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.
Here are the next two regions and the match-ups!
Simply choose which show you like better. The voting concludes roughly 48 hours from right now! Sometimes the Twitter embeds take a little bit to load. Just give it a bit.
I'm sorry that the voting is just through Twitter. The poll site I had been using for the last decade was purchased by a new site and changed their whole format. I tried a new one this year, but it wasn't mobile-compatible which is, you know, a big deal. If anyone knows of a mobile-compatible free polling site that you can embed in a WordPress site, feel free to let me know and I'll gladly use it for the future rounds! In the meantime, using Twitter for the voting is the best option I have.
We kick things off with Watchmen, a miniseries for HBO by Damon Lindeloff that was set years after the events of the famous Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons maxiseries, with a sinister group planning to take control of Doctor Manhattan's powers for nefarious purposes. Meanwhile, police departments have had to become masked vigilantes and one of those vigilantes, Sister Night (Regina King) has to deal with a shocking secret about her beloved mentor, a shocking secret about her own grandfather and a MOST shocking secret about her own husband and his connection to Doctor Manhattan vs. It's a Bird...It's a Plane...it's Superman!, a TV version of the short-lived musical adaptation of Superman by Charles Strouse (the TV special was just a couple of years before Strouse tried adapting another comic for a musical. This time, he chose better with Annie).
Next up is Cloak and Dagger, a series that ran on Freeform for two seasons, starring Aubrey Joseph and Olivia Holt as the title characters, Cloak and Dagger, two teenagers with a shared tragic past and powers that work best when they are together, leading them to teaming up to help do some good in the world vs. Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, a TV drama that ran for four seasons in the 1990s starring Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher as Superman/Clark Kent and Lois Lane, based on the new approach to the characters from the John Byrne reboot of Superman, highlighting the romantic elements of Clark and Lois's relationship.
Next is Black Lightning, the current CW series starring Cress Williams as Jefferson Pierce/Black Lighting, the Tony Isabella-created superhero who had retired as being a superhero after getting married and having two daughters, but he was forced back to his superhero identity when his city is overrun by the villainous Tobias Whale and The 100. The show's current fourth season will be its final one vs. Supaidāman, the Japanese licensed TV series based on Spider-Man, where the hero is instead a motorcycle racer named Takuya Yamashiro who is injected with the blood of an alien from Planet Spider. While the costume was the same, that was pretty much it, right down to Yamashiro piloting a giant Spider-Man robot to fight giant monsters. You know, just like Peter Parker does every other issue.
Next is iZombie, an adaptation of the Vertigo comic book of the same name by Chris Roberson and Mike Allred, where a young Seattle doctor is bitten by a zombie and transformed into a zombie herself. Now, Liv Moore (Rose McIver), tries to keep her zombie-ness a secret while using her ability to experience people's memories by eating their brain to help solve the murders of victims she sees as the assistant medical examiner. She is aided by the medical examiner, Ravi Chakrabarti (Rahul Kohli), and a homicide detective, Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin). Eventually, though, the world of zombies expands dramatically. The series ran for five seasons on CW vs. Blade, a short-lived series that ran on the now-defunct SPIKE network, starring Sticky Fingaz as Blade, in a sequel to the Blade film trilogy. Blade was joined by a new partner, Krista Starr (Jill Wagner).
Next is Preacher, an adaptation of the classic Vertigo comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, starring Dominic Cooper as Jesse Custer (the title Preacher of the series), and his traveling companions, Joseph Gilgun as the Irish vampire, Cassidy, and Ruth Negga as Jesse's true love (who is also an assassin), Tulip O'Hare. The series ran for four seasons on AMC. vs. the 1992 TV adaptation of DC's Human Target character, with Rick Springfield as Christopher Chance. Unlike the 2010 series, this version of the character was closer to the original Len Wein/Carmine Infantino character, which was about a man who would disguise himself as targets of assassination (therefore becoming a true human target). The series lasted seven episodes on ABC.
