Marvel Madness Begins - And So Does the Preseason Countdown

What happens you have one week with nothing to do except brainstorm and write a little? I mean very little, like you have to do it 5 minute spurts, and you can't research anything you write. What happens is you come up with a ridiculously uneccesary tournament that truly opens your heart and exposes the depth of your nerdiness.

This past week I "worked" at a call center where I was not able to take calls until a large amount of paperwork could filter it's way in from 47 states, but I had to sit and listen to other calls. I could not bring books to read, nor could use a computer. I had a pen and paper and as an attempt to kill time, decided to list every Marvel villian I could think of.

That did not take nearly eight hours, so then I decided to rank them by villany greatness, and then I decided to break them up into brackets for an oversized villian vs. villian tournament for the right to be named the sports blogs greatest Marvel villian. The tournament features 256 villians, split into four brackets March Madness style, with villians seeded 1-64 in each bracket.

The tournament will be scored by reader votes, after you read each blog just leave a comment with your vote on each matchup, whoever gets more votes advances. If there is a tie, I will cast the deciding vote. The current plan is to post eight matchups every day until round one is over, this is a lot but we haves a lot of matchups to vote on and I'd really rather not have this take a year.

Let the madness begin!!!!

We start today in our Broxton region.

As gesture of kindness for those who may not know enough about all 256 character to give a decent vote, I have linked each picture to that characters Wikipedia page. I think my plan will be to keep voting open for 2 days after each post before determining a winner.

24. Vengeance

vs.

41. Black Tom


56. Allistair Smythe

vs.

7. Carnage

40. Gladiatorvs.

25. Wendigo

57. Tinkerervs.
8. General Thunderbolt Ross/Red Hulk

48. Devil Dinosaur

vs.
17. Bolivar Trask

49. Sauron

vs.

16. Dormammu

32. Nuke

vs.

33. Bushman

64. Doppelganger

vs.

1.Thanos

I was unable to find the time to blog my entire top 50 preseason countdown this year, but I will provide the list below and try to get them posted daily from here. Rivals is currently at no. 25 on their countdown.

50. Maryland

49.Tennessee

48. Navy

47. Louisville

46. Toledo

45. Syracuse

44. Fresno State

43. Arizona

42. NC State

41. Miami

40. Texas Tech

39. Auburn

38. Houston

37. Northwestern

36. Washington

35. Utah

34. Penn State

33. North Carolina

32. Clemson

31. Florida

30. BYU

29. Air Force

28. Missouri

27. USC

26. Mississippi State

25. South Florida

Captain America Review

Marvel studios put out two films this year that I was highly skeptical of going into. The previews looked pretty hokey, and like most fans, I was very pessimistic about the casting of Chris Evans as Steve Rogers. I am happy to report that my pessimism is 0 for 2 or Marvel films this year.

Captain America is not as good as Thor or Iron Man but it will leave fans satisfied as they leave theatres. All of the acting is acceptable and as expected, Hugo Weaving shines as the Red Skull, with Peggy Carter and Bucky Barnes also coming across as very likable supporting characters.

The first hour of the movie, in my opinion outshines the second of the movie. Scrawny, puny, young Steve Rogers is so perfect it makes up for many flaws in the second half of the movie. The story of Steve's multiple attempts to join the army, and the relationship he builds with Dr. Erskine is a wonder to behold. There is also a lot of Tommy Lee Jones, which is always a good thing.

The second does not stand up to the first half because after the movie starts with beautiful character development and solid pacing, it feels like you are watching the movie in fast forward as soon as Cap actually joins the war. The movie actually gets so busy that you really never get a feel for Captain America the person, as there is barely a scene in the movie after the point he dons the costume, that Captain America is actually given much in the way of dialouge.

My biggest complaint about the movie has to be the CGI. The special effects seemed really awful at points, and I felt that they were a bit overused. I literally don't think you see a single punch thrown by Captain America that isn't sped up by special effects. Every time Cap fights at all, it's clear he is compter animated and at points it just doesn't look good.

The end of the movie, however, is outstanding and does a perfect job of staying true to the real story from the comics and giving new fans a happy ending. Now next summer is where it really counts though.

