Category Archives: March Madness!
Superhero elimination tournaments!
March Madness Super-Team Showdown Championship Winner Announced!
Sixteen super-teams. A month of voting spread over five rounds. A couple close contests, a lot of blowouts, and suspicion of a rigged election. The final vote is in, the smoke has cleared, and the winner is …
… your #1 tournament seed …
… the most important team of the Silver Age …
… the most famous and influential work of Jack Kirby (and that is some serious competition) …
… Marvel’s First Family …
… THE FANTASTIC FOUR!
It was a “chalk” tournament for sure, with the Fantastic Four running the table from the #1 seed. The Uncanny X-Men gave the FF a scare in the semis, but the Finals were all for the Four, as Reed, Ben, Sue, and Johnny dispatched the Avengers 60/40.
So hail to the victors, and thanks to everyone who participated in the tournament this month at Longbox Graveyard. I was especially impressed with the quality of the comments and the degree of care so many of you invested in your votes. The Real World can be brutal, sometimes, and it is nice to know we can all still come together for a good, old-fashioned Geek Fight.
With their victory, the Fantastic Four join an exclusive club of Longbox Graveyard March Madness winners:
- Super-Team: Fantastic Four
- Supervillain: Doctor Doom
- Super-Animals: Lockjaw
- Sidekicks: Bucky Barnes
Three out of four of those selections are directly tied in with the Fantastic Four, and all of them are the creation or co-creation of Jack Kirby, so I guess we should have seen this result coming! It’s Jack’s world, the rest of us just live in it.
Thanks again for your vote, and please leave your parting thoughts about our tournament in the comments section below. I will see you here again next March, when we match off some damn thing or another (give me your tournament ideas), and I think I may hold a monster tournament in October, too.
But for now — let’s hear it for the Fantastic Four!
nice job, Krackles!
Oh, and join me this Wednesday for the kickoff of a whole new format here at Longbox Graveyard … Marvel 1977!
March Madness Super-Team Showdown Championship Match — Vote Now!
The voters have spoken (and in one case, a voter may have spoken many times).
The Championship round is set!
The voting from the semi-final looks decisive, but the numbers tell only half the tale:
- Avengers over Justice League 66/34
- Fantastic Four over X-Men 62/38
Now, it is true that the Avengers/Justice League match-up was never close. The Avengers opened with a big run and never looked back. But the Fantastic Four/X-Men tilt was within a few votes, either way, for much of the week, and in fact I had begun to expect a tie.
(Which might have led to the FF and the X-Men teaming up against the Avengers in the final round … but no matter!)
It was the weekend that told the tale, with the Fantastic Four surging out to an insurmountable lead, right about the same time that an avalanche of votes came in from the European country where I suspect Krackles has his secret headquarters. (No, it isn’t Latveria). Hey, there are no rules against stuffing the ballot box! I even encourage it, sort of.
Bottom line … the Fantastic Four ended up burying the Uncanny X-Men, and whether it was due to an outburst of Kirby phantasmagoria or a generational divide is a moot point. However agonizing a choice it might have been for my most dedicated readers, Marvel’s First Family is on to the Finals, to face Earth’s Mightiest Heroes — the Avengers!
Let’s look at how each team got here.
The Avengers
Coming in as a #2 seed, the Avengers haven’t been challenged in this tournament. They clobbered X-Force in the opening round, easily bested The Legion of Superheroes in the second, and blitzed the Justice League in the semi-finals. Whether it is because the Avengers have nearly all of Marvel’s hottest heroes, or they’re enjoying peak popularity because of the movies, or just because Scarlet Witch can take down Superman in a flash, the voters of Longbox Graveyard have left no doubt that they want to see the Avengers in the Final. And they are going to be tough to beat!
The Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four have surprised me at every stage of this tournament. I thought they were over-seeded as a #1, but the readers were right. While they haven’t had as easy a time of it as the Avengers, the Fantastic Four did make short work of the Metal Men in the opening round, and fended off a pesky Justice Society in the second. The X-Men looked like they would get the best of the FF in the semis, but Mutants Don’t Work Weekends, and the Fantastic Four are in the Finals. In this case, I think people are voting for the world-building and mythos of the Fantastic Four as much as the team itself … and that’s fine! Your voting criteria is your own!
And speaking of voting … the time has come. Only one team can win the Longbox Graveyard March Madness Super-Team Showdown. Cast your vote now (and if you are an Avengers fan, figure a way to vote many times, before Krackles deploys the Ultimate Nullifier again!)
World’s Greatest Comic Magazine vs. Earth’s Mightiest Heroes!
Your vote(s) will tell the tale. Get ’em in by Sunday, April 1st (and no foolin’!). The winner of the tournament will be announced on Monday, April 2nd at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.
Thanks for all your hard work, great comments, and passionate advocacy throughout this tournament … and may the best team win!
(The comments section is open!)
March Madness Super-Team Showdown Final Four — Vote Now!
The voters have spoken and our Final Four is set!
Here are the results from the Round of Eight:
- Avengers over Legion of Superheroes 69/31
- Justice League over Teen Titans 63/34
- Uncanny X-Men over Defenders 60/40
- Fantastic Four over Justice Society 53/47
Once again, the voters did a great job in seeding our tournament, as the top four seeds all advance to the Final Four. The Round of Eight didn’t really have any close contests. The Justice Society tied up their match with the Fantastic Four late in the week, but weekend voting helped the FF cruise to a relatively easy victory.
Will the Final Four continue the trend for the “overdogs?”
YOUR vote with decide!
Get voting in our semi-final match-ups!
The Big 2 number 1s!
Cosmic Rays vs. Children of the Atom!
How did our regional champions make it to the Final Four? I’m glad you asked — here is our grid, up-to-the-second!
Vote early, and vote often! Voting for our Final Four will close sometime on Sunday, March 25th!
Your schedule for the remaining rounds:
- Monday, March 26th — Championship Match
- Monday, April 2nd — Final Result Announced!
Thanks for your vote. Tell your friends! And as always, defend your vote in the comments section, below!
dangvozden
Paul O'Connor
Kris (not Chris)
markginocchio
miloapama
Dean Compton
Moya
ryanmcswain
Longbox Graveyard 