The problem with saying that one comic book character is a rip-off of another is that the vast majority of comic book characters have evolved quite dramatically from their creation, and two characters that are similar today does not mean that one was copied by the other.

With the Joker and Green Goblin in particular, while the joker started out as a very dark character he evolved to become a very campy character about the time the Green Goblin was created (mid 1960s). This was in part a response to the senate hearing on juvenile delinquency in the 1950s which blamed comic books for all problems of young people.

And to think they still try to do stuff like that even these days.

I don't see a point of rebooting the series...oh wait yeah... they are running out of superheroes for the annual blockbuster....

Hardly. Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus? Theres still plenty more. Venom was barely even shown in the last film so they could still make a whole movie out of him. I still don't understand why Venom and Carnage weren't made the villians in one of the previous films. Shocker, Mysterio, Kraven, etc. There's still plenty to work with. My knowledge of Spider-Man is limited to the 90s series so I could imagine there being two of those villians in one movie or something.

Ummm. I never liked this guy but I never read the comics so I don't know much about his backstory so I'm hoping they do some crazy detailing about his character like villains like the Green Goblin and Doc Ock.

hmm, this is one franchise I don't think needed a reboot, the cast (and chemistry between dunst and maguire) was good, it just need to be taken a tad more seriously, but not too seriously, spiderman is good as a more light hearted comic book series unlike batman.

I could name a ton of spidey villains (Morlun, Hob-Goblin, Scorpion, Vulture, Rhino, etc.) but none of these guys seem iconic enough to carry the movie.  Guys like Venom, Doc Ock, Sandman, and Green Goblin are the icons.  They're the ones that caused Spidey the most grief.  Throw in Carnage and people will think Cletus Cassidy is just Venom 1.5.  Mysterio is pretty cool.  Maybe Electro or Hydroman but they just don't seem like they'd translate well into a movie.  I don't think Kraven the Hunter would, either.  It's just like Batman.  He has probably 100 enemies but the big guns are Joker, Riddler, Penguin, Two Face, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman.  The rest (even my personal favorite, Bane) are either too obscure or too unbelievable.  I'm actually shocked they made Ra's Al Ghul a movie villain and even more shocked that they made it work.

I liked McGuire a lot, too (Kirstin seemed to be a bit too whiny).  The problem is, comic book characters tend to stay the same age for decades.  People don't.  I think the originals were getting a bit too old for their roles and that's why they decided to go younger.