Hasta La Gadget!

Feeling Watchmen information overload? Let us help! Here are io9’s greatest essays, interviews and features about the classic graphic novel adaptation, opening tonight. (With some possible spoilers, especially for graphic-novel virgins.)

What’s On Watchmen’s Cutting Room Floor?
Translating Watchmen into a single movie is next to impossible, without giving some plot lines and characters the axe. But what can you live without? Find out what was cut from Watchmen.

The Version Of Watchmen The Studio Wanted.
So we know what’s been cut and how it was made, but what would have become of Watchmen had Zack Snyder not put his foot down with the studio? (And thank god he did.)

Review: Watchmen Proves The Cold War Is An Alien World
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.

How 9/11 Changed Watchmen
The horrific visions that open the final chapter of Alan Moore’s Watchmen haunt you long afterwards. But Zack Snyder’s movie tones down that imagery, and screenwriter David Hayter says it’s because of 9/11.

A Gorgeous Look At The Making Of Watchmen
Your friends don’t have time to read Watchmen before seeing the movie? Give them a crash course. The Watchmen Film Companion explains everything, and here are some of the best concept art and making-of photos.

9 Questions You May Have About Watchmen
You’ve seen the posters, the many trailers and featurettes and followed the lawsuit. But with Watchmen hitting screens on Friday, you may still be wondering what it’s all about. Let us try to help.

Watchmen’s Comedian Almost Perished In Flames
Where the Comedian goes, murder and mayhem follow close behind. So it’s only right that the actor portraying this masked sadist, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, almost set himself and the entire Watchmen set ablaze.

Watchmen’s Steamy Sex Scenes Are High-Five Worthy
We know how Zack Snyder put together the shiny blue god Dr. Manhattan, but what about the more personal scenes? We asked the cast how Snyder went about recreating the sexier panels.

io9 Talks To Zack Snyder, Dave Gibbons And The Stars Of Watchmen
We were lucky enough to be part of press interviews with director Zack Snyder, original artist Dave Gibbons and the movie’s cast. Zack talked about why comic-book movies are finally ready for a dark deconstruction, Dave talked about the “grim ‘n’ gritty” craze in comics, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan talked about one of the graphic novels’ most shocking scenes.

The Tragic Death of Dr. Manhattan’s Real-Life Counterpart
It turns out there was actually a real-life version of Dr. Manhattan, a physical chemist named Louis Alexander Slotin who was exposed to the same radioactive particles as Dr. Manhattan and many other superheroes.

Also, some Watchmen clips are here and here. And tons and tons of high-res stills are here.