Yesterday Entertainment Weekly offered a glimpse of four Star Trek teaser posters that Paramount Pictures will be handing out next week at Comic-Con (about the only presence the J.J. Abrams movie will have there). However, the image was so small I wanted to wait until something better was released before I posted anything.

Now the wait’s over, as the movie’s official website has been updated with high-res versions of all four posters. You can see all of them after the break …

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NBC has released a new commercial for Heroes Season 3, which will debut on Sept. 22.

(Via ComingSoon.net)

It’s only Friday afternoon and The Dark Knight has already set a box-office record, grossing the most ever for midnight shows.

Variety reports the movie’s estimated $18.5 million beat the previous midnight record held by Star Wars, Episode III: The Revenge of the Sith, which grossed $16.9 million from 3,663 venues. According to Warner Bros., that tally doesn’t include 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. showings.

The Dark Knight debuted at a record 4,366 theaters, unseating Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, which debuted in 4,362 venues.

Related: Nikki Finke has more on ticket sales and attempts to add screenings

FEARnet has debuted its second 30 Days of Night web series, Dust to Dust, co-produced by Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures. The series revolves around events that follow FEARnet’s movie prequel, Blood Trails.

In case the release yesterday of the first Watchmen trailer isn’t enough to hold you, the new issue of Entertainment Weekly – the magazine’s Comic-Con special — complete with photos, and a look at the project’s long, bumpy history and director Zack Snyder’s efforts to stay true to the comic:

Over many months, and many meetings, Snyder persuaded Warner Bros. to abandon the Greengrass/Hayter script and hew as faithfully as possible to the comic. The key battles: retaining the ’80s milieu, keeping Richard Nixon (Moore did consider using an era-appropriate Ronald Reagan, but worried it would alienate American readers), and preserving the villain-doesn’t-pay-for-his-crimes climax. ”It was clear that Zack felt an intense obligation to the fans and the book,” says Warner Bros. Picture Group president Jeff Robinov. ”There was definitely a conversation about the best way to make it contemporary and relevant to today. Zack felt the best way was to go back to the roots of the novel.”

The article also states that Snyder’s current three-hour cut won’t be the version we see next March; two hours and 25 minutes is more likely.

Related: The Watchmen trailer’s “Spielberg-homaging Easter egg”

As the clock ticks down to the roughly 3,000 — yes, 3,000! – midnight screenings of The Dark Knight, Warner Bros. has set an industry record with 4,366 theaters showing the film this weekend.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, MovieTickets.com has registered more than 1,600 sellouts throughout the weekend; more than 300 just in New York and Los Angeles. And online ticket-seller Fandango.com expects Friday to be “our biggest ticket-selling day in company history.”

The Dark Knight accounted for 88 percent of tickets sold Wednesday on MovieTickets, and 87 percent of those sold today (as of 3 p.m.). Fandango attributed 94 percent of recent sales to the movie.

Batman Begins grossed $48.7 million in its opening weekend in 2005. The Dark Knight is expected to debut somewhere between Iron Man ($102.1 million) and Spider-Man 3 (a record $151.1 million).

Taking bets now …

As I’ve mentioned before, one of the big panels at Comic-Con undoubtedly will be the one for Summit Entertainment, which will showcase Twilight, based on the ridiculously popular YA series of vampire novels by Stephenie Meyer. The first trailer has been released online, so now you’ll at least know why all of those teens and tweens are waiting in line Thursday at the convention.

Empire Online posted the trailer for Watchmen — the one set to appear before The Dark Knight – only to pull it until tomorrow morning. But somehow the footage made its way to YouTube, where you can watch it until the legal department at Warner Bros. has it removed.

Update: And just as quickly … it’s gone. Tune in tomorrow morning when Empire officially posts the trailer. Again.

Update 2: Or you can go here. For now.

Update 3: Or here and here.

Update 4: Now you can watch the trailer guilt-free! (Y’know, if you felt guilty before.) It’s available in assorted flavors at Apple.com.

Justice League: The New Frontier, Warner Bros. Animation’s adaptation of Darwyn Cooke’s 2003 miniseries, has been nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (one hour or more).

The nominations were announced this morning in Los Angeles. The New Frontier is pitted against the “Blue Harvest” episode of Family Guy and the “Imaginationland” episode of South Park.

The awards will be presented on Sept. 21.

Entertainment Weekly talks with Alan Moore about the upcoming Watchmen movie, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century, his upcoming novel Jerusalem, and his love of The Wire and South Park:

Don’t you have the slightest curiosity about what Watchmen director Zack Snyder is doing with your work?
I would rather not know.

He’s supposed to be a very nice guy.
He may very well be, but the thing is that he’s also the person who made 300. I’ve not seen any recent comic book films, but I didn’t particularly like the book 300. I had a lot of problems with it, and everything I heard or saw about the film tended to increase [those problems] rather than reduce them: [that] it was racist, it was homophobic, and above all it was sublimely stupid. I know that that’s not what people going in to see a film like 300 are thinking about but…I wasn’t impressed with that…. I talked to [director] Terry Gilliam in the ’80s, and he asked me how I would make Watchmen into a film. I said, ”Well actually, Terry, if anybody asked me, I would have said, ‘I wouldn’t.”’ And I think that Terry [who aborted his attempted adaptation of the book] eventually came to agree with me. There are things that we did with Watchmen that could only work in a comic, and were indeed designed to show off things that other media can’t.

