Jeff the Land Shark - Superstar #1 // Review
Mojo didn’t like The Spider-Webs and Jeff. Spiders don’t really have a strong connection with sharks, so...it’s not really going to work. Neither is the Berserker X-Men and Jeff. I mean...Mojo has a whole history with the X-Men and this is just a bunch of Wolverines. The Jeff Coast Avengers is a particularly clever play on words, but it’s not right...and nothing is going to feel right until the ge the REAL Jeff in Jeff the Land Shark - Superstar #1. Writer Kelly Thompson continues a fun, little relationship with a very adorable, little character who is brought to the page by artist Tokitokoro.
As the story opens, Jeff is blissfully unaware of the fact that a despotic movie producer from another dimension is interested in kidnapping him for his box office appeal. He’s just hanging out on the couch with his sidekick Ken the Heptapus. They’re both actually really successful at avoiding the threat that is literally outside their window until Wolverine slam into it demanding that they little guy help out with the conflict. So naturally, Jeff packs-up his magical rocks and heads out to help his hero friends save New York.
Mojo is a perfect match for Jeff. There’s a built-in comic element to both of them. The tones match perfectly. The overall Mojo schtick is one that Thompson riffs on quite well. Thompson takes to Mojo-style spoof humor quite well, but she also adds-in a strong emotional connection beyond the surface-level silliness that continues to be appealing. Much of Thompson’s genius with the premise lies in her total faith in the ability of the artist to take an idea and run with it.
There’s a whole five-page sequence wih Jeff and Ken just hanging out on a couch that could have been awful if Tokitokoro didn’t nail the humor perfectly. Every panel on all five pages is drawn from the exact same angle with the exact same framing. The way it works is genius thanks to Tokitokoro’s direction. And, of course, Jeff is incredibly cute. There’s also a sharp appeal in the artist’s rendering of Mojo’s multi-armed assistant Spiral. No one could tackle a rendering of her like creator Arthur Adams, but Tokitokoro manages a level of expressiveness with her that Adams never quite reached. Her bored nonchalance is absolutely delicious as rendered by Tokitokoro.
Okay: so it IS a bit weird to see Mojo rendered with the same nearly kawaii-level of cuteness that is given to Jeff and Ken and such, but the visuals of the issue are a lot of fun. Writer and artist work well with the characters that they have chosen to work with. It all fits together on the page quite well. It’s sheer fun from beginning to end scarcely a dull or unappealing moment in the whole book. Thompson assembles everything together quite well for another very promising outing with everyone’s favorite, little land shark.
