And The Winner Is …
Wow! That went down to the wire! The compressed voting schedule of our tournament final made for an especially frantic contest, with Swamp Thing jumping out to an early lead, but Ghost Rider gradually reeling him in in the closing hours, thanks in no small part to friend-of-the-Longbox (and Ghost Rider fan) Sam King working Twitter overnight!
So impressed was I with Sam’s ballot-box stuffing that I left the polls open until this morning … but when I closed them just shy of 10:00 AM Pacific, Swamp Thing still took the win. By a single vote!
So there you have it. Swamp Thing triumphs (survives?) by the thinnest of margins, 51/49.
It is a fine time to celebrate Swamp Thing. Halloween is tomorrow, and the 27th of this month would have been the 71st birthday of the late, great, Bernie Wrightson. Go read a Swampy comic to celebrate! The indefatigable Mars Will Send No More showcases a bunch for you if you don’t have an original or reprint close to hand.
Thanks to everyone who voted in the tournament, weighed in through comments, and stumped for their candidates on Twitter. In the end, the favorite won … but we had some twists along the way, and you couldn’t have had a more thrilling final. I don’t know about you, but in the midst of a news cycle more terrifying than any Halloween horror, I appreciated the chance to get worked up about goofy comic book monsters a couple times every week. You guys are the best.
All hail Swamp Thing!
(And Ghost Rider, and Hellboy, and …)
The Final Bracket:
TOMORROW: Happy Halloween!
Posted on October 30, 2019, in Halloween Month and tagged march madness. Bookmark the permalink. 20 Comments.
dangvozden
Paul O'Connor
Kris (not Chris)
markginocchio
miloapama
Dean Compton
Moya
ryanmcswain
Longbox Graveyard 
Well I figured this would happen. Congrats to Swampy and all those who voted for him. Shout out to those like me who voted for Ghost Rider anyways.
Maybe next year Ghostie, maybe next year
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It was really close!
Here’s another discussion … who has had the better/worse treatment on film, Ghost Rider or Swamp Thing?
Hmm.
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Ooooh good question. I hated that the studios chose Nic Cage to play GR. He was too old and too corny. That being said I did like the sequel more than the 1st. I’d say GR overall. Considering the depth of talent they had to choose from, special fx and all, GR should’ve been better than it was. The Swamp Thing movies were marred by coming out when it did, and the limits, budget and effects-wise. Buuuut Dick Durrock was perfectly cast for the role, as further proven in the tv show.
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I think it is pretty much a dead heat … unless we consider the recent DC Online Swamp Thing streaming show, which was supposed to be decent (I haven’t seen it).
If you want to see an excellent Ghost Rider movie, watch “The Place Beyond The Pines,” and imagine Ryan Gosling with a flaming skull head. Not even kidding about that.
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Him or Paul Walker (ha ha) would’ve worked better as GR I bet.
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Yeah that whole cancelling the Swamp Thing show made no sense to me and looked really good. As good as the Doom Patrol series.
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I gather it was wrapped up in tax breaks and the knife-fight-in-a-phone-booth that has been the AT&T/Time-Warner merger, with a special guest appearance of the pending HBO Max streaming service. (RIP Filmstruck).
In other words, the elephants are fighting. Ants beware.
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Indeed. Hate to see that show become collateral damage, especially since the whole DC streaming thing is pretty much a dumpster fire that needs to be rebuilt. But please God, leave the Doom Patrol alone! Damn good show I hope returns.
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Well done Swamp Thing! It was close though, thought Ghost Rider would give him a run for his money. Really enjoyed this tournament for Halloween time, great spooky fun! 🙂
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Ghost Rider was very strong — I have to give him credit for that. Does anyone know if they finally filled in the Bronze Age Ghost Rider books on Marvel Unlimited? I’m inspired to give them a read, but my sub has expired and etc. etc. Always thought the absence of those books was a major failing of the service, but last I checked they had filled in many monster books from the 70s, so maybe Ghost Rider is there at last.
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Yes, it was a very close run thing! I’m not sure if those Ghost Rider issue you mention have ever been added to Marvel Unlimited, its not a service I’ve ever used. You’d have thought those issues would have been on there. Aside from that the only other thing I can think of is one of the Marvel Masterworks collections, I’m sure there’s a volume with those issue in.
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Marvel Unlimited is pretty awesome, might be time to subscribe again. Maybe a Christmas present from my family, they never know what to get me.
(And we can talk about Christmas, now, right? Doesn’t Christmas season official begin in the U.S. the second Halloween is over?)
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That’s a good idea, means you get something you’d really like for Christmas. Yeah, think we can mention Christmas now Halloween is over, mind you here in the UK we had a couple of Christmas adverts on TV the day before Halloween! Now that WAS scary LOL! 🙂
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No sooner does the skeleton let go of my wallet than Santa’s hand is in there.
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Wow, amazing vote! I guess I should have voted more than once. 😉
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Never a more appropriate competition for the “graveyard vote” to come in.
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Awesome tourney of terror (even if my boy–my HellBoy–did not make the finals). Thanks for holding the tournament and Happy Halloween!
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Happy Halloween, and thanks for your enthusiastic Hellboy advocacy. I still have a few hours to honor my pledge of reading a Hellboy graphic novel before the month is up!
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Busy times for me lately means I missed all of this, but I look forward to catching up on it soon!
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No rush, friend … and a lot of the month was reprints, which you would have seen the first time around. Hope all is well!
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