The Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Comic-Con panel recap was one of the most highly anticipated panels of this year’s Con. We also expected it to be this year’s closer for Warner Bros. panel. “The Grand Finale,” of their presentation, if you will. Instead, the studio decided to make the day explode by showing the first footage from the superhero movie. And it did not disappoint.

Hit the jump for the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Comic-Con panel recap.

The panel began with Warner Bros. using the biggest side-screens they’ve ever used – they encompassed half the sides of the hall – and they used all of them to showcase a collection of concept art, glimpsed through flashes of lightning to see the two heroes in their glory. We saw Batman and the glowing eyes of his battle suit. We saw Superman carrying the body of a young woman on an alien landscape with a downed spacecraft behind him. We couldn’t put any story together from it, but we definitely knew what was happening when the wide screens were used to show the two heroes staring each other down.

Then the lights came up and director Zack Snyder took the stage. He told us that they were just shooting last night, but they still came here today. Snyder did a nice little tease for the audience about how they hadn’t shot very much, he knows footage is expected but…Oh, they have a little something…

*Crowd loses mind. Might start rampaging if they don’t get footage.*

“But we have a little teaser,” says Snyder.

Footage

It’s pouring down rain in the night sky. Batman is an armored suit, his eyes glowing, and standing next to the Bat-Signal. He pulls down a switch and powers it up. The Bat-Signal (bearing the new Bat-Symbol) blasts into the sky. We pan to follow the light, but in the sky, floating in front of the signal, is Superman. His arms are crossed. His cape billows in the wind. Batman, with his mask’s glowing eyes, stares down the Man of Steel. And the Man of Steel stares back. His eyes begin to glow red. Cut back to the Dark Knight. He is unmoved. Cut to black.

After the lights come up, Snyder brings on Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, and Gal Gadot. There are individual posters for Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman on the side screens. They wave hello, and then we get to see the footage again, and then we’re done.

But if you’re going to open Saturday on Comic-Con, a day where people were waiting in line over a day before the doors opened, this was a great way to do it.

Click here for all of our previous and continuing Comic-Con coverage, and get a refresher on Affleck’s Batman and Gadot’s Wonder Woman with the following images.