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Hopefully Wally can outrun the overrated sociopath.

I realize this is based upon the Greatest Marvel/DC comics thing from awhile ago, but does anyone else think it's kinda bull to have Rorschach in this competition when there is a movie about him that everyone has been talking about for over a year in theaters RIGHT NOW?

Also, this bracketing makes it a little unfair sometimes. Superman vs. Kitty Pryde? Punisher v Q was good, but now Question is against SPIDER-MAN? How is that even fair?

I don't want to begin swearing in the comments section, but Wally better flippin win. What is going on people?

One can argue that the brackets are always somewhat unfair. In the Basketball world, #16 never beats #1. It's just how it is.

I agree with the Rorschach aspect. He seems to be getting a lot of votes. Is he truly that popular?

Also, this bracketing makes it a little unfair sometimes. Superman vs. Kitty Pryde? Punisher v Q was good, but now Question is against SPIDER-MAN? How is that even fair?

It's working exactly how the system is intended to work - the top-ranked teams/characters are SUPPOSED to have the easiest match-ups in the first and second round. They've "earned" said match-ups by being the top-ranked teams/characters.

As for Wally/Rorschach - Wally was down 30 votes to Death at one point, being down 7 to Rorschach is not a big deal yet (and if Wally - who almost got as many votes as SUPERMAN in 07 - can't win, then he doesn't deserve it). Then again, 10s DO beat 2s in the NCAA tournament (heck, a #10 almost beat a #2 yesterday).

Hey Brian, this question about bracketing prompts me to ask more about how the initial brackets came about. I'm in no way disputing the rankings (as far as this matchup goes, we CSBG readers determined them collectively). I also get that the brackets are designed to initially pit weak teams (or less popular characters) against the strongest, so I don't have any complaints about that either. (If there's anything I'd change about this tourney, it would simply be to give everyone 48 hours, not 24, to vote. Not everybody can find time to visit here every day. Umm, that's not intended as a complaint either — just an observation/suggestion.)

But would you mind explaining in a little more detail, for us NCAA-naive savages, how you broke them into different regions? Just wonderin'.

Not to sound stupid but where do I vote?

gonna be tough to beat Supes. i think only Tony and Ben are up to it...

One of these fights coudl very easily happen: I'm sure the X-Men and FF have tussled, but does anyone remember if Thing and Nightcrawler fought? Not as easy to call as some, like, say, Water Wizard vs Hydro-Man.

But would you mind explaining in a little more detail, for us NCAA-naive savages, how you broke them into different regions? Just wonderin’.

Sure, in the "real world," the goal of the selection committee is to make the four regions as equitable as you can. That's harder to do in the "real world," where they have to deal with the fact that a certain amount of teams automatically make it into the tournament by winning their conference tournament. So you have a bunch of teams in the NCAA tournament who are NOT in the top 64 teams in the country.

So what I did is simply rank them all (by points received) #1-64, then split them up evenly into four regions.

The only difference between the four regions is that at the very top, you get an extra benefit for being first overall. Batman (as the overall top vote-getter) was the overall #1. So when I split the regions up, of the top four characters (Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America and Superman), Batman got the easiest #2 (the #8 overall) while Superman got the hardest (the #5 overall).

Everything else is basically even (as the #3 seeds would be made up of characters ranked #9-12, #4 seeds would be made up of characters ranked #13-16, so on and so forth).

Amusingly enough, though, the #5 overall character, Wally West, has clearly dropped in popularity since 2007, so Superman's "punishment" is not as great as it should be. But that happens in the real NCAA tournament, too, as luck is a major factor all the time.

Not to sound stupid but where do I vote?

in the polls above (and then the polls that just went up now in a separate entry, and the two polls up tomorrow at noon and 2pm).

Still hoping Kitty Pryde fans come through! Do people even like Superman on a monthly basis?

Ah. Had noscript running so I didn't even see them. Ta.

As much as I love Nightwing and Flash, I'd toss them under a bus for Kitty.

It would be nice to have seen this be just super heroes and include all of comic books. I mean, I love characters like Spider Jersulem and Jesse Custer, but they seem a bit out of place to me.

Still, I love brackets and I love Super Heroes. This has been good fun so far.

Superman versus Kitty cracks me up. It can only end in HEROIC BRUTALITY.

I'm probably stating the obvious, but I'm English and what I know about basketball can be written on the back of a stamp, so here goes.

