I'm sure by now many of you have heard that Spider-Man 4 has officially been shitcanned.  I have to say, based on what I've read about the situation, I can't believe that I'm siding with the studios over Sam Raimi on this one.  I think him stepping down is a really good idea. 

I don't know that a reboot of the franchise, which is what they want, will necessarily be any better, but my problem with Raimi is that he's too focused on the old-school Spider-Man that he grew up with and gives short-shrift to the modern Spidey lore.  The best example of course is the crappy treatment of Venom, the best Spider-Man rogue of the modern era.  Instead in Spider-Man 3, he chose to focus on Sandman, who while being a visually interesting character, in the narrative is nothing but a common thug.  Raimi made him marginally more interesting than this in the film, but it was still highly flawed IMO. 

Anyway, with 4, he apparently wanted to use John Malkovich as the Vulture, and that just screams "WRONG!" to me.  Apparently studio execs agreed. 

Not yet knowing anything about the next cast and crew for the franchise, I can only be cautiously optimistic and still give Raimi and solid "thanks" for giving us a Spider-Man as well-done as his trilogy was.