Marvel Rivals teaches everyone about the joy of Jeff The Land Shark

I answered Marvel Rivals because it’s popular with my friends and is free to play, but I’m not really a Marvel fanatic. I know my Black Widows from my Winter Soldiers, but characters like Magik, Luna Snow and Adam Warlock are new to me. There is one hero in particular that I had the pleasure of discovering: Jeff the Land Shark, a little boy that I absolutely adore. In a roster full of super-powered badasses, I’m obsessed with Jeff – and I’m not alone.

Jeff the Land Shark is a relatively new hero, especially when you consider some of them Marvel Rivals‘ cast dates back decades. He’s a baby shark with short legs, big googly eyes and a big grin. I can’t express enough how wonderful it is to play as Jeff: his toe beans, the way he hums menacingly as he dives underground, his reload animation where he turns on his back and eats a tasty fish… I don’t know I don’t know what else you want. He’s perfect.

Hilariously, Jeff has one of the most rage-inducing ultimate abilities Marvel Rivals. He creates a huge vortex – charmingly named “It’s Jeff!” – and then swallows every enemy within the radius of the vortex. Jeff can then spit those enemies out and send them off a cliff, or into the middle of a bunch of enemy duelists. It’s a lot of fun.

Polygon’s comics fanatic Susana Polo is no stranger to Jeff The Land Shark’s fanbase. “I would direct Jeff’s appeal directly to writer Kelly Thompson and artist Stefano Caselli, for whom he created it West Coast Avengersbut also the Japanese illustrator team Gurihiru, who created the It’s Jeff! comic for Marvel Unlimited,” she said. “Their cartoons are the best in the superhero world, and you can see a straight line from their chaotic, wordless ‘Sunday Funnies’ gag strips to the adorable chaos Jeff seems to inject into these matches.”

For example, I’m very happy to meet Jeff The Land Shark Marvel Rivals. Sure, the rest of the game is fun, and it’s nice to have a multiplayer title that all my friends like. But more importantly, I love Jeff, and you should too.