Next is Incredible Hulk, which was a hit TV series that ran on CBS for five seasons starring Bill Bixby as Bruce Banner and Lou Ferigno as the Incredible Hulk. The series was very similar to the classic TV series, The Fugitive, as just like how David Janssen 's Richard Kimble would travel throughout the country on The Fugitive while trying to clear his name, so, too, would Bixby's Bruce Banner travel the United States while trying to cure himself of his curse of being the Hulk (while helping people AS the Hulk). The series actually won a Best Actress in a Drama Series Emmy Award, a rare comic book series to win the award (this was back when single episode actors could win Best Actor/Best Actress Emmys, a practice that ended years ago). The series was followed by a series of TV films that halted when Bixby tragically passed away vs. The Inhumans, a short-lived TV series that ran on ABC that starred Anson Mount as Black Bolt of the Inhumans, along with Serinda Swan, Ken Leung, Eme Ikwuakor and Isabelle Cornish as the other members of the Inhumans royal family, who were on the run on Earth after Iwan Rheon's Maximus took over control of the Inhumans.
Next is Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the long-running ABC follow-up to the Avengers films that saw Clark Gregg reprise his role of SHIELD Agent Phil Coulson (after being killed in the first Avengers film), leading up a new team of field agents including characters played by Ming-Na Wen, Brett Dalton, Chloe Bennet, Iain De Caestecker and Elizabeth Henstridge as his initial team. The series took a number of twists and turns over its seven seasons, with Gregg playing literally three different characters over the course of the series vs. Secrets of Isis, a Filmation live action series designed to be paired with its Shazam series, starring Joanna Cameron as a schoolteacher, Andrea Thomas, who would transform into the Egyptian goddess, Isis, during times of danger. The series lasted two seasons.
Finally, soon after Secrets of Isis launched, ABC debuted the Wonder Woman TV series starring Lynda Carter, a more comic book faithful adaptation of the Wonder Woman character after the Cathy Lee Crosby pilot was not picked up. The series originally was set during World War II. After a season, ABC canceled it and CBS picked up it up and moved the show to being set in the present day (Wonder Woman's love interest, Steve Trevor, was succeeded by his son, Steve Trevor, Jr., both played by Lyle Waggoner). It ran two more seasons at CBS vs. Captain America, two 1979 TV movies starring Reb Brown as Steve Rogers, a young man whose father was a government agent that was killed. After Steve was almost killed, as well, he was saved by the FLAG formula, which gave Steve super abilities. He would travel the country in a van that would carry his special high tech motorcycle, complete with his famous shield on the front of the bike.
First up is Flash, the first spinoff of Arrow (and thus the creation of the "Arrowverse"), starring Grant Gustin as Barry Allen, a young man who received superspeed from a particle accelerator exploding (which gave other people powers, as well). Barry worked alongside the creator of the particle accelerator, STAR Labs, while also working as a rime scene investigator alongside Detective Joe West, who had taken in Barry when Barry was a kid after Barry's mother was murdered, seemingly by Barry's father (but Barry never believed his father killed his mother). Barry was in love with Joe's daughter, Iris (Candice Patton) and they eventually married. The series continues as the central series of the CW TV universe. vs. Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, a TV movie that was intended a possible TV pilot starring David Hasslehoff as Nick Fury, head of the spy organization, SHIELD, with Lisa Rinna as Contessa Valentina "Val" Allegra de Fontaine.
Next is Batwoman, which is in its second season on The CW. The show was originally about Kate Kane (Ruby Rose), the cousin of Bruce Wayne who takes over as the new protector of Gotham City as Batwoman. Her main villain was her presumed dead sister, Beth Kane (Rachel Skarsten), as Alice (the head of the Wonderland Gang). Rose left the show after the first season and now Javicia Leslie has taken over the lead of the series as Ryan Wilder, a former convict who is the new Batwoman vs. the short-lived 2019 Swamp Thing series, which lasted just one season on the DC Universe streaming service (and then was surprisingly popular when re-aired on The CW). It starred Derek Mears as the title character, along with Crystal Reed as Abby Arcane, a CDC doctor who is investigating the strange virus that turned Mears' Alec Holland into the Swamp Thing.
