I’ve gone through ALL your nominations and pulled out the 32 names I think are the best, and put them in a numbered list.

The rankings here are not final and are in no particular order.

1. Darth Vader
2. Hans Gruber (Die Hard)
3. Hannibal Lector
4. Norman Bates
5. Lex Luthor
6. Hal 9000
7. Michael Corleone
8. Benjamin Linus
9. Saruman (Lord of the Rings)
10. Keyzer Soze (The Usual Suspects)
11. Jack (The Shining)
12. Dr. Evil
13. Leatherface
14. Jigsaw (Saw films)
15. Bill – Kill Bill
16. Anton Chigurh (No Country for Old Men)
17. Patrick Bateman (American Psycho)
18. The Six Fingered Man (Princess Bride)
19. Michael Myers (Halloween)
20. Jason Vorhees (Friday the 13th)
21. Arvin Sloane (Alias)
22. Q (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
23. Annie Wilkes (Misery)
24. Cigarette Smoking Man (X-Files)
25. Sylar (Heroes)
26. Banya (Seinfeld)
27. Bill Lumberg (Office Space)
28. The Alien
29. The Predator
30. Khan (Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan)
31. Agent Smith
32. Magneto

My goal here is to make sure we have the best 32 bad guys we can possibly get before we move into the first rounds of the contest.

Here are some of the other names that didn’t make my list, all nominated by you:

Alex Forrest (Fatal Attraction), Freddy Kruger, The Joker, Tony Camonte (Scarface), Salieri (Amadeus), Roy Batty (Blade Runner), Mr. Blonde (Reservoir Dogs) and a lot more.

You can go back and read the comments if you want to see if I left off anyone you think is VITAL to this contest.

So discuss away. Is the list good enough? Who do you absolutely WANT to see on it?

I will make the decision on the final 32 and post the list with the seedings I think all the bad guys deserve. For Ultimate Bad Ass, the rankings seemed pretty close to the end result, but this time around, I really have no clue what these bad guys are going to do.

(ohh, before I go to bed…just thought of one that might work, from literature: Professor Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes – who would he replace? Should he be on the list?)

During that contest we discovered that Benjamin Linus had somehow gotten on the list, which was fine, but he really was more of a villain than anything else. And that got us thinking about bad guys.

From there, we decided we’d do an Ultimate Bad Guy contest once Bad Ass was over and we took a little break.

I think this one might be even more fun, because evil is always cooler than good. Usually.

Although John McClane would probably destroy anything evil. Which brings up an interesting idea:

Once the Ultimate Bad Guy is done…perhaps we’ll pit that winner against McClane to see which side wins: Good or evil. Mwahahahahahahahaaaha!

Nomination Time

Now we need your nominations for bad guys.

What are the rules this go-round? Well, last time we said no superheroes, powers or anything supernatural, but I really want to open this one up. Because there are good names out there, like Darth Vader, Lex Luthor, etc.

And I’d hate to leave them out of this thing.

I will be the deciding factor when it comes to choosing the Top 32 and ranking them, but I need your help to get 32 names.

Men, women, children (The Good Son anyone?), characters, (Professor Moriarty?) creatures (Gollum? although he’s more like a Hobbit really), whatever. I’m really open to all suggestions.

Once I have a Top 32 list, I’ll post them for your viewing pleasure and we’ll make sure that’s the group we want to go with.

So on with the nominations! I’m really looking forward to this one, I think it will be a blast.

Also, hype this up, maybe spread it around Digg or Stumble it, so we can get a great variety of names and a lot of votes this time around. And hopefully a lot less of the “fixing” of matchups. *grin*

A simple contest that was begotten from a Friday Question we posted, which turned into a discussion about who was more of a stud, Jack Bauer or Chuck Norris, and that became what we know today as Ultimate Bad Ass.

The most hilarious thing is that here at the very end, neither Jack nor Chuck made it into the final round. At least we can thank them for inspiring the beginning of this thing.

So here we are…the winner is known, and it likely wont be a surprise to anyone. But our very own Jason Clark witnessed the entire thing and his account of the battle is below for those that want to find out exactly how the brawl went down.

#1 Jason Bourne versus #1 John McClane

The battle account

“Don’t worry about it, Mr. McClane.  Everything’s been taken care of.”

