I'm not sure what it says about the Hollywood system when the luminous Scarlett Johansson is the most real and ordinary actress I encountered at Comic-Con this year. Now, that sounds like a catty slam on the ladies who made the circuit, or possibly an insult to Johansson, and I don't mean it that way at all. But there was just something about her that was a little less airbrushed and defined, which was unexpected and very refreshing. Also, she's far more gorgeous in person, and incredibly nice. Being around her just makes me want to hide in a hobbit hole, and never go out in public again.

Again, apologies for not being able to credit the proper outlets for their questions. Read on for what Scarlett had to say about Iron Man 2, Black Widow, and joining the Marvel universe ...

Hey Scarlett, were you familiar with the character before from comic books, or is this whole world new to you?

It was all new to me. I mean, I had met originally with Jon and Kevin [Feige] to kind of discuss a couple of ... just to kind of talk to them about some of the superheroines of the Marvel Universe, and Black Widow was one of them. But I didn't really know anything about the character until I delved into it , and then I started looking at the suit and was like "Ohhhh my God! I gotta get into that!" [laughs] So it was a whole new world for me.

Can you tell us about some of the other female superheroes that you may have discussed?

Oh, let me see if I can remember them! Scarlet Witch was one of them. Blonde Phantom? Is that the other one? And Moon. Am I messing that up? It is the Blonde Phantom, right?

I've never heard of that one ...

Well then, scratch that! That's my own superhero that I'm going to bring to the big screen!

I had dreams of the big scoops of the Iron Man 2 roundtable being up sooner, but I was stuck in the unfortunate position of being seated behind the talent and thus unable to hear any of their soft-spoken quotes. (Or I'd gone deaf from con noise which is quite possible.) But hey, the longer the wait, the sweeter the read!

First out of the gate is Iron Man himself! Allow me to have a fangirl moment as I must say that even staring at the back of Robert Downey Jr.'s head is a thrill. Plus my seat did allow me to get a good look at his awesome choice of footwear, which happened to be the most beautiful pair of lime green tennis shoes. The man is stylish, readers, and unfailingly kind with his time. Thanks to all the outlets present for asking cool questions. I wish I could credit you, but I honestly can't tell any of you apart once you're on my audio.

I'm breaking the Comic Con reporting mold with this one, ladies and gentlemen. Every other site (and yes, ours too) likes to concentrate on the sexy costumers and booth babes that decorate the halls of the convention center. But you know what? There's actually a lot of eye candy for the ladies. Some of them are professional (Lionsgate always seems to bring the booth beefcakes) but a lot of them are just hardcore costumers who are happy to flex their muscles for a photo.

This year was no exception. There were quite a few Indiana Joneses and Captain Mals, a solid Superman, more Wolverines than you could shake a stick at (my favorite!) and even an Edward Cullen. And that's just the floor! The celebrities on display weren't exactly shabby either. I mean, any week where you can see Nathan Fillion, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Josh Brolin, Michael Fassbender, Johnny Depp, and Denzel Washington in one place is a pretty sweet thing. Let the guys have their booth babes and Megan Fox -- we've got Captain Mal and Jonah Hex!

Enjoy the gallery below, ladies ... and yes, one of the boys below is actually made of wax but I'm not going to discriminate. Besides, he was just as popular for photos as any Jack Sparrow lookalike!

This year due to being a bit of an "on-call" girl (in the non prostitute sense), I spent more time than usual haunting the convention floor. I keep joking that I'm one of the few con attendees who was "old school" and spent more time shopping for comic books than haunting Hall H for film footage. (By the way, if you go and spend your time shopping, take my advice and just ship your stuff back via Fed Ex. Cheap trades stop being a good idea when you have to carry a sack of them through the airport. Ugh.)

But the culture of ComicCon is something else. I found myself snapping just a lot of random, weird photos just to try and give Cinematical readers a sense of it all. Sure, there's the ever present cosplayers and the loudness of the booth displays, but there's just something about walking down a hallway and finding sleeping Jedis, or realizing what kind of crappy food a Spartan eats in hell. I find that even when I'm in a bad mood (and I was basically in a crappy mood for five blister-filled days) the site of a Jayne hat never fails to make me smile, and even when I'm trying to get past some noisy, crowd-filled area I do stop and marvel at the sheer hugeness of it all. This year it expanded outside the con like never before, with a Heroes carnival and Flynn's Arcade set up outside of the convention center for geeks to have some free fun at.

Hopefully, the photos below give you some idea of what was there -- from the crowds (that's as close as I got to Stark Industries all week!) to the displays. Maybe they'll tempt you to give it a go some year. As I look at my torn up feet and bruised legs, I think you might just have my place in line come 2010 ... !

San Diego Comic-Con is now over, and I'm writing to you as a broken shell of a fangirl. I'm broke. My feet are numb and bleeding due to my unfortunate shoe selection. I no longer remember what sleep is. I've suffered days of stomachaches due to starvation. I'm not exactly sure what it was all for because I came away having failed in my coverage and failed in my sheer fandom.

For many, Comic-Con is about work. You're either there manning tables, handing out posters or postcards, doing line management, or doing the press circuit. Obviously, that was me this year, and I had cherished hopes of being able to balance fandom and professionalism. I honestly believed that I'd be able to duck down to Hall H and watch Warner Bros. bring out the Jonah Hex trailer, and then somehow run back up to take my place as Lois Lane. Somewhere around Friday morning, as I earned another bruise and found myself facing down Gary Oldman, I realized this wasn't going to happen. That said, I realize you've just read that as a terrible name drop and are thinking "But I'd love to talk to Gary Oldman! Quit your complaining!"

Well, of course you would. Who wouldn't! I got into this strange and nebulous profession because I am a fan, and because I dreamed of experiences like the ones I've already had. I wanted to be that eyewitness reporter to the world of movies and the people who make them, and I've been very lucky in my experiences so far. But I find myself missing the world of "ordinary" fandom, and it was bizarre and bittersweet to spend four days in San Diego and not attend a single panel. Whereas everyone I know has been seeing the sights of Avatar, Where the Wild Things Are, and Kick-Ass, I've been sitting in roundtable rooms feeling the floor rumble up from Hall H and thinking "Well, it sounds cool." It was even harder to get so very close to seeing Iron Man 2, but missing it due to a ticketing snafu.

Unlike every other person at ComicCon, I didn't get to see the Iron Man 2 footage. I was down on the floor helping to contribute to our ComicCon mega-coverage ... thanks to a press snafu. So I'm in the same boat as you non-attendees out there, and feeling kind of bummed as everyone gushes over how awesome it looked. I did attend the round-table junket, and as soon as I can get my hands on some earphones, I'll post all the interviews for you. For some reason everyone was whispering ... or maybe I've gone deaf from crowd noise. Either one is likely.

But there's hope until that official footage goes online! The fearless gang of Screen Crave has "sweded" the teaser trailer for us, and what a job they did. There may not be a War Machine, or any CG or explosions, but Silas Lesnick is dashing in the role of Tony Stark, and you'll finally know just what that first glimpse of Whiplash looked like ... kind of. You'll know just what butt kicking Scarlett Johannson did before she posed for that Entertainment Weekly photo, and just how much drinking Tony does in this movie. Pop below the jump to watch Iron Man 2, ComicCon style.