…yeah, it was obvious that Heroes was going to be BIG at Comic-Con this year… but who could have predicted just how GIGNORMOUS it would turn out to be!?!

Upon entering the Comic-Con showroom on Saturday- the day of the eagerly awaited Heroes panel- I noticed and commented to my wife how un-crowded the showroom was (compared to the first two days of the convention).

While looking ahead as we traveled along the convention floor, I quickly realized I had spoken too soon. Despite the lack of heavy crowds elsewhere in the showroom, the crowd in front of the Heroes booth was spilling out into the aisle- blocking all foot traffic.

The people in front of the booth had their eyes transfixed on the booth-attendants. But it wasn’t the fact that the attendants were clad in cheerleader uniforms to pay homage to the invincible Claire Bennet that was drawing all the attention. It was what the cheerleaders held in their hands that was igniting the crowd.

The 2007 Heroes Comic-Con exclusive comic book was one of the most highly-coveted swag items at the convention, and this Saturday morning crowd was among the lucky few to be in the right place, at the right time to receive copies.

Periodically throughout each day of the convention, the cheerleaders also gave away pins and promo trading cards. But it was the limited-quantity, comic books (as well as the raffle for the rare Heroes-themed lunch box) that kept eager fans hovering around the Heroes booth- creating traffic jams from the moment the showroom opened each day.

After the comic books were passed out, the crowd thinned slightly- but many fans couldn’t resist lingering to gawk at the Tim Sale drawn, Isaac Mendez painting reproductions that decorated the booth. I, on the other hand, strolled away from the constantly crowded booth with my comic happily in-hand. Though it was only 10:00am, the booth crowd made me realize it might be a good idea to head upstairs to secure a seat for the 12:45pm, Heroes panel.

To my horror, upon reaching the top of the escalator, I was abruptly provided an answer as to where the rest of the convention attendees had been hiding.

A large number of Heroes fans had already filed into Ballroom 20 (at 4,250 seats, the convention’s second largest panel room), and quite a substantial number of unfortunate souls were standing in a long line that wrapped around an area equivalent to two very large city blocks). As I traveled the length of the (unmoving) line, I knew there was no way these people were getting into the room.

Being a huge Heroes fan, prior to attending Comic-Con, I had been browsing the 9^th Wonders message boards and reading posts from other fans who planed to attend the convention. Many of these posts mentioned the Heroes panel as the main reason for their trip to San Diego. With thousands of conventioneers turned away at the door, I wasn’t surprise when, after Comic-Con, I came across numerous 9^th Wonders posts from fans who were shut-out of the panel.

I was fortunate enough to get into the event with my press pass, but it’s a good thing my wife decided to stay on the showroom floor with my son, because there was no way security was letting anyone without press or studio clearance into this room. At 10:45, the room had just about reached capacity. And you could bet the Petrelli fortune that very few (if any) people in the audience were going to give up their seats until the last Heroes cast member left the stage at 2:00pm.

When panel moderator and Heroes co-executive producer, Jeph Loeb finally walked on stage, he was greeted with thunderous applause. Video recordings of the panel can be seen at nbc.com, so I won’t use this space to go into detail about the panel. However, what the nbc.com video does not include, is the awesome scenes from Season Two that were shown!

Just before showing the Season Two clips, Loeb asked the crowd to keep the spoiler-heavy scenes under wraps.

“”I’m serious, don’t tell anybody,” Loeb said.

…And since he asked so nicely, I’ll keep the scenes to myself. However, I will give a hint to those comic-book-reading, Heroes fans who want a small (kind-of obvious) spoiler (highlight the area below):

…It appears that ALL the Heroes characters are more like Jason Todd than Barry Allen (if you know what I mean).