Even before he was a blockbuster movie franchise, the sixth highest grossing ever, it was impossible to have not come into contact with Spider-Man. Countless different cartoons have ensured that anyone born after the sixties has spent their Saturday mornings with the friendly neighbourhood web-crawler. Whether it's in terms of cultural importance or simple enjoyment there's no denying Spidey's one of the most important superheroes out there. Back when Peter Parker was first introduced in Amazing Fantasy #15, he marked a shift in the status quo. Here was a superhero who wasn't an alien or successful adult, but a dorky teenager, closer than ever to comic's central readership. Instead of being a God-like blank slate, he was a regular person with the same doubts and fallacies that we all harbour. And, even though by the time Sam Raimi's first film appeared in 2002 we'd already seen Batman, Superman and the X-Men brought to life, in cinematic terms he proved instrumental in setting up the formula that the genre still heavily leans on. Recently the future of the Spider-Man franchise has been called into doubt, with what was once the unequivocally biggest superhero on the planet slipping down in audience's perceptions, replaced by traditionally B-list characters. Whether Sony will continue with their expanded universe, reboot the whole thing or give up and return the rights to Marvel remains to be seen, but for now let's look back into the past. Here's a highly personal and subjective ranking of the Spider-Man movies thus far, from worst to best.
