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 there have only been two episodes released so far in its first (only?) season, 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 did two regions a day.This is the fifth round and here are with the winners of each of the four regions and the match-ups! We have finally hit the Final Four!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

vs.

HELL's KITCHEN REGION

WandaVision beat Batman, 63% to 37% while Daredevil took out Jessica Jones, 71% to 29%.

Our matchup between the winners of the Westview and Hell's Kitchen regions pits the recent Disney+ streaming series, WandaVision, starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany as Wanda Maximoff and Vision from the Avengers films, about Wanda's grief taking the form of a town transformed into a sitcom reality, while the government tries to discover what is happening to the city and we learn that perhaps another force is taking control of the situation that Wanda has created (we also get the introduction of the grown-up daughter of Maria Rambeau from the first Captain Marvel film, who teams up with two other MCU alums, Ant-Man and the Wasp's Jimmy Woo and Thor's Dr. Darcy Lewis) versus Marvel's Daredevil, one of the only Marvel Netflix series that actually lasted three seasons (before Netflix and Marvel severed their partnership in the creation of Marvel shows on the popular streaming service). 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

The best Metacritic review of WandaVision was from Matt Roush, who said, "Impeccably and cleverly crafted as a mashup of the otherworldly and the nostalgic, this insanely entertaining fantasia works on so many weird levels it doesn't matter if you're as confused as its principal players." The best Metacritic review for Marvel's Daredevil was from Jeff Korbelik, who wrote, "Creator/executive producer Drew Goddard (“Cabin in the Woods”) serves up a dark, edgy, violent and, at times, gruesome series that has some teeth to it."

TULSA REGION

vs.

CENTRAL CITY REGION

Watchmen defeated Agents of S.H.I.E.D., 61% to 39% while DC's Legends of Tomorrow upset Flash, 52% to 48%

Our matchup between the winners of the Tulsa and Central City regions pits 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. DC's Legends of Tomorrow, which starred a collection of various characters from other Arrowverse series, like Firestorm, Heat Wave, Captain Cold and Atom, 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, with new cast members joining pretty much every season (and leaving, as well). It has been renewed for a seventh season, making it one of the longest running series on the CW Universe of TV shows.

The best review for Watchmen came from Ben Travers at IndieWire, who wrote, "Season 1 Review: The series’ scope is astonishing given its subject matter, and even more so given its relentless entertainment value. Through six episodes, “Watchmen” has already provided a bounty of intelligent theories to study and debate, but it’s designed to be one helluva good time, as well." The best review for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. came from Verne Gay in Newsday, who wrote, "As with "The Avengers," Whedon's ear and sensibilities match the material perfectly." The best review for DC's Legends of Tomorrow came from Darren Franich at Entertainment Weekly, who wrote, "Legends of Tomorrow flies high as a kite, and the kite was hit by lightning, so now it’s an omnisexual talking kite firing electric rays at sexy history. ... A little self-awareness goes a long way, but Legends has a charm that’s more old-fashioned than meta. Every adventure is a game of dress-up."