Like clockwork, here's your Wednesday batch of comics for reading on a beautiful spring day. Or a crisp autumn day, if you're reading this from the Southern Hemisphere. Or a day-less season-less day if you're reading this from the International Space Station. Shall we?

Come June, DC Comics will release Before Watchmen, a series of comic book prequels to author Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons' classic superhero deconstruction Watchmen.

DC Comics is really going forward with the Watchmen tie-in project that everybody's calling Watchmen 2, as we warned a while back. Bleeding Cool's inside sources tell them that Andy Kubert will draw one of four prequel miniseries, each of which tells a story about a different character from Alan Moore and Dave…

Even though original Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons warned DC against making a sequel and we all know Alan Moore is going to hate it, rumors suggest the DC Comics' new leadership thinks Watchmen 2 is a dandy idea.

The writer of Wanted and artist of Watchmen are aiming to create an all-new comic sometime next year, raising the hopes of fanboys and movie producers across the world. But will it be worth it?

Well, this wasn't what we expected. According to initial estimations, Watchmen made less money in its first day than Zack Snyder's 300, despite playing in more theaters. Has the backlash happened early?

Your friends don't have time to read Watchmen before seeing the movie? Give them a crash course. The Watchmen Film Companion explains everything, with concept art and making-of photos. A few more cool images, below.

Watchmen, opening Friday, is a masterpiece of alienation. For a beautiful two hours and forty minutes, people freak out about nuclear holocaust - and you're hard-pressed to care. I suspect that's the point. Spoiler alert!

The reviews of Zack Snyder's Watchmen are pouring in, and a pattern has developed. The movie blogs are proclaiming the film a new masterpiece, but the mainstream media is clutching its head and groaning.