Avengers Assemble.

Final rating 7.5/10

Cross Your Fingers and Hope this List isn't Outdated in Three Weeks

Failures. We are all familiar with them, we all have some we are ashamed of, and we all probably have more that we ashamed of other people for.

I recently embarked on a career path that was at the very least ill-timed and at worst employment Hiroshima. It stinks, it stings, but life will go on. That being said, The Sports Nerd has not exactly been in a "such is life, move along now" mood for the past few weeks. I'm decently bitter, disappointed, and have used this event as a springboard for being mad at life in general.

I'm getting better about that, and let's just call this list the next step in therapy for recovery. I failed, a bit, but I can still try this career again when the timing is better, and really I let myself down considerably more than I let anyone else down. Today we celebrate those who could not accurately make those claims.

Comic book movies have been a mixed bag of emotions for myself and other fanboys since the fad began about a decade ago. While some are great, more often than not, they have created hatred towards the actors, directors, and writers associated with the films. Over the last four years, the genre seems to have grown up and found it's place in the movie industry with films such as The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Thor, and X-Men: First Class all being widely accepted by comic fans and critics alike. Unfortunately, not every casting decision turns out as golden as Heath Ledger's Joker or Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark. Today we honor the actors so awful they let down millions and killed off franchises, and overall failing more miserably than I am even capable of competing with. I proudly present......

The Top Ten Worst Performances/Casting Choices in Comic Book Cinema

A list, that I hope is a good luck charm for the future. And by that I mean, I really hope that Chris Evans as Captain America doesn't need to be added to the list on July 22nd.

Honorable Mentions: Nicolas Cage as Big Daddy in Kick-Ass, Ben Foster as Angel in X3, Halle Berry as Storm in the X-Men Trilogy, Eric Bana as Bruce Banner in Hulk, Colin Farell as Busllseye in Daredevil, and Julian McMahon as Dr. Doom in the Fantastic Four movies.

These performances were bad for a variety of reasons. Cage makes no attempt to actually protray a character that resembles Big Daddy in the comic series, Bana spends the entirety of Hulk looking more likely to drop to his knees and recite poetry than he does to become a raging monster, Foster and Berry both just kind of give confused stares into the camera the entire movie, McMahon just lazily reads his lines without any attempt to actually sound like the character he is portraying, and Farell does one of the worst jobs of overacting that I have ever seen in a movie.

Also I think its just sad that there have been so many performances in comic movies that Jennifer Garner as Elektra doesn't even make my honorable mentions list.

10. Halle Berry as Catwoman in Catwoman

Okay, I'll be the first to admit this is a bad spot for Berry's Catwoman, it should probably be in the top five. However, given the fact that I haven't actually seen the movie, I can't legitimately put it any higher. That being said, there is just no way I could feasibly leave her off the list, I mean she won the Razzy for worst female performance of the year for God's sake. This was a clear case of a casting director thinking "Catwoman is supposed to be sexy, Halle Berry is sexy." Unfortunately for Catwoman fans that meant that the actress would be talentless and about 30 shades darker than any catwoman they had seen before.

9. Nobody as Jarvis in Iron Man and Iron Man 2

This was not as big of a deal to most people as it was to me. For those that may not know what the problem is here, Jarvis was Tony Stark's (and later the Avengers) personal butler. He has been the only consistently present character in the Avengers since the team formed, he also is the lone defenseless presence at the center of the team, which I have always felt was important as he represented all of the defenseless citizens that the team formed to protect. In the movies, he is a talking burglar alarm. Lame.

8. Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson in the Spider-Man Trilogy

Let me be clear about this to start, Dunst did a fine job of acting in all three movies. She acted with emotion, was believable with her lines, and seemed to legitimately care about her character. The problem was that her character was not Mary Jane Watson, it was Gwen Stacy. Mary Jane is a spunky girl, loaded with confidence, charisma, and a throw your inhabitions to the wind personality. She is also a bit of a wild child. Dunsts's character is portrayed as more of the girl next door. Nervous, timid, pale, and whiny.

