Welcome to the 12th Annual CSBG DC/Marvel Character Tournament!
This time around, you will be voting for your favorite DC or Marvel live action television series and TV movies. Amusingly, this was also going to be the tournament last year, so the delay has changed the list dramatically, as WandaVision, Superman and Lois and Stargirl all debuted AFTER last March! Notably, though, I will not be including Falcon and Winter Soldier, as its FIRST episode only dropped TODAY, so that seems like too little to actually cover for something like this.
The rankings were mostly determined by the use of IMDB user reviews, which turned out to be EERILY in line with the voters back in 2019 when we did superhero cartoons (the first time I can recall a tournament where all four #1 seeds made it to the Final Four). This time around, I made a few more changes, as it was just way too unreasonable for Batwoman, for instance, to be the lowest rated show out of ALL of the shows listed. So I made some judgment calls occasionally with the rankings.
After the shows were all ranked, they were split into four different regions. In the early rounds, we’ll do two regions a day.
This is the second round and here are the first two regions and the match-ups!
Simply choose which show you like better. The voting concludes roughly 48 hours from right now! I’m sorry that the voting is over Twitter, but the site that I had used for embedded poll voting for YEARS was purchased by someone else and it no longer is an option. If you know of another good and free embedded poll site, please let me know, I’d gladly use it in the future. For now, we’re stuck with Twitter polls.
WESTVIEW REGION
WandaVision beat Power Pack, 95% to 5% and Titans edged out Constantine, 54% to 46%.
Our first matchup pits the recent Disney+ streaming series, WandaVision, starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany as Wanda Maximoff and Vision from the Avengers film, about Wanda’s grief taking the form of a town transformed into a sitcom reality versus Titans, a live action series that initially aired on the DC Universe streaming service but will continue on HBO Max, featuring a more R-rated version of the young DC heroes, starring Dick Grayson (Brenton Thwaites), Kory Anders (Anna Diop), Rachel Roth (Teagan Croft), Gar Logan (Ryan Potter), Jason Todd (Curran Walters), Donna Troy (Conor Leslie), Hank Hall (Alan Ritchson), Dawn Granger (Minka Kelly), Rose Wilson (Chelsea Zhang), and Conner (Joshua Orpin)
Superboy upset Human Target (2010) 59% to 41% and Arrow trounced Birds of Prey 80% to 20%.
Next is Arrow, the series starring Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen, a vigilante who slowly turned into the superhero known as Green Arrow. The series launched the series of interconnected superhero shows known as the Arrowverse (who are now trying to go by a different name now that Arrow’s run has finished) vs. Superboy, a syndication series produced by the Salkinds (the producers of the Superman movies) that ran for four seasons, with John Haymes Newton playing the title role in Season 1 and then Gerard Christopher taking over for Seasons 2-4.
Lucifer edged out Doctor Strange, 56% to 44% and Superman and Lois handled Shazam 62% to 38%.
Next is Lucifer, starring Tom Ellis as Lucifer, who has given up Hell for Los Angeles, where he serves as a consultant with the LAPD. Laura German plays his LAPD contact and Tom Welling later joined the cast as Cain. The series ran for three seasons on Fox and then Netflix picked it up for an additional three seasons vs. Superman and Lois, a new series that has only seen four episodes air so far, featuring Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch as Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane, respectively, a married couple trying to raise their two teenage sons, Jonathan Kent (Jordan Elsass) and Jordan Kent (Alex Garfin) back in Clark’s hometown of Smallville
Batman trounced Wonder Woman (Cathy Lee Crosby) 92% to 8% and Luke Cage almost did as well, defeating Krypton 81% to 19%.
