San Diego Comic Con 2007 was a very important one for comic nerds like me.

During that show, the first footage of Iron Man was shown. It blew minds in San Diego. And then as soon as the grainy handcam off-the-screen footage hit YouTube, it blew minds around the world. And mine was one of them.

I mean really, Robert Downey Junior as Iron Man?! I loved the dude, but I wasn’t sure. That footage made me a believer.

Then the movie hit theaters in May 2008. Again, beat the odds, making for one of the best comic films ever.

But could they make the sequel work?  The images continued to leak during the weak, seen above…yet all eyes remained on Hall H this past Saturday. The first footage of Iron Man 2. Did it deliver? Courtesy of HitFix.com, I have the description after the break. And I think it’s safe to say…it’s gonna deliver.

The opening shot is Tony Stark, in the armor but without the helmet, sitting in the giant donut on top of Randy’s Donuts near LAX.  An iconic spot in LA, and a great image for a film.  As the camera pulls back from him, we find someone on the ground, looking up.

“Sir… I’m going to need you to exit the donut."

Fury’s not buying it, though.  He tells Tony that he can’t keep doing things alone.  Asks him how it’s working out so far.

“Tell me… am I supposed to look at the eye or the patch?  I can’t figure it out.“  He tells Fury that he thinks he may be a figment of his imagination.

“Trust me… I’m the realest person you’ve ever met."

That doesn’t seem to make Tony feel better at all, though.

The scene changes to a Senate hearing, where Stark is being grilled by a senator played by Gary Shandling.  Shandling wants Stark to hand over what he calls “the weapon,” but Stark refuses to even acknowledge the Iron Man suit as a weapon.  He says it’s more of “high tech prosthesis.“  Stark can’t resist insulting the Senator, even when Pepper Potts (Gwenyth Paltrow) shakes her head at him, disapprovingly.

Shandling brings in another witness, and when Stark hears who it is, it’s the first time he seems rattled at all.  It’s Rhodey, played by Don Cheadle this time, and I thought his first line to Stark was a nice bit of meta-fiction acknowledgement of the casting switch.

“I’m here.  It’s me.  Deal with it."

Stark really doesn’t get what makes the Senator feel entitled to the suit, though.  “It’s working.  I’m a nuclear deterrent.  I have successfully privatized world peace.“  Finally, when he refers to the Senators as a bunch of assclowns, it’s too much for Shandling, who leans in close to his mic.

“Fuck you, buddy.  Fuck you.  This session is adjourned."

The next sequence is the one that really gave me chills.  We see a wall with all sorts of magazine covers and clippings from stories about Stark over the years, as we hear Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) speaking in voice-over.

“You come from a long line of thieves and butchers.  What makes you think a few good acts can erase everything your family did and make their victims forget?  When there’s blood in the water… the sharks will come."

And as he speaks, we see Mickey building something, and then, as he finishes the voice-over, we cut to a race track.  There’s a car that looks like it’s been cut in half, and Tony’s laying on the pavement, hurt.  We get our first great look at Vanko wearing his full Whiplash gear, still in prototype.  As he walks, he snaps the electrified bullwhips on both hands, each crack against the pavement taking huge chunks out of it.  They look exactly as cool as you’d imagine electrified power bullwhips would look, and Mickey looks incredible.

Then there’s a bunch of quick clips of Scarlett in action as The Black Widow, throwing guys around, and some shots of Pepper Potts, and one amazing shot of Iron Man racing through the sky towards a ground target, dodging missiles as they’re being fired at him.

The “IRON MAN 2” logo comes up, and then we saw one last scene.  In a military hangar, Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) shows up to meet with Rhodey, who has somehow gotten hold of a Mark II armor suit.  He tells Hammer he needs some weapons for it, and Rockwell goes into a pitch of various guns.  He’s very much playing this as Tony’s mirror image, but darker and willing to do anything for money and sell weapons to anyone.  After his pitch, Rhodes says, “I’ll take it."

“Which one?"

“All of it."

And then we got one glorious, amazing, crazy shot of War Machine in action, shoulder cannons and hand guns blazing.

And then the date.  May 2010.