7. Ioan Gruffudd as Mr. Fantastic in Fantastic Four

Gruffudd is considerably worse in the sequel than he is in the original, to be fair though that is like comparing a sweet pickle to a spoiled sweet pickle. Gruffudd has a bit of a Jimmy Fallonesque flaw to his approach to acting: no matter what the scene is, keep a goofy grin on your face. His acting seems worse than it is due to the fact that he is the key character in movie with a bad plot and bad supporting acting everywhere else and Ioan just never stood a chance.

6. Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze in Ghost Rider

There are times when I think that Nic Cage was cast as this films lead role and then film was written around how he decided to play it. Which makes since because from beginning to end this film is complete shit. Cage spends the entire movie portraying a character that is attempting to seem as avoidant and uninterested as possible towards everything that happens. Now I am no Nic Cage fan, so this is clearly a biased opinion, but when an actor seems perfect for a role because the character should be lazy and unentertaining, maybe people should stop offering him roles. He does seem enthusiastic for one scene, his first transformation into the Rider, which he spends screaming and overacting like LeBron trying to draw a foul in the NBA Finals.

5. Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze in Batman and Robin

Have you ever seen Arnold Shwarzenegger in anything where he has more than one line per minute and isn't interacting with children? If you have, you know it never ends well. Throw on some blue makeup and one of comics lamest characters and you have a performance as bad as you probably expected.

4. Wes Bentley as Blackheart in Ghost Rider

Of all the things that went wrong with the Ghost Rider movie, the casting of Blackheart has to be worst. For starters, the character should have just been CGI. I understand they were trying to make the movie feel more real, but come one, the lead is a flaming skeleton in a biker jacket and Bentley was already playing the son of Satan. How "realistic" did they think painting a bad actor pale would make the film. Everything is bad here. The vocal acting, the facial expressions, and even pace at which he says his lines. At times it feels like Ghost Rider was just hunting down a Twilight vampire (which honestly would have made a better movie).

3. Tadanobu Asano as Hogun

A popular complaint among comic book fans over the years has been when a character inexplicably shows up on the big screen as a completely different race. A valid complaint, as really there has never been a single instance where this change was necessary. Black Heimdall, black Kingpin, and black Catwoman. Some of these have worked but this implementation was just terrible. The idea of an Asian Norse god was bizzare under any circumstance but did they really have to pick someone who had the stereotypical l's sound like r's accent. I saw this movie with my mom and every time he was on screen would whisper jokes to each other and ignore what was happening on screen altogether.

2. Ben Affleck as Daredevil

Sir Affleck would probably top most people's version of this list and that would be a legitimate choice. Ben Affleck is a hit and miss actor at all times but in this film the miss was akin to a Stormtrooper working as a sharpshooter. The usual bad acting characteristics are there but there is a unique blunder at work that cannot be accomplished by most bad actors: a blind man that moves his eyes to look at whoever is talking to him almost every scene.

1. Topher Grace as Eddie Brock in Spider-Man 3

Topher Grace is not a very talented actor. He was great as a cowardly nerd in that 70's show, which would have made him a better selection for Peter Parker than Eddie Brock, and his range ends about there. The problem isn't so much the acting as it simply is the casting. Casting Topher Grace as Venom is the equivalent of picking John Goodman to play Thor, the image is wrong on every level. Even when he gets his powers, he still looks smaller than Spidey. The casting ruined this movie and arguably the entire franchise.

The Truth Without Hype - The End

A door has closed on another season of college football. Actually, like an angry atheist responding to a hoard of Mormon missionaries, it has emphatically slammed shut. Thus, we can conclude perhaps the darkest year in the history of the sport known as college football.

It started this summer, when USC had to have it's national title from 2005 stripped, its wins removed from the record book, and the Heisman award given to Reggie Bush returned. There is now, officially, no national champion for that year. There is also no Heisman trophy winner. Logic would dictate that the Heisman should be given to Vince Young, the highest vote getter among ELIGIBLE student athletes that year, but it is apparently better to claim there was no best. Likewise, there was an undefeated SEC champion in Auburn sitting there in the same year at number two, but since they did not win the BCS sanctioned championship game, there is no champion. However, don't give Auburn too much sympathy for this.

This season was the worst sports debacle I have ever seen.

