Just because Peter Parker's Aunt May is getting on a bit doesn't mean she's boring in fact,
there's much more to May than just a mean batch of wheatcakes.
From her humble beginnings to her big screen debut and everything in between, here's the
untold story of Marvel's most iconic golden oldie.
Officially, May and Ben Parker made their canonical debut alongside Spider-Man in Amazing
Fantasy #15, but Spider-Man's origin story wasn't the first time that the characters
had graced the pages of a Marvel comic.
A couple of months before Spider-Man's big entrance, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko published
a short story called "Goodbye to Linda Brown" in Strange Tales #97, which featured early
versions of both of Peter's relatives.
"Goodbye to Linda Brown" is only a few pages long and doesn't leave much room for character
development, but both Ben and May show glimmers of their future selves.
For one, they look very similar to their Amazing Fantasy counterparts - especially May.
For some reason, the colorist decided to give Ben a grey mustache, although Ditko clearly
didn't pencil one in.
In addition, both characters spend most of their time fretting over a teenager with secret
superpowers, which is pretty much all Aunt May did for the first 50 issues or so of Amazing
Spider-Man.
Luckily, things did get a little more interesting after that.
Most probably saw Aunt May in the flesh for the first time in Sam Raimi's 2002 Spider-Man
movie, in which Peter Parker's doddering aunt was played by Emmy-winning actress Rosemary
Harris.
But Harris wasn't actually the first person to bring May to life in a live-action project.
That honor goes to Jeff Donnell, - and so we’re clear Jean Marie Donnell went by her
nickname Jeff, so that explains that...
Anyway, she portrayed Aunt May in a 90-minute TV movie that served as the backdoor pilot
for the 1977 Spider-Man television series.
Donnell only played Aunt May in the Spider-Man pilot for May's later appearances, the role
was assumed by a number of different actresses, including recurring Dennis the Menace star
Irene Tedrow.
And, of course, many actresses tackled the role of Aunt May in the world of animation
before Harris immortalized her on the big screen.
June Foray voiced May in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, in which Spidey and company
operated out of May's Queens-based abode… but you probably know Foray better as the
original voices of both Rocky the Flying Squirrel and his arch-nemesis, Natasha Fatale.
Her finest hour
In terms of early Spider-Man stories, you won't find much that's more iconic than The
Amazing Spider-Man #33.
This comic, titled "The Final Chapter," isn't actually co-creator Steve Ditko's final pass
at Spider-Man, but it does feel like the end of an era and puts Aunt May front and center
of the story.
As the issue opens, Aunt May lies in a hospital bed, dying from a transfusion of Peter Parker's
radioactive blood.
The only cure is an isotope known as ISO-36, which is contained in an underwater lab controlled
by Spider-Man's arch-nemesis, Doctor Octopus.
The two fight and destroy the lab, and as it fills with water, Spider-Man is pinned
underneath multiple tons of fallen steel, with no hope of escape.
The following four pages are arguably Ditko's finest work in any Spider-Man comic at least,
that's what Stan Lee thinks.
Lee later said:
"[It] was one of my all time favorite stories.
[...] It was such a thrill, even to me and I was the writer of the story.
When I saw that I almost shouted in triumph.
Steve did a wonderful job."
And who does Peter have to thank for his big moment?
Well, Ditko, of course, but also Aunt May.
As the water rises, Spider-Man thinks about his beloved aunt, and how he's failed her
in the past namely by letting an anonymous robber get away, leaving him free to kill
her husband Uncle Ben.
Using May's strength and resilience as motivation, Peter lifts the steel beams above his head
and escapes.
He delivers the isotope to the hospital in the nick of time and, with May cured, puts
the specter of Uncle Ben's death behind him once and for all.
The scene is so iconic that it plays out on the big screen too, in Spider-Man : Homecoming.
The Amazing Spider-Man #121, in which the Green Goblin kills Peter Parker's girlfriend
Gwen Stacy, is arguably one of the most important and notorious superhero comics ever published,
but it almost played out very, very differently.
Originally, Gwen Stacy was going to make it to the end of the issue alive and well while
Aunt May was to meet her demise at the Goblin's hands instead.
That revelation comes from none other than long-time Spider-Man artist John Romita Senior,
who co-plotted the issue with writer Gerry Conway.
While talking to CBR, Romita confessed that he, and not Conway or artist Gil Kane, was
Gwen Stacy's real "murderer."
The original plan was to sacrifice Aunt May to the Green Goblin, but Romita pushed back
on the idea, claiming that it would actually make The Amazing Spider-Man less dramatic.
Romita explained:
"It'll lose one of Peter Parker's hang-ups.
He won't have to worry about Aunt May anymore.
He won't be treated like a child anymore.
If we want to make any kind of stir in the monthly line, we have to kill somebody important."
And so, Romita explained, the victim had to be one of the story's leading female figures.
From there, Gwen Stacy became the obvious choice.
At the time, Mary Jane was what Romita called "an airheaded comedy character", but Gwen
Stacy was the love of Peter Parker's life.
In order to wring the maximum amount of emotional turmoil out of the story, Gwen had to go.
And the rest, of course, is history.
Aunt May's abilities aren't limited to simply fretting about the well-being of superheroes,
though.
In fact, she's also a superhero herself.
Sort of.
In What If #23, a back-up feature called "What if Aunt May instead of her nephew Peter had
been bitten by that radioactive spider?"
tells the story of well, it's kinda obvious, isn't it?
In Amazing Fantasy #15, Peter attends a scientific demonstration where he crosses paths with
the fateful radioactive spider.
