In the comic book world, reading Watchmen for the first time is as seminal an event as losing your virginity (and probably happens sooner). A deconstruction of the superhero archetype, the movie version is poised to do the same thing to straightforward superhero movies that Unforgiven did to shoot-em-up Westerns.

In other words, it's kind of a big deal for superhero fans, and since San Diego's Comic-Con (a.k.a. Geek Christmas) starts this Thursday, expect to hear a lot more about it soon thanks to all the Watchmen panels and interviews that'll be coming out of there.

The festivities have already begun, however: the first trailer is attached to The Dark Knight, and Entertainment Weekly just came out with a Comic-Con preview issue which features a bunch of never-before-seen stills from the flick. Check out the explosion of awesomeness below: