Supiderman

In Superman (1978) and Spider-Man (2002), we learn the origins of a superhero who discovers his powers and comes to learn a responsibility to use them to fight crime. There is a woman in his life, but he must hold her at arm's length, lest she be endangered by his enemies.

Two years later, in Superman II (1980) and Spider-Man 2 (2004), our hero suffers the grievous ordeal of losing his powers. He must learn to cope, for a time, with the responsibilities that remain his, even as his powers do not. He makes sacrifices for his love and an ultimate decision that will dramatically change things between them.

Three years later, in Superman III (1983) and Spider-Man 3 (2007), the dark side of our hero's personality emerges and threatens to wrest control. If our hero is not careful, he will become subverted into an evil being, wielding his powers to destroy and satisfy his primal urges of greed and revenge. And another woman -- Lana or Gwen or something -- enters the scene that draws our hero's eye away from his first love.

By my inductive calculations, "Spider-Man 4: The Struggle For Tranquility" will be released to theaters in 2011. It will chronicle the rise of a new villain, Fusion Man, created by a discarded piece of Spider-Man's web. He derives his power from the moon and uses it to flex his muscles in a really mean way. He and Spider-Man battle it out on the top of the Washington Monument, the Burj al Arab, and Big Ben! Meanwhile, al Qaeda regroups in the fictional nation of Kochekistan and invents nuclear bazookas. Nations of the world demand they give their bazookas up and threaten nuclear retaliation if they do not. Can Spider-Man ball up Fusion Man and all the nuclear weapons of the world in a spiderweb and stow them safely out of reach on the dark side of the sun, where the moon's power will never reach them?