Related: Patrick Wilson (Nite Owl) says Watchmen’s ending stays true to the comic

A British religious group is criticizing Mattel’s new Black Canary Barbie doll, calling it “filth.”

Unveiled in February at the New York Toy Fair, the Black Canary doll is part of a fall line that includes DC Comics superheroines Batgirl, Supergirl and Wonder Woman. Like the character on which it’s based, the Black Canary doll wears fishnet stockings, a motorcycle jacket, gloves and boots.

“Barbie has always been on the tarty side and this is taking it too far,” the Christian Voice is quoted as saying by the tabloid The Sun. “A children’s doll in sexually suggestive clothing is irresponsible — it’s filth.”

In true tabloid fashion, The Sun’s headline reads, “S&M Barbie is lashed by the public.”

Commentator Augie De Blieck Jr. peers into the near-future and sees $3.50 as the average cover price for a comic book. How near? Try December:

I think the next price jump will be to $3.50, and the muttering over the high price of comics will be heard again. I just don’t think we’ll see mass defections of readership until we hit $3.99, though. $3.50 is still too much, but the ratio isn’t outrageous. When comics went up from $1.00 to $1.25, it meant you could only buy four comics for $5, instead of five. When prices rise up from $3.00 to $3.50, it means you’ll only get six comics for $21, instead of seven. With a hike from $3.00 to $3.99, though, your $12 will only buy you three comics instead of four.

This is likely all mental and not based strictly on the math. The $3.50 price point is outrageous for a comic book these days, though not a complete deal breaker.

The answer lies in digital distribution, of course, but the system on which this industry is based — the Direct Market — won’t make for an easy transition.

We’ll see $3.50 for Amazing Spider-Man by December. I’m sure of it. Check back here in three months to see if I’m right.

There are so many Batman- and Dark Knight-related items floating around, it’s tough to know where to begin:

• With 700 showings already sold out in North America, The Dark Knight looks to be heading toward a $130 million-plus opening weekend. As of last night, it had sold two times as many advance tickets that Spider-Man 3 on MovieTickets.com. [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

• The Dark Knight could dethrone Spider-Man as the highest-grossing comic-book movie of all time — and mark a turning point for superhero films. [The Miami Herald]

• Is The Dark Knight film noir? “The Dark Knight is a crime story, and not all crime stories are film noir,” says director Christopher Nolan. “But I think you’re seeing a desire in storytelling to have moral ambiguity, and that’s been the basis of film noir.” [Newsday, via The Boston Herald]

• Frank Miller’s 1986 The Dark Knight Returns reinvigorated the Batman comic-book franchise. [New York Daily News]

• Jeet Heer delves into those decades-old rumors about the relationship between Batman and Robin, while Steve Murray (aka Chip Zdarsky) points out the ridiculousness of debating the Dynamic Duo’s sexuality. Zdarsky also created the illustration (above) for Heer’s article. [The National Post, The National Post]

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The new trailer for The Spirit was leaked online yesterday, but now Lionsgate has released it officially. You can watch it in a variety of formats at Yahoo! Movies.

The Spirit opens on Dec. 25.

Actor Justin Theroux, who penned the upcoming comedy Tropic Thunder, will write the sequel to Iron Man.

He’s best known for roles in Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle and HBO’s Six Feet Under.

Variety also reports that Marvel Studios is “close to a deal” to bring back director Jon Favreau and star Robert Downey Jr. That’s a more cautious assessment of Favreau’s status than what Hollywood gossip columnist wrote last week.

The Iron Man sequel is set to open on April 30, 2010. The first movie has grossed $566 million worldwide since its opening on May 2.

Two new posters have been released for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which opens Aug. 15. The second poster can be seen after the break.

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With more than a week to go, registration is closed for Comic-Con International. That’s right, the convention is sold out.

According to the Comic-Con website, no onsite membership badges will be sold.

BET Networks and Marvel Animation will preview The Black Panther animated series July 26 at Comic-Con International.

The television show, which will debut early next year, was announced in April. It will be adapted from the first six issues of the current Black Panther series, written by Reginald Hudlin, BET’s president of entertainment.

“I’m so proud I’ve been able to maintain a successful run of the series over the past three years while keeping my ‘day job’ of programming a network,” Hudlin said in a press release. “But now to have both of my worlds collide, to have a faithful adaptation of my own work as a prime time series on the network — it’s a dream come true. The Black Panther has always been an inspirational character to me, and now I get to share that inspiration with the widest audience he’s ever had.”

The full press release can be read here.

It’s a light week — for a change! — with a handful of notable releases.

Two stellar creations by the late Steve Gerber receive the spotlight this Wednesday as Jonathan Lethem and Farel Dalrymple’s Omega: The Unknown miniseries concludes and Howard The Duck gets the omnibus treatment.

Countdown to Final Crisis rises from the grave with a trade paperback, Scott McCloud’s Zot! returns with a black-and-white collection, and Viz Media rolls out Takehiko Inoue’s basketball manga Real.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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A new, full trailer for The Spirit has been leaked online — it’s the one set to debut next week at Comic-Con, presumably — and so far Lionsgate has been a little slow in pulling it. (It’s been yanked from Trailer Addict and YouTube, but remains elsewhere.)

It’s, well … hm. Watch it for yourself before it’s gone.

The Spirit, directed by Frank Miller, opens on Christmas.