11 Confusing Moments That Prove All Movies Exist In An Alternate Reality

7. DC Comics Existed, But Not All Marvel Comics Do - Spider-Man

Comic book movies are invariably inter-textual: if they're not liberally splashed with Easter Eggs and in-jokes, there are homages and nods to other comic book movies in the same universe (or even to historically important movies from the same genre) to keep fans' spidey senses tingling. Sam Raimi's original Spider-Man subverts the convention in some ways, because the references traditionally tend to stick to their own stable, and almost certainly their same creative company.

But in Spider-Man, there's a moment when Aunt May tells Peter that he is stretching himself too thin and that he's not Superman, which goes hand in hand with the sequence in which Peter attempts to work out how to control his web-slinging ability. He chooses a number of slogans to tease his web out, including the suspiciously familiar "Shazam!" and "Up, up and away, web!" both of which allude to DC comics characters. So we know that those comics do, but presumably no comic book featuring Spider-Man could exist, wiping out the majority of Marvel's stable, given their penchant for cross-overs and cameos.

Doctor Strange does apparently exist though, as mentioned by J Jonah Jameson's assistant in, which suggests the version of Marvel Comics that exists in Parker's world hasn't featured any story-lines where the wizard met the spider. Additionally, there's a paradox created in the novel tie-in of the first Raimi Spider-Man, as Mary Jane claims she has seen Interview With The Vampire, and was creeped out by Claudia, the character Kirsten Dunst herself played.