Well, we’ve had so much fun the past two years, we’re just going to keep this thing going!

In case you missed it, in 2020, because the post-season college basketball tournaments were canceled, I thought, “What better way to keep the crazy competitiveness of March alive than with a movie tournament?”

So, I introduced Corinne’s Movie Madness.

Just like the basketball tournaments, we had a field of competitors facing off in one-on-one competitions. You, the Reel Nerds fans, decided which of the two movies in a given match-up advanced to the next round, and eventually crowned The Princess Bride as Movie Madness 2020’s champion.

Then, last year, I got my fellow Nerds involved for a Disney Animation tournament. Of all the amazing 16 movies, I’m happy to say that Beauty & The Beast (1991) won last year’s crown.

This March, we’re going to attempt to answer the question that has haunted comic book movie fans for years: DC or Marvel?

The competitors and bracket mechanics

Unlike the basketball tournaments, this one is very selective. Only 16 films qualified for a coveted spot on the bracket. No doubt you’re wondering exactly how I picked 16 films out of dozens of DC and Marvel movies.

Essentially, once I decided on this year’s “DC vs. Marvel” theme, I played around with exactly how the bracket would be divided. Long story short: with some help from the Nerds, I picked out eight DC movies and then picked out eight of what I considered to be their Marvel counterparts.

These movies have all come out in the last 20 years — sorry, no Batman ’89 — and were all live-action movies that were released in theaters. That means Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, and other animated movies are disqualified.

I’m also excluding the four movies that appeared in Movie Madness 2020 — The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Wonder Woman and Marvel’s The Avengers. We already know how much those movies are loved, and I wanted to give other CBMs a shot at the Movie Madness crown!

So, with those discounted, I thought of eight DC movies and tried to find a spread of main characters, tones, conflicts and themes. Then, for each DC movie, I found what I considered its counterpart. Either it came out the same year, and/or had similar tones, plots, themes, or impact on how their respective studios made CBMs going forward. In one case, a DC/Marvel pairing had the same director.

Weirdly, the stars aligned so that Batman and Spider-Man will be facing off in one part of the bracket, and Superman and Captain America will be facing off in another. The others I arranged kinda randomly in the other two sections.

However, because of the weird formatting, we’re not doing “seeds” or rankings for each movie this year. It would’ve complicated things much more than necessary.

How you participate

Just like the college basketball tournament, Movie Madness will start Thursday, March 17!

That day, we will post the first match-up on the Reel Nerds’ Twitter page so you can cast your vote! Simple as that.

For instance, on March 17, it’ll be our first Batman/Spider-Man match-up; whichever movie receives more votes before midnight will advance to the next round. (If there happens to be a tie, I’ll cast the deciding vote.)

Eight days later, we will advance to the second-round match-ups, and the procedure will be the same until a movie is crowned the winner. If I’m counting right, our championship match-up should be on March 31.

Announcing the field

Here is your full field:

• Thursday, March 17: Batman Begins vs. Spider-Man 2. The two came out a year apart, and while they had wildly different tones, they both had a profound impact on the world of CBMs and the superhero genre.
• Friday, March 18: The Batman vs. Spider-Man: No Way Home. Both of these movies are still in the theaters, and critics and fans have loved both of them immensely. It’s interesting to see that despite each being set in a different universe than the two in the previous match-up, they both build on the tones and themes their predecessors set.
• Saturday, March 19: Shazam vs. Deadpool. The two have similar tones and kind of the same style with fourth-wall breaks (although Shazam’s are more subtle) and cameo-ing characters from other parts of the same universe.
• Sunday, March 20: The Suicide Squad vs. Guardians of the Galaxy. It’s the James Gunn showdown!
• Monday, March 21: Joker vs. Logan. Or as I like to call it: “What happens when a comic book character known for wearing a bright costume gets thrown into a dark and grim world?”
• Tuesday, March 22: Aquaman vs. Black Panther. Both movies deal with kingship and an outsider challenging the “rightful heir” to the throne. Plus, they have somewhat similar tones, compared to other competitors.
• Wednesday, March 23: Man of Steel vs. The Winter Soldier. Not only did the movies come out a year apart, but both take a character known for being an American icon and general do-gooder and throw them into a world filled with gray morality and genocide-level stakes.
• Thursday, March 24: Batman v. Superman vs. Captain America: Civil War. The movies came out the same year, and had a similar premise of beloved heroes going head-to-head.

Thus, on Friday, March 25, we will start the second round and on March 31, we will have our championship showdown.

Let’s decide once and for all: DC or Marvel!

Cast your votes!