JEFF!!!! Need I say more? No, I’m kidding, I will say more, but it is mainly gonna be about how much I love the little ball of selachian fury we all know as Jeff the Land Shark. After appearing as a side character in countless comics, he finally got his chance to shine in Kelly Thompson and Gurihiru’s Jeff the Land Shark Infinity Comic, which ran for many weeks on the Marvel Unlimited app. I showed my young cousins, age 6 and 9, these Infinity comics, and they fell in love with Jeff… so much so that I was forced to buy them Jeff plushies for Christmas!
Thankfully, Marvel has now released a trade paperback collection of Jeff the Land Shark: Friends and Rivals, Jeff’s first solo comic to be published after his explosion in popularity following the release of the beloved game Marvel Rivals. This story is written by Jeff co-creator Kelly Thompson, with art from Tokitokoro, and main covers by Gurihiru. The trade itself is so pretty, with the main character really drawing the reader in, especially if they are a player of Marvel Rivals. The story is cute, the art is fun, and Jeff is at peak main-character energy, in the best way possible.
Marvel
Friends and Rivals is Jeff’s first “arc,” as opposed to one-off stories in his Infinity Comic or guest appearances in other comics like West Coast Avengers, and it definitely feels different. There is something so whimsical about the Infinity Comics; how each one is so self-contained and low-pressure, but I understand the need to have a slightly more concrete plot for this published comic. I like the Shadow Demon Jeff plot, and I especially like how Tokitokoro illustrates this dark reflection of Jeff, reminiscent in many ways of “The Void” from Thunderbolts. That said, I really miss Gurihiru’s illustrations in this book. The artistic duo has such a clean, simple, bubbly way of illustrating Jeff and the other characters of the Marvel Universe that really lends itself to Jeff’s aesthetic and personality, which I missed. But Tokitokoto does an excellent job and manages to keep the whimsy and lightness of a Jeff adventure.
Marvel really knows how much the fans want Jeff, because this small trade features FIFTEEN pages of variant covers in the back, more variant covers than I have ever seen for a trade that collects a single miniseries. If you think Jeff is just the most adorable lil shark you’ve ever darn seen, then this is the trade for you, because you will get to enjoy over 20 variant covers depicting Jeff by various artists, including many full-page spreads.
I like this trade a lot. It brought me joy, made me giggle, and also made me attack my cat and make her cuddle with me, because I couldn’t cuddle Jeff! If you are trying to introduce a young reader to the Marvel Universe, I think Jeff is a great way to get them interested and meet a bunch of Marvel Universe characters, but as a nearly 34-year-old man, I also loved the experience. Thompson writes the larger cast of Marvel cameos excellently, and Tokitokoro captures Jeff’s personality well, although if you were a fan of the Infinity Comics, you may be thrown off by the change in art style (especially if you’re going off the Gurihiru art on the cover alone). I think this trade is well worth your investment, and if you buy this, then Marvel will keep on putting out Jeff comics.
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