In What If #23, he leaves his bagged lunch at home, and Aunt May rushes to the Science
Institute to deliver it.
While she's there, the spider bites May on the hand, and her spider-powers kick in on
the walk home.
May quickly sews herself a costume and creates a unique version of Spider-Man's web-fluid
out of some over-yeasted dough.
Before long, she's taken to the streets as Spider-Ma'am, juggling her crime-fighting
career with her familial responsibilities.
And while What If stories aren't canonical, writer Christos Gage and artist Dave Williams
made Spider-Ma'am a reality in Spider-Verse Team-Up #3, part of Dan Slott and Olivier
Coipel's dimension-hopping epic, Spider-Verse.
In the comic, a team of Spider-Men, including the Peter Parker that we know and love, travel
to Earth-3123 to rescue Spider-Ma'am from Karn, an interdimensional hunter with a mad
hatred for everything spider-related.
The team is successful, but the battle leads to a dramatic development in Spider-Ma'am's
story: she finally reveals her secret identity to her husband and nephew…
whose lives are changed forever.
The list of people who have stopped Galactus, Marvel Comics' gargantuan devourer of worlds,
is pretty short.
The Fantastic Four have done it, of course.
So have Thanos, the Silver Surfer and the Beyonder.
And Aunt May.
wait, what?
This tale took place in Marvel Team-Up #137, which was part of Marvel's "Assistant Editor's
Month," an event during which some of Marvel's top creators were given free reign to tell
the wildest and silliest stories they could imagine.
In the comic, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four head off to San Diego to thwart an unnamed
disaster, leaving Reed Richards and Sue Storm's superpowered son Franklin in Aunt May's care.
Unfortunately, just after the real heroes leave town, Galactus arrives in search of
a new herald and he's got his sights set on Franklin.
One ill-aimed energy blast later, and Aunt May is transformed into the Golden Oldie,
a glowing super-heroine infused with the power cosmic.
"I believe there's a hero in all of us.
That keeps us honest, gives us strength."
Thanks to Galactus, all of Aunt May's health problems her arthritis, her vitamin deficiencies,
her bingo-addiction are gone.
But there's a catch: Galactus is hungry, and it's up to his herald to keep him fed.
At Franklin's prompting, May feeds Galactus a Twinkie.
He loves it, and demands more.
Using her newfound powers, May scours first Earth and then the entire galaxy for more
of the spongy, cream-filled snack cakes.
On her travels, she meets an alien that looks suspiciously like the Pillsbury Dough Boy
who just happens to make planets that resemble Hostess products.
At May's suggestion, Galactus takes the alien on as his new herald and frees May from her
responsibilities.
When she returns home, Franklin absorbs all of May's cosmic powers, and everything goes
back to normal right before writer Michael Carlin reveals that the whole adventure was
just a bad dream… or was it?
Peter Parker will always be the main man in May Parker's life, but with such a busy day-to-day
life, May's nephew doesn't always have time for his beleaguered aunt.
Thankfully, despite her age, May is incredibly popular with the fellas, and has accumulated
quite a collection of dudes to keep her company while Peter's away.
There was Ben Parker, of course, who met his tragic demise in Amazing Fantasy #15.
But before Ben and May got hitched, she almost married a criminal named Johnny Jerome, who
tried to win her heart with money, and who returned to plague her in The Spectacular
Spider-Man Annual #4.
In The Amazing Spider-Man #54, Doctor Octopus rents May's spare room, and wins her over
with his charms.
And in The Amazing Spider-Man #131, he actually tries to marry her in order to steal her inheritance,
although Hammerhead and Spider-Man interrupt the wedding before it becomes official.
"Cute place very homey.”
“Oh great, it's Liv."
Throughout the '80s, May dated Nathan Lubensky, a reformed gambling addict who asked May to
marry him before he relapsed, fell afoul of the Vulture, and died in Amazing Spider-Man
#336.
In the early '90s, she enjoyed a brief fling with the Fantastic Four's long-time mailman
Willie Lumpkin.
After Peter Parker and Aunt May moved to Stark Tower in the buildup to Civil War, May and
Tony Stark's butler, Jarvis, shared a mutual attraction.
Finally, May dated and married J. Jonah Jameson's father, John Jameson, Sr., and stayed with
him until he died of a rare hereditary disease in The Amazing Spider-Man Volume 4 #19.
Aunt May actress Rosemary Harris was 75 in 2002 when Sam Raimi's Spider-Man hit theaters.
When she appeared as May in The Amazing Spider-Man, Sally Field was 66.
By contrast, Marisa Tomei, who plays May in the modern MCU was only 50 when she first
starred as Peter Parker's favorite aunt.
That's significantly younger than May is usually portrayed—in Civil War, Tony Stark even
jokes about it.
"Who else knows?
Anybody?”
“Nobody.”
“Not even your unusually attractive aunt."
But don't blame Tomei.
While appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Tomei revealed that she actually
petitioned Marvel to make May into a senior citizen, just like in the comics but the studio
declined.
"I actually made a case to go with..
To age me up.
But no they didn't do it."
Besides, as Civil War co-writer Stephen McFeely has explained, a younger Aunt May makes perfect
sense, given that Tom Holland's Peter Parker is still in high school.
McFeely told the Los Angeles Times:
"That's partly why his aunt isn't 80 years old.
If she's the sister of his dead mother, why does she have to be two generations ahead?"
In other words, the MCU's Aunt May isn't too young at all in the comics, she's actually
way too old.
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