Sometimes even superheroes must wait in line.

That’s what Craig Williams discovered when he brought his son Ryder, dressed as the man of steel, to Fan Expo on Saturday.

“I had a 4-year-old Superman with me, crying about not getting in,” he said. “The line didn’t move at all.”

Like thousands of other fans, the father and son waited fruitlessly in a lineup at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre for tickets to the annual pop culture convention. Fan Expo has faced organizational glitches before, and this weekend’s long waits and crowds left some with a sense of déjà vu.

Elisa Ward, a “seasoned convention veteran,” said she waited for four hours Saturday before she learned at 3 p.m. that tickets had sold out — two hours earlier.

“The moment I saw a herd of people turning around, I felt horrible,” she said. “There was a kid in agony behind me that he couldn’t meet Stan Lee.”

Event security leader Shawn Parsons said it took time to inform everyone in line.

“I wouldn’t just go to the front of a line of 4,000 people, and stand there and scream, ‘Sorry guys, we’re full!’ ” he said.

The convention has been rapidly gaining popularity. This year’s lineup of comic book creator Stan Lee, actor Christopher Lloyd and former X-Files star Gillian Anderson attracted an estimated 80,000 fans.

Jilted fans took to social media, complaining on Twitter and Facebook of long lines, overcrowding and disorganization.

Aman Gupta, president and CEO of Hobby Star Marketing, which operates Fan Expo, said there are bound to be occasional hiccups at any large-scale event.

“It’s not our business to piss people off. We want to make sure everybody is happy … but there are some people you just can’t please,” he said. “We worked really hard over the last two years to get to where we’re at, and I don’t need a couple people to take us down.”

The company has hired additional security and police to avoid a repeat of 2010, he said. That year saw hordes of fans chanting for refunds when ticket-holders were locked out because ticket sales exceeded event capacity.

On Saturday, security forced ticket-holders to wait outside for up to an hour. Meg Farley said security told her not to enter, despite her $100 deluxe pass, which is meant to guarantee unlimited access.

“It’s a little frustrating,” Farley said. “We’ve spent a lot of money to buy a special pass, and then we never get offered a refund or anything.”

Gupta said tickets were not oversold. Instead, he said, an escalator broke, restricting capacity on that floor.

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Jonathan Williams, who had travelled from Pennsylvania to attend, said it was the most crowded convention he had ever seen.

“It was just wall-to-wall people. It made it difficult to walk around and enjoy the show,” he said. “But I was really happy with the guests, so that made up for some of it.”