The voting method we're using favours the highest seeds and barring some major surprise the semi-finallists are already pre-ordained. It seems a bit of a flaw in a competition if you know the result before it starts.

If we ever do this again , might I suggest that you draw the names randomly from a bag. Then Batman might draw Spiderman in the first round, Aquaman might get some easy draws and end up in the final. The most popular character should still win the whole competition, but every other position would be up for grabs.

Of course, if Batman, Superman, Captain America and Spiderman don't end up filling the semi-final berths then I will withdraw my criticism immediately.

The way it is set up now you are guaranteed to have marquee match-ups at the Final Four (probably the Elite 8, as well) and the Finals.

That also sets up higher drama. If Batman is facing Superman and then the winner of Spider-Man/Captain America, there's a lot more uncertainty than if he is facing Kitty Pryde with the winner facing the winner of Jesse Custer/Barry Allen.

In addition, if there IS an upset, you know that the upset is "deserved," since the character is beating someone we KNOW is a "tougher" opponent.

Poor Kitty. :<

I knew Superman would get more votes, but it's still sad. She is a much more interesting character.

my votes went to
Superman
Iron Man
The Thing
Rorschach

personally, Supes is just about my favorite charecter, while Kitty Pride hasn't done anything for me for over 15 years. In fact, i hope that Supes wins the whole thing! So there.....
; ]

Kitty Pryde
Nightwing
Nightcrawler
The Flash (Wally West)

As this is Wally, I went with him. He's my Flash. I'm also a huge Excalibur fan.

I'm pretty sure the Thing will, er, clobber Nightcrawler, but I'd love to see one of my 2 or 3 favorite Marvel characters pull an upset.

"but does anyone else think it’s kinda bull to have Rorschach in this competition when there is a movie about him that everyone has been talking about for over a year in theaters RIGHT NOW?"

I think that I first hears Watchmen movie rumors in 1989, so I've been waiting a lot longer than a year.

When you consider that he's only been in 11 comic books ever, all of which came out around 1986, and is still popular (name another character who hasn't been in anything but reprints for the last 20 years that made the list), I don't think it will be all that big an upset if he beats Wally.

Theno

Pretty easy call on three of the four:
- Superman over Kitty.
- The Thing and Nightcrawler
- The Flash over Rorshach.

I had a real debate between Iron Man and Nightwing. Dick Grayson and Tony Stark have had roughly the same number of high points, but Tony has been on a roll of late.

[...] West is up against Watchmen’s Rorschach in Round 2 of Comics Should Be Good’s DC/Marvel character [...]

I knew Superman would get more votes, but it’s still sad. She is a much more interesting character.

Superman has carried a minimum of two solo titles for, like, seventy years. He has starred in five feature films, with the first two being the cornerstone one which every subsequent super-hero flick has been built. He has had three long-running TV series. The most recent of which is the longest running adaptation of comics to another media. That is not to mention the cartoons, team comics and various other related properties.

Kitty Pryde, in contrast, has been a member of a couple ensemble casts on super-team books. While Kitty was a popular member of a popular ensemble, she has rarely been required to carry even a single issue. She made the third X-Men movie, but non-comic readers could be forgiven for missing her entirely.

There is just a lot more dimensions to Superman.

I'm not surprised that Wally-Flash is getting more votes than Rorschach, but it's still a pity, because Rorschach character is a THOUSAND times more complex and intriguing than Wally.

Meh. Just because he's rough and had a bad upbringing so now splits open heads of evil doers doesn't mean he's more complex. Both are great characters with intriguing complexities, but if anything, one could argue Wally has more, as he has way more stories to feed from.

These polls should really be gauged on pure ability rather than popularity. With Pryde and Superman, I'd put a few more votes into her pile mainly because most normal people can't penetrate Superman's skin. Pryde could easily phase and burst Superman's heart and brain from the inside. Yes, the thought has crossed my mind that the Supe can heal, but without that brain in functioning condition he can't do much.

And between Nightcrawler and Thing, there is definitely not much of a match up if Nightcrawler decides to teleport the thing into molten lava. Thing is a strong character and does have the skin, but wouldn't be much of a match up for the high agility, teleporting hero.

They probably should have been more specific as to what the "VS" entails: agility, intelligence, strength, popularity.

These polls should really be gauged on pure ability rather than popularity.

I think popularity works best as a measurement for a popularity contest.