Auburn ruled their own quarterback ineligible as result of Cecil Newton being found to have solicited money for a signed letter of intent from his son Cameron. Minutes later, the NCAA said "nah, that's fine, let him play." Luckily he was eligible, because otherwise Auburn would have to be left out of the BCS and, gasp, TCU would have to be in the title game.

After bowl games were underway, it was also discovered that several Ohio State players recieved improper benefits during the season, so naturally they were suspended for the first five games of NEXT season. Of course, if the punishment had been similar to what they did for USC (Reggie Bush was found guilty of the exact same thing), the wins for the season would be stripped and a bowl ban would have been in place.

Instead, the Buckeyes won the Sugar Bowl on a game winning interception by one of the future to-be-suspended player, and the Tigers won the National Title.

The Buckeyes story is done, the investigation is over, the punished delivered, and the bowl won; however, the Cam Newton story is far from dead. The investigation lives on, and rest assured that nothing he accomplished will stand. All that is missing between another lost Heisman and a blank spot nest to National Champion for 2010 is proof that Cam Newton knew his about his fathers intentions. Keep in mind that nothing substantial was found in the Reggie Bush scandal until about two years in, Newton's controversy is missing only small ingredient to total collapse after three months. The link will be found.

However, the NCAA DOES. NOT. CARE.

Why?

Simple, they already made their money. Auburn got a higher TV rating for their participation over TCU, and having the Tigers and Buckeyes in the best bowls saved the BCS from needing to take ratings-clunkers Michigan State and Boise State.

They made their money, they don't care what is in the history books in 2013.

Enjoy the unsatisfying flavor that this leaves in your mouth, and enjoy it again next year, when a 1 loss Oklahoma gets into the title game ahead of an unbeaten Boise State.

And enjoy it in 2012 when someone on Texas is allowed to play in a bowl game with a positive steroid test.

And enjoy it again in 2013 when Cam Newton loses all his accolades and an undefeated TCU team is told "no, you are still not national champions."

The system sucks, try to ignore it, you can't fix it. Enjoy the regular season, and recognize the bowls for the fraud they are.

Here are my final rankings and awards, and don't expect Auburn, Ohio State, Chizik, or Newton to be anywhere on it.

I'll see you in August for another year of disappointment, until then raise a few middle fingers to the system, and tell yourself it'll be better next year.

Heisman Standing
1. LaMichael James
2. Justin Blackmon
3. Kellen Moore
4. Andrew Luck

Coach of the Year
1. Chip Kelly
2. Mike Gundy
3. Gary Patterson

Defensive Player of the Year
1. Nick Fairley
2. Patrick Peterson

Biggest Surprise
1. Virginia Tech loses to James Madison
2. Boise State falls to Nevada
3. The NCAA lets the suspended Buckeyes play the Sugar Bowl

Worst Play Call of the Year
1. Wisconson calling a throw on the two point conversion to tie the Rose Bowl

Worst Team
1. New Mexico
2. New Mexico State
3. Akron

Conference Rankings
1. SEC
2. Big Ten
3. Big 12
4. ACC
5. Mountain West
6. Pac 10
7. WAC
8. Big East
9. MAC
10. C-USA
11. Sun Belt

Most Annoyingly Overplayed Video Clip
1. Cam Newton dancing in front of the Auburn student section like some kind of god twirling a blue towel around his head like a complete tool.

Most Overated Team
1. Michigan State
2. Nebraska

Most Underated Team
1. Nevada
2. Tulsa

Game of the Year
1. Rose Bowl: TCU vs. Wisconsin
2. Boise State vs. Virginia Tech
3. Nevada vs. Boise State

Final Rankings
25. San Diego State - Brady Hoke has really accomplished a lot this season, unfortunately for San Diego State, Boise State is coming to the MWC to fill the void that BYU and Utah left unfilled.

24. NC State - A convincing win over West Virginia capped a surprisingly good season for the Pack and helped prove that the Big East is indeed unworthy of a BCS slot.

23. Maryland - If I can get on a soapbox for a second, it was just wrong what this team did to Ralph Friedgen. I hope he coaches somewhere else soon.

