Two years ago they were here at Comic-Con with nothing but the promise of a superhero movie. This year Jon Favreau and Robert Downey Jr were back with thanks for the word of mouth campaign… and the trailer for Iron Man 2.
In 2007, the team behind Iron Man were on stage doing a panel, and weren't quite sure how the movie was going to be received. In the end, the Comic-Con audience picked up on the trailer and really spread it through word of mouth. Favreau thanked the audience – and didn't faff about before showing the exclusive trailer for the sequel. Twice.

And how was the clip-filled trailer? "Awesome," said the gentleman behind me, almost crying. "Oh, so much awesomeness."

It doesn't seem to have made its way online yet, so here's what we saw, shot by shot: based on notes scribbled in the dark:

1) Open shot where Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark - dressed as Iron Man, in all but helmet - is found relaxing, in somewhat louche fashion, on a giant doughnut. Eating middlesized dougnuts. Samuel L Jackson's Nick Fury summons him down.

Crowd reaction a) relief: they'd just shown a very poor collection of untreated fight scenes and said 'well, we just wrapped last week, we haven't got much, and the crowd had whooped and clapped regardless, pleased to be shown anything. So to find out that wasn't all there was, was a pleasure to begin with. To have it open with such an extremely 'we know we're tops' image was a bonus.

2) Stark and Fury talk in a diner: Stark refusing to join his 'boy band' (or S.H.I.E.L.D), Fury suggesting that's a bad idea in that special Samuel L Jackson tone. "I know, you like to do everything yourself. How's that working out for you?"

Goodness me, Samuel L Jackson is just inherently cool. However, this is a nice segue from the fact that the last movie seemed for sure to be aiming straight toward the Avenger Initiative - and a movie involving more of that. This makes it clear that no: for the time being, it's all Iron Man, all the way.

3) Suddenly - a hammer hits a gavel, we're in a court room. The United States government is, apparently, trying to persuade Mr Stark to hand over the suit. He is unkeen.

Larry Sanders - sorry, Garry Shandling - ruling over the supreme court: Stark being no less irreverent and arrogant than ever. There are some funny lines, some interesting cameos, and some evidence of a cocksure performance from Mr Downey Jr.

Mr Downey?

Mr Jr?

Whatever: Robert.

Then, in formal voice, Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes is called to court, and in walks Don Cheadle. So that clears that up.

In the panel afterward (or between, since they repeated the trailer just in case anyone was whooping too loudly to hear it the first time) someone asked Cheadle. "How much was your performance based on Terence Howard?"

"I've played the character as it was presented to me in the script. And I think we've dealt with that in a very elegant way," he said, politely yet evasively.

4) Mysterious foreign destination.

"You come from a family of murderers and thieves", says a man, in a section that would have been very interesting if the band of excitable yet angst-filled teenagers hadn't been whooping so loudly next to me the whole way through. Both times.

5) A terrifying man, with some own form of power suit with arc reactor and giant, energy powered angry looking whips, approaches a weakened Stark in an industrial setting.

"And guest starring Mickey Rourke as Mr Whippy!" Sorry, Whiplash.

Mickey Rourke couldn't be at the panel, due to prior commitments, but the panel had some very polite, but very revealing comments about him. Robert Downey Jr quipped "And I thought I was eccentric. No, well, I didn't work with Mickey much. You'll have to ask Sam…"

Rockwell continued ... "Mickey's a consummate actor. He did the work. And we smoked a couple of cigarettes together, and that is it."

And Favreau "We informed Micky that the guy he was playing had spent some time in Russian prison. So the next thing I heard, he's in a Russian prison: for real. And I had to find out through TMZ."

6) OK, well somewhere in there, a thing about a pretty lady with red hair kicking arse.

It is Scarlett Johansson. She is playing The Black Widow - and has gone blonde again. In the panel, she claimed the usual when asked how she prepared for the role: all egg-white omelettes and working out. And, importantly, a good stunt team, she said. That was about all Scarlett Johansson said. For an hour. But she looked great, and everyone said so.

7) Aircraft hangar: Lt Col Rhodes is buying guns. Justin Hammer is selling them. Big guns. Lots of different kinds.

Don Cheadle buys guns from Sam Rockwell, for those who aren't clear. An awful lot of guns. At this point in the audience in the convention centre started tingling, audibly. They liked guns, apparently.

And, most excitingly for the end of the trailer - a first view of Don Cheadle in the War Machine suit.

War Machine maybe the official name, but I would like to start a campaign for a better name. Is Man O'Guns already taken? What about Bloke in a Bangbang Suit? That's almost certainly already trademarked. I've got it! Mr Shootytrousers! Beware, mortals! I am Mr Shootytrousers!

Sorry. It really was very exciting. Rising up in the air, and shooting many rounds of bullets from every angle and out of every orifice: War Machine was the pay-off the crowd had queued - some of them for eight hours or more - to see.

And, when they got it: the crowd went wild.

AND MANY MORE?

And that is all, really - at one point during the Q&A, Favreau was asked if he'd be directing The Avengers film, whenever that happens. He couldn't say, or rather he sounded like he would very much like to, except that there's almost a year left on this film, and then he's starting work on Thor with Kenneth Brannagh. But he certainly sounded like he would like to.

You know what, though? This one's not out for another ten months yet: and it might be terrible. But if this Comic-Con audience were as much of a good-luck charm for Favreau - or as prescient - as last time around, it probably won't be.