Welcome back one and all to Hold 322’s second annual Tournament of Heroes.

So far we have done all of the first three rounds. Here are this week’s round three (the Elite 8) results:

Fight One: Thor vs. Superman

Superman with Thor's hammer and Cap's shieldJeff got the round started by challenging JC’s team with his last remaining hero and last year’s tournament champion, Thor! JC countered with Superman, picked Thom to be the judge and the most epic battle of the tournament so far was on. Jeff said it would be a real slobber knocker of a back and forth brawl as the two nearly evenly matched super heroes clashed, but in the end he believed that the Man of Steel would fall down in defeat after one too many hits to the head from the Thunder God’s magic hammer. Bob jumped into the fray, siding with his DC fanboy favorite, Superman, and along with JC argued that Big Blue could take (Mjolner) away from Thor and use it against him, since it was shown in JLA/Avengers that the Last Son of Krypton is in fact worthy to wield such a weapon, but a roll of the dice ruled out Supes even being able to wrest the hammer from Thor’s grasp. Even still, JC insisted that Superman’s greater speed would allow him to hold back Thor’s hammer bearing arm with one hand while delivering a multitude super punches right to the Thunder God’s face with his free hand. Jeff and JC also argued about what was more powerful, lightning or heat vision. In the end, Judge Thom ruled it a draw and it was up to a roll of the D-12 to decide a victor…

Winner: Superman!

Fight Two: Doctor Strange vs. Doctor Fate

Fate versus StrangeAs per a gentleman’s agreement they made with one another off air during the past week, when JC challenged Bob’s team with Doctor Strange, the Ultimate Sidekick countered with Doctor Fate, so that it could finally be determined (in this tournament at least) which one of the super hero sorcerers really is supreme. Bob railed against Strange’s spell casting hand gestures that seem to him to be no more than an upside-down rip-off of Spidey’s web shooting motion, and insisted that Fate already knew the outcome of the battle and surely wouldn’t enter into a fight he knew he couldn’t win. Judge Jeff, miffed at both JC and Bob for Thor’s loss to Superman, and not seeing a clear winner between the seemingly even matched spell-casters, decided to let the dice decide the final outcome.

Winner: Doctor Fate!

Fight Three: Silver Surfer vs. Invisible Woman

Invisible Woman in BattleThom took the fight to Bob, attacking with his last remaining hero, the Silver Surfer! Bob’s response was a bit unorthodox as he countered the former herald of Galactus with the seemingly outmatched Invisible Woman. Thom argued that the Surfer was clearly more powerful, but Bob did his best to cast doubt on that assertion by reminding Judge JC of his own words when earlier in the tournament the radioactive professor had remarked that Sue Storm was secretly the most powerful person in the Marvel universe, she just didn’t know it yet. Bob also went on to say that Sue could force bubble the Surfer off his board and take control of it herself, but Thom argued against that, saying that Sue would not be able to wield the power cosmic with much success. In the end, JC sided with the Silver Surfer but gave Sue decent odds for a dice throw to overcome his ruling, which it did.

Winner: Invisible Woman!

Fight Four: Earth 2’s Green Lantern vs. the Thing

Ben Grimm discouragedWhen it came time for Bob’s turn to attack, he only had one hero to attack with (Alan Scott) and only one hero left to attack (Ben Grimm), so the matchup was an easy one to make, and JC chose Jeff to be the judge. JC argued that through sheer strength and determination alone, the Thing could battle through whatever Earth 2’s Green Lantern could hit him with, but Bob countered that as long as Alan stayed high enough in the air, Ben would never be able to reach him, not even in the classic bathtub looking Fantasti-car, which could fairly easily be blasted to bits before it could carry its charge high enough. Jeff sided with GL and the dice roll upheld his ruling.

Winner: Earth 2’s Green Lantern!

So that’s it for this week’s matches and round three as a whole. Join us next week when three more heroes fall as we finally finish year’s exciting tournament, starting with the pair of epic matchups of the final four and ending with a champion being crowned in a fight between the last two heroes standing. Remember to keep listening to Hold 322 every Tuesday on iTunes, Stitcher and Hold 322.com! For all of us at the world’s greatest comic book podcast, this is Robert Easton wishing you a wonderfully nerdy week. Alons-y! @Robert_A_Easton