C. Thomas Howell's 'Spider-Man' Role Revealed?

Unlike he did in the Eighties, C. Thomas Howell will not be fighting Russians, Socs or racial stereotypes in Marc Webb's Spider-Man reboot. We recently reported that he'd been cast in the film, starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, but were unsure who he might be playing. Entertainment Weekly has now revealed that the character's name is "Ray" and while that doesn't scream "Spider-Man" like the names Norman, Cletus, Otto or Eddie might, it still makes sense in a roundabout kind of way. We connect the dots after the jump.

In the Entertainment Weekly story, besides sourcing us (thank you very much), they say this about the role of "Ray."

The name does not immediately ring any bells in Spider-Man lore, other than possibly Ray Cooper, the supposedly deceased father of Spidey's current comic book girlfriend Carlie.

According to the guys at Comic Book Movie, in the comics it was recently revealed that Ray Cooper worked with Captain George Stacy, Gwen Stacey's father, a character we know is in this movie because Denis Leary has already be cast as him. On the Marvel Wiki, they refer to Ray Cooper "a respected New York detective" and George Stacy was also a well-respected New York Police Officer. So the connection would be that Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) is one of the stars of the movie and her father George is friends/colleagues with Ray Cooper. The next logical link would be that Ray's daughter, Carlie Cooper, could possibly be in it setting up a future love interest for young Mr. Parker. Supposedly, it was also recently revealed that Gwen and Carlie were friends growing up.

Seems pretty plausible to me, however, it would mean that Howell's role is probably pretty small. What do you think? Does this all make sense? Are any of you Spidey fans out there knowledgeable about Ray Cooper?