Jeff the Land Shark Writer Kelly Thompson Teases an Evil “Shadow Jeff” (Interview)

An evil version of Jeff the Land Shark is about to terrorize the Marvel Universe. Jeff is widely known for his friendly demeanor and ability to befriend many of our favorite heroes, from Deadpool to Kate Bishop. Jeff’s popularity has also taken him across different genres, such as the Marvel SNAP mobile game and Marvel Rivals PC and console game. Lately, Jeff’s comic book exploits have mostly been kept to Marvel’s Infinity Comics on the Marvel Unlimited app — aside from a Venom War tie-in — but he’s about to take center stage in a new Jeff the Land Shark solo series. Kelly Thompson, the writer of the series, is giving up the dirt on what readers can expect out of the title, including “Shadow Jeff.”

ComicBook spoke to Kelly Thompson about Jeff the Land Shark. The five-issue limited series goes on sale June 4th and finds Jeff paying a visit to Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. An “accident” inside the building leads to the creation of “Shadow Jeff,” who sets out to dirty Jeff’s good name. Jeff will have to gather his friends to stop Shadow Jeff before it can cause any more harm.

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Thompson speaks on Shadow Jeff, Jeff’s reaction to meeting his dark doppelganger, and the locations and guest stars fans can look forward to. We can also exclusively reveal interior pages from Jeff the Land Shark #1 by Tokitokoro, as well as the cover of Jeff the Land Shark #3.

ComicBook: Jeff’s popularity is at an all-time high, and now fans get to read his adventures in a new solo series. What can you tell us about this “Shadow Jeff” that is causing trouble for our favorite Land Shark?

Kelly Thompson: Jeff sort of “breaks in” to the Sanctum Sanctorum and while inside accidentally releases a creature called a Shadow Demon that then steals Jeff’s shadow, so it can remain in this world. But when it runs, Jeff gives chase — and that chase it gonna take us all over the place. First stop Canada, second stop Knowhere. Which sounds like a joke, but isn’t. 

What is Jeff’s reaction to seeing a dark double? Does it put fear in him that he could wind up going down a similarly dark path?

Jeff’s not terribly worried about becoming corrupted, but he IS pretty worried about his reputation. It’s one thing to be slightly troublesome but deeply lovable, as Jeff regularly is, it’s another to be a real problem that’s messing everything up. Jeff’s used to people liking him and if that changes his world will get unpleasant pretty fast. 

Have there been any locations or characters that you have enjoyed seeing Jeff interact with?

Well, one of the beautiful things about Jeff is he really bounces all over the Marvel Universe already, with all sorts of friends, allies, and sometimes enemies, but this book is designed to let us have team-ups with a ton of characters he rarely gets to see in the comics. Quite honestly, ALL of the characters so far have been fun. Dr. Strange’s snakes Anton and Aleister are famously salty and not fond of Jeff (and really focused on his short legs. Gee, I wonder why?) so they’re excellent characters to bounce off of Jeff. We also get some Deadpool showing up in issue one, and you can expect to see Rocket Raccoon and Groot, as well as Wolverine and Psylocke. Also… Rogue and Gambit! Surprise! Did you think I was going to write something at Marvel and not try to fit these guys in? Guess again! It will be a small but integral part of the series, and I hope fans will get a kick out of it.