Aside from a brief, predictable period in high school when he was replaced by Holden Caulfield, Peter Parker's been my favorite fictional character since I was old enough to know what a Spider-Man was. Which means, I think, that I should be really stoked about The Amazing Spider-Man, Sony's attempt to reboot the webslinger even though Sam Raimi's last spider-movie is only five years old. This time around, Sony's desperately trying to convince us that Amazing is the "untold story"—which mostly seems to hinge on the facts that this time, Peter's annoying parents are going to be involved somehow (UGGGHHH), and now he has mechanical webshooters that have little flashing lights on them. It's a whole new Spider-Man!

I'm legitimately curious about two things here, though: The casting, which seems fantastic across the board, and the humor, which was the biggest thing missing from Raimi's movies. One of Spidey's defining qualities is that he's a smartass, but Tobey Maguire was always too busy moping to crack a joke. Give me a funny Spider-Man any day, and if he just so happens to be in a movie with Denis Leary and Emma Stone? Hell, I might even look past his sparkly webshooters.