Sony starts over with Spider-Man

The Spider-man dispute is finally over - Sony have ditched plans for Spidey 4, sent Raimi, Maguire and co. packing and will completely reboot the franchise in 2012. In your face, true believers!

In what can only be seen as a radioactive kick in the crotch for Sam Raimi, the studio have decided that, rather than listen to the man who has already made them gazillions of spidey-bucks, it would be best to just replace him, and the entire cast, and start afresh.

Which means that we'll get to see high school Peter Parker go all gooey-eyed for MJ before getting bit by the radioactive arachnid, just 10 years after seeing it the last time. 10 years? Is that even long enough for there to be a new generation of fans?

Don't get me wrong, Raimi had his faults from the start, what with the Green Goblin's alien-like mask and emo-Spidey, but when he got it right, he was spot-on, and he's the only director to successfully translate that sense of comic-book fun to the screen.

While Raimi's Peter Parker was growing up too fast (just three movies in and he was practically ready to settle down and have red-haired, webbed-fingered kids), I still would have preferred to see him continue the story than have Sony give a reboot gig to a trendy new 'upcomer' fresh from making the vid for the next 30 Seconds to Mars single.

And let's not forget the gift Sony has left us with: months of pointless speculation in every magazine from Heat to Loaded about "who will next don the costume".

Cheers Sony. With great power, comes great retardity.