Well, even though I'm behind on stuff that happened yesterday (and even Thursday, god help my tired, tired ass) I know what ya'll want to hear more about. So here's the play by play of the "Iron Man II" Panel at Comic Con 2009:

Producer Kevin Feige came out first pretty much just so they had someone to introduce the man, the legend, the guy who did the impossible and got the movie made, Jon Favreau. Jon himself wasted few words before getting right to the new footage...that was crap. About a minute of clips too fast to see really what was going on and some behind the scenes shots and then it wrapped up.

"Ok thanks, now let's move on..." and then Robert Downey showed up, interrupted him and said what we were all thinking. With a series of "WTFs" (so to speak) Downey played through the comedic set-up, calling Favreau "Foggy" to big laughs and making the entire audience sing Happy Birthday to Jon's son who was there before going right to the REAL videos. And oh...mah...kitties...

I've seen some advance clips and some advance trailers and some interviews and some props and some near naked dead ringers for superheroines and villains and BY FAR the most amazing thing at this festival is this footage.

First off is a short bit where Tony Stark, with his mask off but the armor on is sitting inside a giant donut on top of a shop (that says "Ralph's Donuts" and for some reason also appeared in the clip we saw from "2012") and Sam Jackson as Nick Fury calls up to him to come down. Then they're sitting inside the shop and Tony makes fun of Nick's little club he wants him to join, makes a comment like "I'm not sure if I should be looking at the eye or the patch. I'm not even sure if you're real" and Nick says, "I'm the realest guy you ever met".

Then we switch to a congressional hearing where Garry Shandling is playing a Senator who is questioning Tony as to why he shouldn't be forced to give "the Iron Man weapon" to the government. Downey is hysterically funny here, playing the total smart-ass back at Shandling, much to Pepper Potts disapproving glare. He explains in his way that he IS the suit and they absolutely are NOT going to get it. Further he says they should thank him for "successfully privatizing world peace". Classic. Then the commitee calls in James Rhodes and we see Cheadle for the first time in the part (taking over from Terrance Howard in the first film)who is totally confident and make no mistake...he IS the character. This plays out in a later clip, plot wise.

Next is an assortment of Mickey Rourke as "Whiplash" intercut with Tony Stark clips with a voice over by Rourke giving a bit of origin, but I couldn't make it all out too well with his faux russian accent. There's a moment or two of Johannson looking sexy as all paradise in the Black Widow suit and then we get to the payoff...James Rhodes and some military types are standing over some sort of armor type thing that you can't see real well and Sam Rockwell (playing later Iron Man villain, Justin Hammer) shows up giving a sales pitch for a bunch of high-tech new guns to the group. "So which do you want?" "I'll take all of them." And then...War Machine, the big, bulky version of the Iron Man suit that Rhodes wears outfitted with giant rail guns firing off shells in all directions.

Dudes and dudettes, let me tell you, I was so high off this I thought I was gonna throw up. To make things even better after that they brought right in Scarlett Johannson, Don Cheadle and Sam Rockwell to sit on the q&a panel with Favreau and Downey. The q&a was relatively uneventful but very funny with Downey repeatedly cracking up the crowd, as he is a natural at doing. Just can't help himself. What was nice was they brought up artist Bob Layton in response to an audience member's request to give credit where credit is due. Layton was the artist part responsible for creating most of the new characters in the new film and the story arcs involved. It was actually touching to see Downey give the guy a giant bear hug.

After playing all the clips one more time (I am officially pronouncing my undying love right now for every member of this group) it ended and not a moment too soon. Even with all the excitement I gotta tell ya, I eagerly wait for the embrace of mother sleep. Soon as I finish typing this last sentence I am totallly....


zzzzzz