Character studies · Jeff the Land Shark (Marvel Rivals)
Jeff came to the fight
with very small legs.
A shark, but with feet. Very small feet. Jeff also has an enormous mouth and a collar, which does a remarkable amount to suggest that this is somebody’s pet. The Blokees figure gets the shape across quickly. I wanted to know why the game sometimes shows us only the fin.
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Jeff was in the comics first.
His first appearance was West Coast Avengers #7, written by Kelly Thompson and drawn by Daniele Di Nicuolo, published on 30 January 2019. The series is labelled 2018, which can make that small piece of history surprisingly easy to misdate.
So Marvel Rivals did not invent him from scratch. It took an existing land shark and gave that rather inconvenient-looking body a role in a team game. The miniature follows that game version.
The short legs are worth keeping visible in the full-body pose. They are part of what makes the design work: an animal associated with a very different sort of movement has somehow acquired a pet’s proportions.
The mouth has actual work to do.
Marvel Rivals makes Jeff a Strategist. He can heal with water and bubbles, move submerged with his fin showing, and swallow characters before ejecting them. The mouth and fin are involved in how he works, as well as how he looks.
That is an entertaining mismatch. Small approachable body, a mouth capable of taking over the scene. He can look pleased with himself and still be a considerable problem for whoever ends up inside.
Those broad actions explain the figure better than a damage number that may change with a patch. The smile and the lone fin are two recognisable states of the same character.
Most of him can sit this pose out.
The Blokees gallery shows a dorsal fin emerging from a blue water-effect part. That recreates the game’s submerged look. The effect is a display piece, so there is no reason to introduce actual water to the kit.
I would alternate it with the full shark. In a row of upright heroes, one small fin makes a very different interruption. You know who is there without needing the head, legs or enormous mouth in view.
The complete figure is charmingly odd. The fin is the detail that gets better once you know what Jeff is doing. Sometimes less shark is enough.