In March, ScreenAge Wasteland will have its 3rd annual Movie Madness tournament to determine the greatest superhero movie.
Similar to the NCAA March Madness tournament that starts with 64 teams and ends with one winner standing tall, SAW is going to have 64 of the best superhero movies battle it out.
The great thing is you — our beloved Screenagers — will be able to help determine the winner by voting in the matchups!
You will have to check back when voting begins on March 1, 2023, to see what the matchups are for each region. The movies were picked by an intricate scoring system in order to get the best of the best superhero films with minimal opinions or bias involved (or something like that). The top four movies to grade out the highest are your four #1 seeds in each region.
Check out the entries already announced in other regions to see possible Final Four matchups:
The Stan Lee Region | The DC Trinity Region | The Dark Horse Region
The Kevin Feige Region
Iron Man (2008)
Director: Jon Favreau | Writer: Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, and Gwyneth Paltrow
Following his escape from captivity by a terrorist group, world famous industrialist and master engineer Tony Stark builds a mechanized suit of armor and becomes the superhero Iron Man.
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Director: Joe Johnston | Writer: Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely | Stars: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, and Sebastian Stan
During World War II, Steve Rogers, a frail man, is transformed into the super-soldier Captain America and must stop the Red Skull from using the Tesseract as an energy source for world domination.
Marvel’s The Avengers (2012)
Director: Joss Whedon | Writer: Joss Whedon | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hiddleston, and Samuel L. Jackson
Nick Fury and the spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. recruit Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Bruce Banner, Thor, Natasha Romanoff, and Clint Barton to form a team capable of stopping Thor’s brother Loki from subjugating Earth.
Iron Man 3 (2013)
Director: Shane Black | Writer: Shane Black and Drew Pearce | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, and Ben Kingsley
Tony Stark wrestles with the ramifications of the events of The Avengers (2012) during a national terrorism campaign on the United States led by the mysterious Mandarin.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Director: Anthony and Joe Russo | Writer: Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely | Stars: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Robert Redford, and Samuel L. Jackson
Captain America joins forces with Black Widow and Falcon to uncover a conspiracy within the spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. while facing a mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier.
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Director: James Gunn | Writer: James Gunn and Nicole Perlman | Stars: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, and Lee Pace
Peter Quill and a group of extraterrestrial criminals go on the run after stealing a powerful artifact.
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Director: Joss Whedon | Writer: Joss Whedon | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, and James Spader
The Avengers fight Ultron—an artificial intelligence created by Tony Stark and Bruce Banner who plans to bring about world peace by causing human extinction.
Doctor Strange (2016)
Director: Scott Derrickson | Writer: Scott Derrickson, Jon Spaihts, and C. Robert Cargill | Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Mads Mikkelsen, and Tilda Swinton
Dr. Stephen Strange learns the mystic arts after a career-ending car crash.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Director: James Gunn | Writer: James Gunn | Stars: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, and Kurt Russell
The Guardians travel throughout the cosmos as they help Peter Quill learn more about his mysterious parentage.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Director: Jon Watts | Writer: Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley, Jon Watts & Christopher Ford, and Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers | Stars: Tom Holland, Michael Keaton, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, and Robert Downey Jr.
Peter Parker tries to balance high school life with being Spider-Man while facing the Vulture.
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Director: Taika Waititi | Writer: Eric Pearson and Craig Kyle & Christopher Yost | Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba, Jeff Goldblum, Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban, and Mark Ruffalo
Thor must escape the alien planet Sakaar in time to save Asgard from Hela and the impending Ragnarök.
Black Panther (2018)
Director: Ryan Coogler | Writer: Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole | Stars: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Martin Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Angela Bassett, and Andy Serkis
T’Challa is crowned king of Wakanda following his father’s death, but he is challenged by Killmonger, who plans to abandon the country’s isolationist policies and begin a global revolution.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
Director: Anthony and Joe Russo | Writer: Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely | Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldaña, Josh Brolin, and Chris Pratt
The Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy attempt to prevent Thanos from collecting the six all-powerful Infinity Stones as part of his quest to kill half of all life in the universe.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Director: Anthony and Joe Russo | Writer: Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely | Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson, Karen Gillan, Danai Gurira, Benedict Wong, Jon Favreau, Bradley Cooper, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Josh Brolin
The surviving members of the Avengers and their allies attempt to reverse Thanos’s actions in Infinity War.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
Director: Destin Daniel Cretton | Writer: Destin Daniel Cretton, Dave Callaham, and Andrew Lanham | Stars: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Meng’er Zhang, Fala Chen, Florian Munteanu, Yuen Wah, Michelle Yeoh, Ben Kingsley, and Tony Leung
Shang-Chi is forced to confront his past when his father Wenwu, the leader of the Ten Rings organization, draws Shang-Chi and his sister Xialing into a search for a mythical village.
Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
Director: Jon Watts | Writer: Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers | Stars: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jamie Foxx, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Marisa Tomei, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire
Peter Parker asks Dr. Stephen Strange to use magic to make his identity as Spider-Man a secret again following its public revelation at the end of Far From Home. When the spell goes wrong because of Parker’s actions, the multiverse is broken open, which allows visitors from alternate realities to enter Parker’s universe.
What do you think of the films in this region? Do you have any predictions regarding which film will make it to the Final Four?
