10 Weird Things Left Out Of Comic Book Movies

8. Gwen Stacy Had A Baby With Norman Osborn

Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn have appeared on screen in two separate film universes to date, owing to Sony's rapid turnaround in rebooting Spider-Man, completed with added "Amazing" in his title. In the Sam Raimi trilogy they were played by Bryce Dallas Howard and Willem Dafoe, respectively, but they never met; the character actor's insane portrayal of the Green Goblin was essentially out of the picture at the end of the first film, impaled on his own glider, whilst Howard's Gwen debuted in the third film, which we do not speak of.

In the Amazing Spider-Man 2, however, they...also never meet, but at least they exist at the same time, with the endlessly charming Emma Stone taking the Gwen part and Chris Cooper lying on his !*$% with pasty-faced make-up as the ailing Norman Osborn on his deathbed. Neither of them are as intrinsically connected as they are in the comic books, where the Goblin was responsible for chucking Spidey's girlfriend off a bridge and killing her. He tried the same stunt with Mary Jane in the first Raimi film, and the Amazing Spider-Man 2 has his son Harry doing the deed, but those are pretty understandable changes.

As is the studio's decision to stay well away from the recent Sins Past storyline in the comics, which retconned the characters' history so that Norman and Gwen had had an affair - whilst she was still dating Peter Parker, natch - which bore a couple of twins. EVIL TWINS! It's a gross and stupid plot twist, and honestly, we're happy we didn't have to see Dafoe/Howard or Stone/Cooper bumping uglies.