This month marks the 50th anniversary of the release of the Marvel Comic Amazing Fantasy #15, which introduced the origin of one of the greatest comic book superheroes of the modern age and perhaps of all time, The Amazing Spider-Man!

Spider-Man of course, went from that comic appearance in that anthology omnibus to his own comic series to become one of the most successful franchises in pop culture history, spawning countless merchandise and television and film spinoffs, the most current being the summer blockbuster The Amazing Spider-Man, which is still in theaters and stars Andrew Garfield as the web slinging hero.

The success of The Amazing Spider-Man has paved the way for Sony to turn the film into a trilogy. This could not have happened if it wasn’t for director Marc Webb. Of course Webb is expected to return to his post to direct its sequel, but since he owes Fox – the studio that helped finance and distribute (500) Days of Summer – one more film, that he may not be able to direct The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Now comes word that Fox may be willing to let Webb make the Spidey sequel … for a price.

The Amazing Spider-Man may not have been the most well received movie amongst critics, but it did earn enough to garner two sequels.

So with the movie already moving forward with a draft written by James Vanderbilt and rewrites to be penned by Star Trek scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, the only thing Sony needs to do is get director Marc Webb back in the chair for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. But this could prove to be difficult because of a few contractual obligations.

The Amazing Spider-Man is the latest of the summer superhero blockbusters to storm the box office and has been doing extremely well since its theatrical opening on Tuesday: the Marc Webb-directed reboot of Marvel Comics’ web-slinging crimefighter defied expectations and mixed critical and audience response (Read our own FamousMonster’s review here) and posted a record Tuesday opening day gross of $35 million, beating the previous record-holder – Michael Bay’s first Transformers movie, released exactly five years to the day of Amazing‘s release.

James Horner, the Academy Award-winning composer who has brought his considerable musical chops to the soundtracks for films ranging from 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan to James Cameron’s record-smashing epics Titanic and Avatar, was hired to provide the aural accompaniment for Spidey’s return to the silver screen after a five-year absence. Previously the cinematic adventures of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko‘s iconic superhero were scored, under the direction of Sam Raimi, by Danny Elfman and Christopher Young. AOL Music is currently streaming the film’s soundtrack CD, which was released the same day as the movie by Sony Classical, for FREE at their website.

In honor of the release of The Amazing Spider-Man I am back with another geek-themed recipe. This time, I’m presenting you with Aunt May’s most famous dish: Wheatcakes! Now, I can’t be sure if this is the recipe that she herself uses. Apparently Marvel has the recipe, but keeps it a closely guarded secret, known only to Joe Quesada, CB Cebulski, and that Wolverine that magically came out of the comics in the 80’s. But, I scoured the internet and found this recipe that I hope is a good substitute.