DC Comics is set to show off Watchmen this weekend in Chicago. But it won't be the first time some folks will have seen the pages they are showing off. A number of "press screenings" have been taking place in DC Comics offices for the likes of USA Today, Comic Book Resources, The New York Daily News, Comics Alliance, the Washington Post, The Beat… or people a bit like them anyway. All wrapped up by Non Disclosure Agreements. But a few of them have started to leak…

So what have I learned? Well, the books look really nice. Really nice. Gorgeous, beautiful, sensational are words that have reached me.

Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner's Silk Spectre has received the most praise, as has Darwyn's Minutemen.

I'm told that Silk Spectre sticks to the nine panel grid of Watchmen but a number of the books don't.

I'm told that JMS's version of the Comedian may be rather controversial in that it's a very different take on the character, that neglects certain established aspects of the character for a fresh approach that will, and I quote, "people's minds are going to explode".

But the most controversial point may well be in the Len Wein stories. Original Watchmen editor Wein and Alan Moore fought over the original ending to Watchmen, with Moore getting his way, and now I'm told Wein exploring alternative endings to he original story in the Crimson Corsair back up strips and in the Ozymandias comic.

Just as the original Tales Of The Black Freighter comics set up the main narrative of Watchmen and pointed towards its conclusion, I'm told Wein may be setting up new plot points that may lead the reader to question the events at the end of the original Watchmen comic. And that Crimson Corsair may be expanding in size to help the schedules of the regular creators.

Do consider all this rumour for now. Well sourced, but I haven't actually seen the pages for myself yet.

We all may get a glimpse at C2E2…