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

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

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.

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 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.

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

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

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.

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.

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