Finally, we have Batman, the hit ABC TV series starring Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward that became a sensation in 1966, with two episodes each week, with the first episode ending with a cliffhanger and the second one resolving the story, leading to the series appearing TWICE in the top 10 TV series for the 1965-66 TV season. The series lasted three seasons, with the third season introducing Yvonne Craig as Batgirl as it reduced to just one episode per week vs. Luke Cage, the Netflix series starring Mike Colter as the title hero, as a former convict who was experimented on and given superhuman strength and unbreakable skin that he uses to fight crime in New York City. Simone Missick co-starred as NYPD detective, Misty Knight, and Rosario Dawson as the “Night Nurse,” Claire Temple
HELL’s KITCHEN REGION
Daredevil knocked out Legends of Superheroes easily, 92% to 8% and Defenders had a mild upset over Runaways, 57% to 43%.
Our first matchup features Marvel’s Daredevil, one of the only Marvel Netflix series that actually lasted three seasons. The show followed the blind lawyer, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), who gained super abilities when he lost his sight and his law partner, Frankin “Foggy” Nelson (Elden Henson) and their client turned secretary, Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) as Matt becomes the superhero vigilante known as Daredevil to take on the Kingpin (played by Vincent D’Onofrio) and the evil Hand vs. Defenders, a miniseries that brought the four Marvel Netflix series together on to a team, with Charlie Cox’s Daredevil, Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones, Mike Cotter’s Luke Cage and Finn Jones’ Iron Fist teaming up together to take on the Hand, who had resurrected Daredevil’s former love, Elektra, to use her as a weapon.
Agent Carter defeated Spidey Super Stories 83% to 17% while Stargirl took care of Powerless, 79% to 21%.
Next is Agent Carter, which saw Hayley Atwell reprise her role as Peggy Carter from Captain America: The First Avenger and the One-Shot short film that showed Carter as a founding head of SHIELD as she deals with being a woman agent at the Strategic Scientific Reserve (SSR) during an era where women were not typically seen as peers by the other agents. It ran for two seasons on ABC. vs. Stargirl, a series starring Brec Bassinger as a teen who discovers that her stepfather (Luke Wilson) used to be a sidekick to Starman, one of the members of the Justice Society of America. The cosmic staff that belonged to Starman works for the teen, so she believes that he might be her long-lost biological father. She becomes Stargirl (and her stepfather debuts a suit of armor that he uses to keep an eye on Stargirl) and slowly begins to rebuild a brand-new Justice Society of America. The series debuted on DC Universe but is moving to The CW
Jessica Jones beat Mutant X, 92% to 8% and Gotham withstood a push from Iron Fist, 57% to 43%.
Next is Jessica Jones, the other Marvel Netflix series to reach three season, which stars Krysten Ritter as the title character, who had tried to make it as a superhero before she was then terrorized by the villainous Killgrave. Once he was finished with her, Jessica dealt with her trauma by drowning her sorrows in alcohol as she becomes a private investigator. However, when Killgrave returns, Jessica is forced to confront her past and perhaps take on a more heroic future, as well. vs. Gotham, a series set in the years following the murder of Bruce Wayne’s parents, as we see early in his career cop, Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie) and young Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) each come to terms with their destinies in Gotham City, with Gordon set to clean up the Gotham City Police Department and fight against the slowly developing super criminals in the city while Bruce begins his journey to becoming a superhero. The series ran for five seasons on Fox.
Adventures of Superman defeated Generation X, 79% to 21% and Smallville outraced the Flash (1990) 65% to 35%.
Finally, we have the Adventures of Superman, the first television series starring a superhero, which starred George Reeves as Superman and Phyllis Coates/Noel Neill as Lois Lane and ran for six seasons (Reeves’ death halted future seasons). The show was unique in that it began shooting in color well before most television sets had the ability to show color, as the producers figured it would help the show in second-run syndication. The series was produced by DC itself, with DC editor Whitney Ellsworth in charge of the production vs. Smallville, which starred Tom Welling as Clark Kent, who discovered his super abilities as a teenager and the rest of the series is following Clark and his friends as he slowly but surely embraces his destiny as he becomes Superman by the end of the series. The series lasted for 10 seasons on The CW
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