John McClane smiles as he finishes loading his pistol.  The Ultimate Bad Ass Contest hadn’t been the piece of cake he he been promised it would be when he first signed up.  Sure, he’d taken out some tough guys during the last couple of weeks, but Jason Bourne?  That would be a different story altogether.  Thank God for back room contacts.

——————————-

Jason Bourne waits patiently for his target to appear – one John McClane. Bourne wouldn’t be taking any chances this round. A single shot; a bullet to the head from a couple buildings away. That would be the best way.

His cell phone buzzes with an incoming call. Bourne checks the number. He knows the signal. He had arranged for a spotter to signal him when McClane was entering the kill zone. McClane would be coming from the North. Bourne begins scanning the area through his scope.

Nothing. No sign of McClane.

The cell phone buzzed again. The signal for a Southern entrance. What’s going on? Once again Bourne scanned the area through the scope. Still nothing.

Something is wrong.

Another call. No, a text. What? How could anyone know to send him a text? THIRD TIME’S A CHARM – It reads. Bourne quickly brings his rifle up and begins scanning the crowd in the plaza below. Quickly! Where is McClane?

Suddenly a brief glare from another building rooftop catches his attention. Bourne brings his scope to bear on the other shooter just as the bullet enters his eye and explodes out of the back of his head.

——————————-

“It is done. You are the winner.” McClane closes the cell phone.

“Yippee-Kai-Yay,” McClane says almost to himself. “Who’s the Ultimate Bad Ass now?”

The Ultimate Bad Ass Championship official assigned to McClane sits on the couch looking slightly pale and more than a little upset.

“Aren’t you afraid your fans will be disappointed in you by the way you handled that? Aren’t you afraid they’ll find the victory somewhat unfulfilling?”

“Who cares how you win,” McClane says. “As long as you win.”

The final tally:

John McClane: 101
Jason Bourne: 57

Thanks and Forward Thoughts

We just wanted to thank everyone for making this contest a blast. Every week we voted, discussed the matchups and gave each other crap for choosing whoever we did. It was fun and worth the extra work to make it happen.

Which makes me think that we need to do it again.

But this time, how about Ultimate Bad Guy? There are some amazing bad guys out there, and that might really be a fun one to do.

If we do it, we’ll start nominations in a week or two, to give ourselves a break from Ultimate Bad Ass.

It’s finally here. The Championship Round of Ultimate Bad Ass.

We’ve gone through a lot of interesting matchups and while I knew Jason Bourne would be here at the very end, I couldn’t predict John McClane would end up as his opponent.

Most of that is due to the fact that seeding Jack Bauer in the same bracket as Jason Bourne basically eliminated that potential matchup where it maybe should have been, but regardless, the Bourne versus McClane battle should be great.

The final poll is below. I want to thank everyone who participated in our little competition here, especially some of the newcomers that gave John McClane a 33-9 victory over The Bride.

I voted for The Bride, got some crap for it, but I stand by my choice.

And now here we go…the final voting for the Ultimate Bad Ass.

#1 Jason Bourne versus #1 John McClane

At least it comes down to two #1′s, so at least that part of the seeding was good. This is an interesting matchup, because while Bourne should easily prevail, McClane has a uncanny ability to withstand any attack and somehow come out on top.

Who will win?

[poll id="35"]

(The results will be tabulated all week, and we’ll annouce the winner next Monday)

Our combatants are getting tired by now as we near the end. Even the mighty Jack Bauer seems to be stumbling down the stretch. Now we get a matchup of a kind we haven’t had yet thus far in Ultimate Bad Ass:

Man versus Woman.

Yikes. Will our action hero guy take it seriously? Or will he scoff at his opponent, take her lightly and ultimately end up dead?

Whatever happens, it’s time to let them loose. I give you the final game in the semifinals. Next week: The Championship.

#1 John McClane versus #6 The Bride

Once again, we can all admire my seeding skills, as a #6 had fairly easily made it to the semifinals.

This is a pretty interesting fight. I’m not sure McClane has ever fought someone wielding a Ninja blade, and it could pose problems for him. On the other side, The Bride hasn’t had to deal with someone from the New York City Police Department.

Time to fight.

[poll id="34"]

Well, we’re down to the Final Four contestants in Ultimate Bad Ass.

It’s been a long road, but a satisfying one. I think at this point the only major surprise is that Chuck Norris failed to make it far, and that Ripley was eliminated early as well.

