I think you're going to see a lot of that thanks to the success of The Dark Knight. I know you don't read the comics, but I would tell you that the darker, grittier Spidey isn't really all that far fetched. The story lines in the 80's and 90's were actually quite gritty. I think people base most of their perceptions on Spider-Man on the cartoons and other media that give the impression he's a much lighter character than the way he was written for most of my time reading the books. The newer writers on Spidey have, however, made him a lighter hearted character over the past 5 or 6 years. It's actually kind of difficult for me to view him as a light hearted character after the story lines I grew up reading.
I do like reading your opinions on the characters, though, since we base our perceptions on different mediums for those same characters.