in some cases swallowing them up and spitting them into a ravine). I'm talking of course about Jeff the Land Shark, the strangely adorable, sorta Pokemon-esque Strategist hero whose steady healing output and havoc-wreaking ultimate are already becoming as notorious as his cherubic-yet-deadly smile is beloved.
Jeff the Land Shark may seem like a particularly odd hero to include as a playable character in Marvel Rivals, and he certainly is. But his popularity goes all the way back to comics, where he started out as a kind of mascot for a previous iteration of the West Coast Avengers, and has gone on to become the star of some of his own comics.
Created by writer Kelly Thompson and artist Daniele di Nicuolo in 2018, Jeff the Land Shark has become a fan-favorite character who has gone on to appear in multiple iterations of his own series where he gets into all kinds of mishaps and adventures.
Comics have long featured super-powered pets and other bizarre creatures – such as Captain Marvel's pet Flerken, known in the comics as Chewie and known as Goose in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and of course Superman's dog Krypto (who will have a cameo in James Gunn's Superman reboot movie).
Given the popularity of Chewie/Goose and even Baby Groot, it's no surprise a baby Land Shark would have mass appeal. Jeff may not have the star power of these characters yet, but to know him is to love him.
Since his debut in 2018's West Coast Avengers #6, the mini-megalodon has been chewing at the fringes of the Marvel Universe and has become the low-key scene-stealer in series such as Deadpool and Gwenpool Strikes Back.
Jeff the Land Shark rides a wave
"Sharks that can theoretically get you on both land and in sea should be terrifying and yet he’s utterly adorable," screenwriter Liam Johnson of ITV's Emmerdale tells Newsarama.
If there's a mathematical formula for cuteness in this meta-loving world we're in now, smaller versions of scary characters are high on the cute quotient. Godzilla begot Gadzookie, Groot turned into Baby Groot, Bowser turned into Baby Bowser, and DC's Jarro could only have happened after the killer kaiju Starro paved the way. Ghostbusters: Afterlife showed this can be weaponized, with pint-size versions of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
Jeff the Land Shark is a part of that same tide, but also helped by the idea of a 'Land Shark' which strikes a chord for those that remember Saturday Night Live's classic Land Shark skits from the '70s.
"I think characters like Jeff really do have a strange way of capturing the hearts of fans," creator Kelly Thompson tells Newsarama. "Characters that live in that weird liminal space where they almost feel like pets because of their adorable non-human features and inability to communicate verbally the same way humans do, but that have more agency than we would or should associate with 'pets.'"
"We're talking the Baby Groots, the Grogus, the King Sharks, even characters like Pan from Golden Compass maybe even Fizzgig from The Dark Crystal," Thompson continues. "We seem to be especially fascinated by these types of characters – and attach quickly. I know I do."
And we can't go without mentioning the 'Baby Shark' song, one of the top memes of 2018.
So… just who is Jeff the Land Shark?
In Marvel Comics' continuity, Jeff was part of a shark army created by the classic big-headed Marvel villain MODOK during a weird phase where he called himself BRODOK. After his attempts at wooing women were rejected, BRODOK created an army of sharks genetically modified to have four legs and live out in the open air. He sent them to destroy a city in California but they were fended off by the appropriately named West Coast Avengers.
West Coast Avengers member Gwenpool took a liking to one of the bunch, which she named Jeff (after a kitten she had previously). The loveable Land Shark quickly became a part of the team, with Gwenpool and fellow teammate Quentin Quire falling into the role of adoptive parents.
After the West Coast Avengers disbanded and Gwenpool got pulled away into other things, she was able to find a more natural home - Monster Isle, home to various monsters going back to the early days in Marvel lore. Jeff fit in well there, especially as he came there just as Deadpool was named 'King' of the island. You can imagine the kind of things that would happen with that pairing.
As all this was happening, Jeff the Land Shark slowly became a low-key cult-favorite character for some comics fans, and also some comics characters. In an issue of Runaways, Molly was drawn sporting a Jeff beanie.
That idea of merchandise was made real in 2020 when Hasbro felt some apparent demand enough to make a Jeff the Land Shark figure, as part of their Marvel Legends line. The figure was included in a pack for Shiklah, but every shark's got to start somewhere.
And while it's a popular myth that a shark dies if he stops moving, Marvel's Jeff the Land Shark does indeed keep moving, with his popularity now extending into video games thanks to Marvel Rivals.
"You know, the response to Jeff has been incredible from day one," Thompson said back when Jeff's comic first took off a few years ago. "Like we're seeing a huge spike right now obviously since there's adorable new (Gurihiru!) content, but ever since he debuted in West Coast Avengers people have been very excited about him."
Someday, Jeff the Land Shark may be considered one of the best superhero sidekicks of all time.