22. Utah - I know they finished 10-3, but the Carolina Panthers thought the offense looked inept in the three losses, and the early season win over Pitt ended up not being quite as impressive as the Utes hoped.

21. Nebraska - I wanted to drop them farther based on the humiliation at the hands of the Huskies, but the pickings are pretty slim from here.

20. Northern Illinois - Despite a letdown in the MAC championship game, NIU had a fantastic season that should be overlooked just because of their weak conference.

19. Tulsa - A surprising beatdown of Hawaii allowed head coach Todd Graham a chance to be the flavor of the week at Pittsburgh. Piece of advice, don't beat your wife and you'll do better than the last guy.

18. Texas A&M - The Cotton Bowl was undoubtedly a letdown for the Aggies, but they shold be proud of how the season ended, given how it looked after six games. The Aggies could very well be a BCS contender in 2011.

17. Mississippi State - No matter what shape the current team is in, it has to feel really good to deliver such an epic beatdown to the Michigan Wolverines. A big turnaround for the Bulldogs this year that the whole team should be proud of and a potential darkhorse for the SEC West next season.

16. UCF - Arguably the best team in the state of Florida this year? Yes, a surprisingly great season for the Knights, capped with an upset of the mighty Georgia Bulldogs.

15. Florida State - If you told the Seminoles in September that they would be without a healthy starting quarterback this season, I think they would have been satisfired to hear they beat Florida, Miami, and South Carolina, with a ACC title game appearance to boot.

14. Virginia Tech - Sadly for the Hokies, a season where they were undefeated in their conference will only be remembered for a memorable loss to Boise State and two embarassing ones to Stanford and James Madison.

13. Missouri - The loss to Iowa was a little embarassing, but honestly this team overachieved this year. The Tigers beat a number one team and won ten games, and that is nothing to be ashamed of.

12. Michigan State - Okay, I'll give them a decent spot for their record, but I'd still take about 40 teams in the country to beat them on a neutral field.

11. Arkansas - A great season with a sad end. Another victim of the NCAA circus that always falls in favor of Ohio State.

10. Alabama - Okay, so I know I am breaking my own rule here by placing the Crimson Tide ahead of a Michigan State team with a better record, but you can't honestly tell me you think the Spartans are better can you?

9. Oklahoma State - The Cowboys didn't play a very good team in their bowl game. But that game was perfectly representative of the Pokes' season. Play whose in front of you and win the games you should. Not always impressive but the first 11 win season in school history is wuite the reward.

8. Oklahoma - So UConn was completely undeserving of a Fiesta Bowl trip, you can't hold that against the Sooners, who played one of the nations toughest schedules and still came out with 12 wins.

7. LSU - Given the complete offensive ineptitude that the Tigers showed all season, a 11-2 season is remarkable. LSU played a brutal schedule, facing two ranked teams outside of their SEC schedule, and they came up with a huge win against a red hot Texas A&M team in the Cotton Bowl.

6. Wisconsin - The Badgers played a very good game in the Rose Bowl. Despite the loss, Wisconsin was the pride of the Big Ten this year, and were the best team in the country to finish with multiple losses.

5. Boise State - The loss, while painful, does not erase the fact that the Broncos accomplished more than any team from most of the major conferences this season. Being from the WAC should not be automatic irrelevance for any team with a loss.

4. Nevada - I realize that most refuse to acknowledge the Wolfpack as a legitimate team, but they beat a top 5 team, and have only one loss, something only five teams in the nation can say. One of those (Ohio State) doesn't count, and another one (Boise State) the beat head to head. Accept it, the Wolfpack were for real this year.

3. Stanford - An emphatic win over Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl capped the best season in school history. Enjoy Cardinal fans, because even with Luck returning for another season, you still lost your coach and most of your offensive line, the Cardinal should cherish what they had in 2010.

2. Oregon - While I refuse to recognize Auburn wins, I do recognize the loss on the Duck record. It took a professional quarterback to do, but someone beat you.

1. TCU - As the only real unbeaten team in the nation, this is an easy choice. Patterson, I hope you care about the awards from my blog, because it's the best anyone will give you this season. I'll send you a certificate if you ask for it.