Martian Manhunter Menagerie March Madness 2012

Inspired by jimmypulv's suggestion in 2011, here comes the 2012 edition of our battles royal amongst the rogues gallery of the Manhunter from Mars, as decided by this blog's readers. There will be a few changes this year to make for cleaner, clearer matches.

1) I'll be describing the combatants before their matches, to avoid stuff like voters confusing The General of Crime with The General (Wade Eiling.) In retrospect, it was dumb to offer details as part of a post-mortem.

2) There will be no ties. These are all-or-nothing contests, so a tie disqualifies all involved parties from further competition.

3) There are now four relatively clearly defined "weight classes," to avoid Bambi meeting Godzilla. Within those classes, I will try to pair poor performers from 2011 together for the same reason.

4) The final four from last year will not compete until the final eight for this year. They will act as "end bosses," and will be faced by the combined might of two challengers from the previous round.

5) We did Qualifying Rounds last year to determine who would officially take part in the contest, since there were so dang many competitors to weed out for manageable numbers. This year, I wanted a greater free-for-all feel, which ironically is aided by correcting structural flaws from 2011. Everybody from last year is in the first round this year. The breakdown for rounds is as follows...
Round One = 10 matches per division, 41 total.
Round Two = 5 matches per division, 20 total, with one triple match.
Round Three = 2 matches per division, with one triple match each.
Round Four = 4 matches involving two contestants versus a member of the 2011 final four.
Round Five = Battle Royal amongst all finalists.

I wanted to give the losers of those first two cycles another chance to get in on the action. I think there are some pretty decent toughs among the 2011 early knock-outs, so we'll see how their luck fares against new opposition, perhaps more suited to their weight class. I also wanted to keep things unpredictable by throwing a wrench in the big guns' obvious advantages.

6) Each round will be a diminishing countdown of days. Round one for each division will last four days. Round two will last three days, two days for three, one day for every round four and up. That should give folks a reasonable amount of time to know their competitors and get their votes in.

Alright folks, that's enough advance warning. If anyone wants to suggest matches, here are your division breakdowns. Round One begins this Saturday...

Gold Division: Malefic/Ma'alefa'ak (Big Boss)
• Antares & the Clanetary System
• Asmodel
• The Bloodworms of Mars
• B'rett
• Brimstone
• Darkseid
• Doomsday
• Effigy
• The Hyperclan
• Inflict
• Kanto
• Korge, the Last Angry God
• Fernus the Burning Martian
• Lobo
• Mongul the Merciless
• The Pyre
• Rott
• The Scary Monsters
• The Swarm
• TOR, the Robot Criminal of Mars

Silver Division: Despero (Big Boss)
• B'enn B'urnzz
• Cabal
• Cay'an
• The Cosmic Creature
• D'Kay D'Razz
• Gorilla Grodd
• The Headmaster
• The Lizard Men
• Marlon's Beast
• The Marshal (Soldiers of the Red Brotherhood)
• The Martian Marauders
• The Master Gardener of Mars
• Ryx
• Scorch
• The Saturnian Criminal
• S'vor
• Thantos, the 3-In-1 Man
• The Thythen
• Vulkor, the Capsule Master
• Weapons Master

Bronze Division: Commander Blanx (Big Boss)
• Bel Juz
• The Devil Men of Pluto
• Diabolu the Wizard and his Idol-Head
• Doctor Light
• Doctor Samedi
• The Human Flame
• The Human Squirrel
• The Invaders from the Space Warp
• Libra
• The Martian Criminal (Magician-Thief Who Had Super-Powers)
• Malador
• The Martian Mandrills
• The Mercurian
• The Prophet
• N'or Cott
• The Renegades of Mars
• Re's Eda
• Strega
• Triumph
• Tybalt Bak'sar

Iron Division: Mister V/Faceless (Big Boss)
• Alex Dunster
• Baron Voto
• Bette Noir
• Captain Horatio Destiny
• The Conjurer
• The Crime General
• Director Bones (Department of Extranormal Operations)
• Doctor Trap
• The Human Falcon
• King Zeus
• Mr. Moth
• Monty Moran: The Getaway King / Getaway Mastermind
• Nemesus
• The Osprey
• Porto, The Man of 1,000 Disguises
• Professor Amos Fortune
• Professor Anthony Ivo
• Professor Arnold Hugo
• Professor Proxon
• Vandal Savage
• Vulture
• Wiley Dalbert