It’s that time of year again: in eight days’ time, the San Diego Convention Center will open its doors and the international nerd celebration will begin for Comic-Con 2012. In anticipation of all the awesome stuff we’ll get to see at the convention, EW has a sneak peek at some concept art from Iron Man 3

that raises some interesting questions…

Marvel has released this image by concept artist Ryan Meinerding, but unfortunately, they failed to provide any explanation as to what the hell we’re seeing. You know what that means… Let the speculation begin!

We know that the plot of Iron Man 3 will take elements from the six-issue ‘Extremis’ story arc, by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Adi Granov, and this image seems to suggest just that. The pieces of his suit seem to be smoking and sparking… Never a good sign when Extremis nano technology means you’re hard-wired into your suit.

As for the angry guys with machine guns, there are countless groups who could be after Stark. They could easily be the local militia, who got their hands on the super-soldier solution, Extremis. Could the government finally have given up on asking nicely and decided to take out Tony under the assumption that he is a domestic terrorist with a weapon of mass destruction?

Another option is that they’re henchmen of The Mandarin, Iron Man’s nemesis, played by Ben Kingsley in the upcoming movie. Maybe we’ll get the answers when Marvel holds its spoiler-filled superhero-heavy panel on Saturday, July 14th. Stay tuned!