Who will watch the watchmen? Well, we can now.

If you don't know what Watchmen is, you owe it to yourself to get educated. You might turn your nose up at the fact that Watchmen is a "comic." A graphic novel. By the legendary Alan Moore, with art by Dave Gibbons. But just like if you say "movie," that term can represent Citizen Kane, or something by Tyler Perry. Watchmen is not just a graphic novel, but truly, one of the most important, entertaining and intellectually stimulating pieces of art crafted in the last 50 years. Don't believe me? How about Time Magazine naming Watchmen on of the "the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present." Not 100 best comics. Not 100 best graphic novels. One of the 100 best novels.

You can read some more about it here at wikipedia (but don't read about the plot if you intend to read the graphic novel. Which, of course, you should).

Director Zack Snyder is doing a film adaptation of Watchmen that will be out about this time next year, and he's doing it in the same fashion as he did last year's 300. (Which I finally saw this weekend. Visually, it was stunning. But it was rather limited on plot, as was the source material. Still, I feel comfortable with Snyder handling Watchmen, though I would have much preferred to see it adapted into a mini-series on HBO or Showtime, where the complex plot and full flavor of the story and characters could have been explored over 10 - 12 hours, vs 2 or 3).

Today, we get our first look at some of the primary characters from Watchmen, all decked out in their superhero togs. Check it out at the official blog of the move, One Year to Midnight.

Holy Shit. This looks fan-fucking-tastic.