The Californian city of San Diego came to life as caped crusaders and masked villains assembled at the 2014 Comic-Con International Convention centre in California.

Fantasy and reality collided into a spectacular event as more than 170,000 super-fans and wannabe superheroes rubbed shoulders with Hollywood superstars at the mecca of all things pop culture.

Some of the many highlights included Matthew McConaughey and Christopher Nolan's surprise appearance to announce a new trailer for Interstellar.

"I can tell you a lot, but I'm not going to," teased the Oscar-winning actor.

The four-day event, which was filled with film and TV previews, teaser trailers, exhibits, installations, panel discussions and A-list appearances, saw Zack Snyder offering a sneak peek of Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice was revealed, before the heroes themselves, Ben Affleck (Batman) and Henry Cavill (Superman), made a brief appearance with Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman.

The cast of the Avengers: Age Of Ultron including Robert Downey Jr, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Samuel L Jackson, Cobie Smulders, James Spader, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Josh Brolin arrived to promote their film.

Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch made his debut at Comic-Con, while Colin Firth attended the panel of Kingsman: The Secret Service. And Daniel Radcliffe chose to spin a web of deceit as he went incognito in a Spider-Man outfit as his disguise.

Hundreds of people also queued up to buy exclusive Comic-Con Doctor Who and Sherlock merchandise at the BBC America stand in advance of Peter Capaldi's forthcoming appearance as the Time Lord in the eighth series of the BBC show.