Given that the entire Internet has spent the last two weeks freaking out over Watchmen, ever since the trailer debuted before The Dark Knight, I decided it was time to see what all the fuss was about. Yes, I bought my first graphic novel, and it is Watchmen. I’m only about 50 pages in, though, so don’t tell me anything!

But it’s too late for me to save my ironic detachment—I’m hooked, and just as excited about the movie as everyone else. So finally today, when I saw these new images at Empire Online, I got to feel that same joy at poring over the details of the costumes and the actors, and the tiny thrill of seeing a character from a page brought to life. Ozymandias looks so serious! What an amazing square jaw on Nite Owl! I guess it’s only a matter of time before I start dressing in costume at Comic Con.

The Empire images consist of two covers, each of which feature three main characters, and four new stills from the movie itself, all of them focusing on the characters from the cover—Rorschach, the Comedian, Nite Owl, Silk Spectre, Ozymandias and Dr. Manhattan, even though the last two don’t get stills of their own. It’s familiar stuff, mostly—that Nite Owl ship sure is getting a lot of attention—but as with everything about this movie, it seems that the more we see, the better it looks. Check out small versions of the images and the two covers below, or head to Empire Online for the full, glorious images.