Next is Pennyworth, a series on Epix, starring Jack Bannon as Alfred Pennyworth, showing the adventures of the former SAS operative before he became the most famous butler in comic book history. The series also involves Thomas and Martha Wayne, young Americans who are secretly working for the CIA. COVID delayed the second season, but it has started airing again. vs. the 1990 version of Swamp Thing, which ran for three seasons on USA Network back when USA did not have a lot of original programming. Dick Durock, who played Swamp Thing in the two film versions starring Swamp Thing, also played the creature in the TV series.
Next is Doom Patrol, a series that began on the DC Universe streaming service for two seasons but will continue to air a third season on HBO Max, featuring Jane (Diane Guerrero), Rita Farr (April Bowlby), Vic Stone (Joivan Wade), Larry Trainor (Matt Bomer / Matthew Zuk), Cliff Steele (Brendan Fraser as the voice and Cliff in flashbacks, while Riley Shanahan plays the actual robot body of the character), and the Chief (Timothy Dalton) as the members of the mysterious and off the wall Doom Patrol vs. Helstrom, a short-lived Hulu series starring Tom Austen as Daimon Helstrom, a professor who tries to save people from demons. The show was originally part of a line of horror-themed Marvel series but it ended up being the only one that made it to the air.
Next is Supergirl, a series starring Melissa Benoist as Kara Zor-El, a Kryptonian survivor who was sent to Earth to watch after her younger cousin, Kal-El, but due to a mishap, landed on Earth years after Kal-El had already grown to adulthood and become the superhero known as Superman. Kara settled into a life as a normal person, as the adopted Kara Danvers, but soon found herself drawn into service as a superhero in her own right as Supergirl. The series debuted on CBS but then moved to The CW for four more seasons, with its current fifth season being its last vs. Amazing Spider-Man, a short-lived series starring Nicholas Hammond as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. The series debuted as a midseason replacement with big ratings, but when it returned for its second season, its ratings plummeted and the show was canceled after eight episodes of its second season.
Next is Punisher, a spinoff series from the second season Marvel's Netflix series, Daredevil, starring Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle, the vigilante known as the Punisher, with Ebon Moss-Bachrach playing Micro, a former NSA analyst who aides Castle in his mission on crime, as the two uncover a conspiracy involving the killings of Castle's family. The series lasted two seasons as Marvel and Netflix ended their deal together vs. Nightman, an odd series starring Matt McColm based on the Ultraverse character, Nightman, who was a Malibu series created by Steve Englehart that Marvel then purchased. Marvel rebooted the series but it was canceled before the syndicated TV version of the show debuted. Englehart actually got to write a number of episodes.
Next is DC's Legends of Tomorrow, which starred a collection of various characters from other Arrowverse series, led by Caity Lotz's White Canary. The cast of heroes travel throughout history on various missions, with each season having a distinct concept behind it. The cast has gone through tremendous overhaul over the years. It has been renewed for a seventh season. vs. The Gifted, a two-season series on Fox that starred a number of mutants having to deal with the disappearance of the X-Men in a world where mutants are still hunted.
Finally, we have FX's Legion, created and showrun by Noah Hawley, starring Dan Stevens as David Haller, the schizophrenic son of X-Men founder, Charles Xavier, whose powerful abilities are hard to control and he has been placed into a psychiatric hospital where he has been infected by the villainous Shadow King. The series ran three seasons vs. Man-Thing, a TV movie that aired on the SyFy channel that was at one point intended to be a theatrical release before being burned off on TV instead.
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