In less than three weeks the long-in-the-works Americanized reboot of Godzilla helmed by Gareth Edwards will arise to stomp a new mud hole in the summer box office…hopefully. Since the anticipation for its release has not surpassed our stratosphere (though it’s pretty close), Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures have released an astounding new poster for the scaly blockbuster hopeful’s IMAX 3D theatrical release.

You can check it out here below.

The studio has spared no expense in the creation of the film’s marketing campaign and they made the wise choice to not hold back on shots of the titular monster (which is looking fantastic by the way). Every trailer and promotional image released for the new Godzilla so far has been mighty impressive, and industry analysts have the film tracking high enough to clear an opening weekend gross of $60-75 million. This sucker has the potential to be friggin’ huge and one of the best times on the big screen we’re likely to see this year.

I can’t be the only one who looks at this poster and immediately gets a “Dark Horse Comics cover” vibe. (There is actually a graphic novel — Godzilla: Awakening — being released by Legendary Comics via DC Comics to coincide with the movie and it was written by the film’s screenwriter Max Borenstein.) To call the IMAX poster beautiful is an understatement. Bathed in tantalizingly lurid reds and blacks, it offers us a bold glimpse of the size and detail of the iconic creature. By having the red sun of the Japanese flag functioning not only as a backdrop, but as a symbolic image of the role the country plays in the reboot (which will also possibly be a sequel of sorts to the original 1954 Gojira) the poster could be cluing us in to larger developments in the story that the promotional materials have not yet revealed.

Godzilla will finally be unleashed in theaters on May 16, 2014. You can purchase tickets for the IMAX screenings here.

Poster [Click poster through for larger view.]