Longbox Graveyard Sidekick Showdown March Madness — Round of 16
March means the NCAA Basketball Tournament here in the United States, and while it is one of the greatest events in all of sport, there isn’t always a lot of cross over between hoop fanatics and the fans of four-color funnies that read Longbox Graveyard.
To keep my loyal readers from feeling left out (and to provide a port in the office pool storm for folks who wouldn’t know Wichita State from the Wicked Witch of the West), I’m hosting the Longbox Graveyard Sidekick Showdown! This single-elimination tournament will run between now and April 12th, with results announced here at Longbox Graveyard on Monday, April 14th!
Using a super-secret formula (which I made up on the spot), the Longbox Graveyard Tournament Selection Committee has seeded the sixteen top comic book sidekicks as follows!
(Participants and seeds were assigned after consulting Wikipedia, Crave Online, Newsarama, and The Hero Complex!)
YOUR VOTE will decide the results of each round! Vote below … vote early … and vote often! And tell your friends!
FIRST ROUND VOTING WILL CLOSE sometime in the evening of Saturday, March 22nd. Second round pairings and voting will open back here at Longbox Graveyard on Monday, March 24!
Who will win the Sidekick Showdown? Will top seed Robin waltz to the final, or will hipster sentiment for drug-addled Speedy create an upset in his bracket? How will prohibitive favorites like Jimmy Olsen and Bucky Barnes fare against Cinderellas like Stripesy and Bob, Agent of Hydra? Can a very dangerous Harley Quinn ride her #6 seed all the way to the Final Four?
ONLY YOU CAN DECIDE! VOTE NOW FOR YOUR FAVORITE SIDEKICKS, BELOW!
Robin … the ORIGINAL boy sidekick … vs. Snapper Carr … sidekick to the entire Justice League of America!
Speedy … disgraced, drug-shooting sidekick to Green Arrow … vs. Toro … inexplicably flammable partner of the Original Human Torch!
Rick Jones … sidekick to the Hulk, Captain America, and Captain Marvel, and the Deus Ex Machina winner of the Kree/Skrull War … vs. Aqualad … lame salt-water sidekick to Aquaman, the biggest punchline in the DC Universe!
Kid Flash … to an entire generation, a greater speedster than his mentor, The Flash … vs. Arthur the Moth … ironic sidekick to the ironic Tick!
Jimmy Olsen … kid reporter and Superman’s pal … vs. Bob, Agent of Hydra … Deadpool’s favorite whipping boy!
Wonder Girl … Donny Troy, bum-rushed by DC time and again … vs. Skeets … partner and foil to Booster Gold!
Bucky Barnes … Captain America’s wartime partner, and the once and future Winter Soldier … vs. Stripesy … kinda-creepy adult sidekick to the teenaged Star-Spangled Kid!
Harley Quinn … fatally attracted to the Joker … vs. Fallout Boy … faithful companion of the Simpsons’ Radioactive Man!
Voting for this round has closed. Voting for the Round of 8 will commence on Monday, March 24th!
(And sound off in support of your favorite Sidekicks … and complain about seedings and snubs … in the comments section, below!)
Posted on March 17, 2014, in March Madness! and tagged Aqualad, Arthur the Moth, Bob Agent of HYDRA, Bucky Barnes, DC Comics, Fallout Boy, Harley Quinn, Jimmy Olsen, Kid Flash, Marvel Comics, Rick Jones, Robin, sidekicks, Skeets, Snapper Carr, Speedy, Stripesy, Toro, Winter Soldier, Wonder Girl. Bookmark the permalink. 20 Comments.
dangvozden
Paul O'Connor
Kris (not Chris)
markginocchio
miloapama
Dean Compton
Moya
ryanmcswain
Longbox Graveyard 
Great idea! There some tough choices here, and some easy ones, of course.
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It’s Robin against The Field, I think, but there are some dark horses here. The second round should be a real knife fight.
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This is for a billion bucks right ?
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First round, yes. Prizes increase with each new pairing.
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Yup. My two favorites on this list were up against each other. Donna Troy Vs Skeets.
How do I choose?!?!?
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You must choose … wisely.
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Skeets will rule them all! I’m sure of it 🙂
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Tough draw for Skeets with Wonder Girl. Skeets might have to be satisfied with having just made the field …
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Well, for me, the tournament is huge. I’m weird in that not only do I love the comics, but I’m a huge sports fan, and one of my favorite events is the NCAA tournament! ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK!!!!!! This weekend will be full of hoops and junk food for me!
This is a fun idea! Aqualad is hanging close, trying to pull off that 4/13 upset!
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I’m there with you, one of those (somewhat) rare sports/geek culture hybrid. I can get equivalently invested in the Los Angeles Dodgers and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise — both are fictional to me, each pursuit is unique but I think they have more in common than people will admit. There is a bit of a tribal barrier between sports dudes and comics dudes but I can pass for normal in both worlds.
(I am beginning to suspect I significantly under-seeded Aqualad, by the way … plus Rick Jones really is a character of the Silver Age, and it may be people have forgotten his significance).
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I think there is probably more of an overlap than generally conceived of.
I love baseball and comics and my childhood is equal parts obsession with Spider-Man and the NY Mets, b/c I who doesn’t like a loveable loser? 🙂
Also, Peter Parker Spider-Man (vol. 2) #33 from 2001 helped draw me back into comics with by making Peter Parker a Mets fan, too.
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I first followed the Dodgers in 1971 or 1972, and first got into comics in 1974. Both are still with me. The Golden Age of everything is “twelve!”
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There are 5 things I have loved since I was three, and it just seems I will love all of them my entire life. Baseball, Superheroes, Professional Wrestling, The Beatles, and Rock music in general. Some of those loves morphed over the years a bit, but they are all prominent.
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To this day, haha.
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I constantly hear from folks on both sides of this fence about that; many people have remarked that I am “not the kind of person who likes sports”, but I do. I love baseball immensely. That is easily my favorite. College Basketball is next, and then football. I also like MMA, and I have even gotten into soccer a bit recently.
The more we talk, the more we have in common. We’re practically besties, dude.
Are you gonna watch the Dodgers game Saturday morning at 1 your time? The season opener in Australia is killing b/c of the NCAA’s being this weekend too, but I won’t miss either of those games.
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I probably will not watch the Dodgers opener because of the time difference. There was a time when Opening Day was a holiday — I’d take the day off work, watch a bunch of games on TV, or even race up to L.A. and back for the opener — but not more. I gave that up after the work stoppages and steroids. But I will eagerly follow the Blue this year (just not on Australia time, thank you very much … and hoping the start/stop/start opening to the season does not manifest with injuries for my traditionally fragile Dodgers).
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I love baseball, stoppages and steroids be damned. I won’t let that sort of thing get in the way of my love of what is honestly the best thing in the world to me. I know it is late, but I just love seeing the opener. Games that late/early, like a long extra-innings game from the west coast, are a treat for me to watch. They make me feel like I am getting away with something.
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I’ve partitioned my love/nostalgia for baseball from being a consumer of the same. I continue to love the game, but I no longer LOVE the game, it is just one more entertainment among many, more significant than most, but not the same game I used to follow (and believe me, I know baseball has never been run by angels). I just take it as it comes, now, and don’t go especially out of my way to see it. It’s a long season.
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I love baseball, too. For the first time ever, it’s overtaken football as my favorite sport, as I’ve gotten rather sick of the NFL, mostly the NFL front office. My interest in basketball has also dwindled in the past 15 years, a combination of the game getting worse (though to be fair it’s really gotten better the past few years) and me disliking so many of the star players.
Sure, the Beatles are great too.
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