If anyone sees Dave’s back today, you might see the newly scabbed lash marks on his back. That was from a little in-office corporal punishment for Dave’s gross oversight on the Spider-Man 4/5 rumor front.

The story broke this weekend, and here are the key points that all film-fanatic/Spidey-lovers should know:

- Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire are to return for Spider-Man 4, written by Zodiac scribe Jamie Vanderbilt. Rumors have these two locked.

-No Kirsten Dunst deal has been inked, but you can expect her to return and reprise the role of Mary Jane, opposite another female character (Howard’s Gwen? We can only hope).

- No more black suit, as someone behind Spider-Man actually gets why the Dark Knight was successful, a source quoted as saying: “Sam Raimi made the first serious superhero movie, and others followed. The difference between Spider-Man and Batman is that Batman is duelling with a dark side of himself, and that’s not what Peter Parker’s struggle is. Peter Parker has no dark side himself. In Spider-Man 3 it was the black costume. Peter Parker’s struggle is about sacrifice.” Begin sarcasm. You mean you can’t treat every character like Batman? What a stroke of genius! End sarcasm.

- “Once you find out who the villain is, you’ll know who’s playing it,” says a source. Does this mean that Dylan Baker’s habitually re-appearing Curt Conners will finally be The Lizard? Either that or we might get a Bruce Campbell Mysterio or the Daniel Gillies Man-Wolf or – shudder – James Franco’s Green Goblin 2 might not be dead. Those are all the villains we can think of that have either been rumored to appear in a Spidey film or who have had characters already debuted.

- Sony is trying to figure out if they can afford to shoot Spider-Man 4 and Spider-Man 5 back-to-back with the original cast and director.

- The May 2011 release date is probably a little too early now.

Ok, time to clean Dave’s back wounds so he doesn’t get workman’s comp!