Now it’s time for Game 1 of the Semifinals, which perhaps could be the championship game itself, but we’ll wait and see how things play out.

#1 Jack Bauer versus #2 Jason Bourne

A matchup of titans, a battle of mega-action heroes, Bauer versus Bourne is one for the ages. It’s like the Alien Vs. Predator movies. We can only dream of ever seeing these guys go at it in a film.

So who do you have? Both are equally awesome, equally deadly and equally able to disappear from the eyes of the law.

Contestants…duel!

[poll id="33"]

So we’re down to our last matchup for the Quarterfinals of Ultimate Bad Ass. It’s been…interesting, but so far the races haven’t been as close as a few were last round.

This time we’re looking at the John McClane bracket. Luckily for the Die Hard action star, he made it through to the Semifinals, unlike fellow #1 seeds, Chuck Norris and Ripley. He beats Bruce Lee by a score of 14-10.

Next up was James Bond versus Indiana Jones. Harrison Ford plays some good heroes, because Jones along with Han Solo made it far….but not all the way.

Bond wins with double the votes: 16-8.

So let’s get right to our final matchup for the Quarterfinals.

#1 John McClane versus #2 James Bond

A truly heavyweight matchup if there ever was one. One of them is so hard to kill, that he literally “dies hard”, while the other has countless gadgets with which to end someone’s life.

Good luck contestants!

[poll id="32"]

(be sure to read Jason’s battle log below in the comments section a bit after this is posted)

We almost had another crisis on our hands with the Women’s Bracket in our Ultimate Bad Ass contest. It seems the girls are a lot tougher than the guys and their duels go down to the friggin’ wire.

With the voting ending at 7:30pm last night, I noticed at 5:00pm that both matchups were tied 9-9. After 5 days. Amazing.

Not willing to cast the deciding votes once again, and having some friends over to watch the Phoenix Suns debacle, we got Nicky to make the call.

In the Sarah Connor versus Lara Croft matchup, Lara took the victory by a pony tail’s length. And The Bride knocked out Ripley the Alien killer.

Whew. Who knows what is going to happen this round, but let’s get it started.

(on a side note, I think it’s definitely been proven I know not a THING about women, considering we have a 5th and 6th seed remaining)

#5 Lara Croft versus #6 The Bride

This is actually an interesting matchup, one I find pretty even. Lara Croft, she can move and fight like The Bride, and is pretty deadly with her dual pistols. The Bride has the Hattori Hanzo sword, which might cut through anything known to man.

[poll id="31"]

Let the embarrassment sink in Chuck…it’s going to be awhile before you brush this off.

Last week in Round 2 of Ultimate Bad Ass, the Chuck Norris bracket featured Norris against Han Solo, while Jason Bourne took on John Rambo.

Bourne easily dispatched the older, slower Rambo with a 17-8 margin of victory, but the second matchup was much more shocking.

After being ranked #1 overall and getting the bracket named after him, Norris fell to Han Solo, 16-9.

I’ve never been a huge Chuck Norris fan, but I am still surprised he lost already. The way the whole competition got started in the first place was the discussion about who would win between Norris and Jack Bauer.

I guess we’ll never get that matchup now, but perhaps we already know it would turn out.

And now it’s time to vote on our final matchup of the Chuck Norris Jason Bourne bracket.

#2 Jason Bourne versus #3 Han Solo

When Han fought Norris, it was argued that he’d win because he was more prepared, as in the fight with Greedo in Star Wars. However, now he’s met his match in enemies “prepared” for a fight. Although Bourne doesn’t have a blaster to compete with Solo, some might argue that he must have the force on his side considering how easy it is for him to kick ass.

[poll id="30"]

While Jack Bauer skated by with a 25-8 victory over Dirty Harry, the second matchup from last week’s Jack Bauer Bracket in Ultimate Bad Ass, was a heck of a lot closer and came down to a single vote.

James Tiberius Kirk, by a score of 16-15, squeeked out win over the little, but deadly, Jackie Chan. Perhaps Kirk learned the Vulcan death grip and caught Chan by surprise, but either way, he wins and moves on to face his toughest opponent yet.

#1 Jack Bauer versus #5 James T. Kirk

James T. Kirk beats out three higher seeds to end up in a battle with Jack Bauer. This is the big one, the one that sends you to the Finals against the winners of the other brackets.

Can the old captain beat out the greatest counter-terrorism warrior of all-time?

[poll id="29"]