Polygon sat down with writer Kelly Thompson earlier this week to discuss her best-selling Absolute Wonder Woman, which she co-created with artist Hayden Sherman — but we couldn’t help asking about another of her comics co-creations who has been making a big splash lately: Jeff the Land Shark, who appears in Marvel Rivals.
We asked Thompson how she would respond to Marvel Rivals players who find themselves frustrated with Jeff’s disruptive ultimate ability, “It’s Jeff!,” in which he gobbles up all his foes in a large range and then spits them out wherever he wants.
“What they call annoying,” Thompson replied, laughing, “I call a skills issue.”
Before Jeff became a Marvel Rivals phenomenon, he was the team pet of Thompson and artist Daniele di Nicuolo’s 2018 West Coast Avengers run. After the cancellation of that series, Thompson continued to weave the little guy into her Marvel comics, and illustration partners Gurihiru fanned the flames by including references to him in their own work for Marvel Comics. Eventually, Jeff got his own adorable, digital-first silent gag comic, It’s Jeff!, from Thompson and Gurihiru, and the rest is history.
Polygon has previously reported on Jeff’s combination of extremely cute and extremely annoying qualities for the Marvel Rivals audience. Thompson’s (joking) advice for anyone frustrated by Jeff gameplay is simple:
“I think they should get better at the game. Sounds like a skills issue to me, if my boy is beating your ass every night. I mean, listen, he has an incredibly powerful ult; just accept it, become zen about it. Everyone’s got upsides and downsides, right?”
We also asked Thompson which of Jeff’s many different cute outfits she’d like to see as skins in the game, where he’s already debuted with at least one direct lift from the comics. His Incognito Dolphin skin is a reference to the third issue of It’s Jeff!, in which he becomes worried that he will frighten people by enjoying a swim at the beach, and gets himself a dolphin costume so that strangers will know he’s friendly.
“He’s been a taco, he’s been a sheep, he’s been Grogu, he’s been Wolverine, he’s been everybody. He’s been Spider-Man.” Thompson considered her options. “I do think — I’m not usually super into the Venom-ification of everything, because it can really overwhelm, but he has merged with Venom in the comics [in Venom War: It’s Jeff!] and he grew giant, punchy arms. So that would be fun to have in the game.”
Image: Kelly Thompson, Gurihiru/Marvel Comics
“And the business suit,” Thompson’s Absolute Wonder Woman collaborator Hayden Sherman chimed in, “if we can get him in the suit with the briefcase,” referring to It’s Jeff! #37, where Jeff dresses up in a little business suit with his own briefcase in order to look professional at his self-created job of eating a bunch of park vendors’ food waste for tips, which he uses to buy a briefcase full of ice cream.
Image: Kelly Thompson, Gurihiru/Marvel Comics
Thompson immediately agreed: “It was editor Sarah Brunstad who actually added the suit. She was like, ‘I think we should add this panel with him with the suit and a briefcase.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my god. I’m so mad at myself for not coming up with that first.’ It was awesome.”
Whether or not Venom Jeff or Business Jeff are directions that NetEase wants to explore, one thing’s certain: Jeff is cute no matter how he dresses.
Content shared from www.polygon.com.