Aunt May
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Amazing Fantasy (1st series) #15 (August, 1962)
Created by	Stan Lee Steve Ditko
In-story information
Full name	May Reilly Parker
Supporting character of	Spider-Man

May Reilly Parker-Jameson, commonly known as Aunt May, is a supporting character in Marvel Comics' Spider-Man series. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, she first appeared as May Parker in Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962).

In the main story continuum, Aunt May is aunt-by-marriage and adoptive mother of Peter Parker, who leads a secret life as Spider-Man. She is nurturing and supportive of Peter although, throughout most of Spider-Man's history, she has not known of his secret life and considers Spider-Man frightening.

An important part of the Spider-Man series, she has appeared in most other media adaptations of the character.

After years as a widow, Aunt May married John Jonah Jameson, the father of J. Jonah Jameson.

[edit] Fictional character biography

May Parker (maiden name Reilly) was born in Brooklyn, New York on May 5.^[1] Originally a very naive girl in her youth who was about to fall for a small-time crook, she eventually discovered her affections for her schoolmate Ben Parker and married him.

After the death of their young nephew's parents, May and Ben took in the boy, Peter, and raised him. Ben immediately took to the role of the boy's father, but May was at first reluctant. She still remembered her parents blaming her own birth for the destruction of their marriage, and she was afraid that Peter might signal the end of her own marriage. In time, however, she warmed up to Peter, who unexpectedly strengthened the couple's marriage. After Ben's death, life became a struggle with money problems though Peter did his best to help. Through these situations, May maintained a subtle undertone of inner strength which later leaned closer to stereotypical senility.

Peter's secret life as Spider-Man endlessly complicated both his and his aunt's lives. Aunt May lived in constant fear for her "frail" (but unaccountably secretive) nephew who insisted on a job as a freelance photographer. Parker was determined to capture Spider-Man in action, frequently submitting pictures of him to the Daily Bugle; Spider-Man was a vigilante whom Aunt May feared because of her unquestioning acceptance of the Daily Bugle's smearing.

Peter feared for his aunt's well-being and the fatal shock that would result if she ever learned about his career as Spider-Man. This problem served as an easy crutch for dramatic tension in the comics for years, with Peter being torn between dealing with major crises while his aunt needed nearly constant care. This conflict took on an unusual turn when Aunt May had his enemy, Doctor Otto Octavius (also known as Doctor Octopus) as an apparent sweetheart; Peter struggled to deal with his enemy's game while not hurting his Aunt.

In her most recent "death", the "Aunt May" who died shortly after learning of Peter's secret identity, was, in a widely-derided plot twist, revealed to be a "genetically-altered actress" who impersonated her while May was held captive by villains.^[2] May finally learns about her nephew's secret life.^[3] This resulted in a heartfelt discussion in which aunt and nephew confess their darkest secrets, and each learned that the other is far stronger than they had imagined.

After their house was destroyed during Spider-Man's fight with Charlie Weiderman, Peter, Aunt May, and Mary Jane Watson moved into Stark Tower (as Spider-Man had joined the Avengers). Aunt May seemed to be developing a romantic relationship with the Avengers' butler, Jarvis. May was quite a strong-willed woman and even the hard-nosed Wolverine found it impossible to argue with her. During the Civil War, she and Mary Jane convinced Peter to unmask himself in front of a press conference, and May even made a hand-stitched copy of his original costume. Later on, she was the target of the Chameleon, but outwitted the villain by feeding him Ambien-filled oatmeal-raisin cookies.^[4]

When Peter changed his mind about the Superhuman Registration Act, he had to move Aunt May, Mary Jane, and himself out of Stark Tower because Iron Man was the leading supporter for the Act. The following issue, when Peter took Aunt May and Mary Jane to a sleazy motel for refuge, a prostitute witnessed Peter check into his room, and now knowing that Peter is Spider-Man, called up a crime organizer named 'Lucille' and put Peter's name down as a hit. The hit was made by an assassin named Jake Martino, who was ordered by the Kingpin, except that instead of Peter Parker, Aunt May was shot in the stomach.^[5] Peter brought May to a hospital.^[6] It was then revealed that she has lapsed into a coma and would most likely die. Aunt May however, received a radioactive blood transfusion from Peter, which he hoped would once again save her life due to his mutated healing factor.^[7] Although healing factor is in his blood, the most recent issue of Amazing Spider-Man shows that the radioactivity had done nothing to her system. Peter believed she has built an immunity to his blood, considering this hadn't been the first time he gave blood to her.

However, it was revealed that May was not dead, as Peter and Mary Jane were forced to move May to a ward in another hospital.^[8] This was the result of a police investigation with Mary Jane as a prime suspect in what was erroneously believed to be a case of blood poisoning when traces of radioactivity from Peter's blood showed up in May's system.

The demon Mephisto offered to restore Aunt May's health at great personal cost to Peter, his life, and his marriage to his wife, Mary Jane. Agreeing to the terms, Mary Jane and Peter had reality altered so that May lived, Spider-Man's identity was once again a secret, and Harry Osborn was still alive. The cost of Mephisto's offer was the erasure of Peter and Mary Jane's marriage from all memories.^[9]

At the beginning of Brand New Day, May was doing volunteer work for a homeless shelter, run by the seemingly benevolent entrepreneur, Martin Li, who was in fact the supervillain crime boss, Mister Negative.^[10] During her work at the shelter, she met John Jonah Jameson (the father of J. Jonah Jameson) and started a relationship with him.^[11] The following issue, Peter caught the two of them in bed.^[12] However, he approved of this relationship, mainly because John supports Spider-Man, whom had previously saved his life^[12], and saw through Norman Osborn, as a thug who holds nothing but contempt for the people.^[13]

John walked with May in Central Park, and asked her to marry him, which May accepted.^[14] Despite Dr. Octopus' subconscious efforts to halt his former fiance's wedding plans, May and John were wedded by New York Mayor J. Jonah Jameson.^[15] After the wedding, May and John embarked on a round the world honeymoon.

It was recently revealed that Aunt May has several blood relatives that are still alive. Aunt May has a sister named Jan. May's first cousins Sam and Julia are the children of her uncle Bill and his wife Claudia. Peter was attracted to Julia's daughter Alexa.^[16] The Reilly family is currently staying in Aunt May's house.

[edit] Other versions

[edit] Bullet Points

In this alternate reality, May suffered the loss of Ben only months into their marriage. Ben was killed during the assassination of Doctor Erskine, the man who would have created Captain America. Richard and his wife promised to be there for May, but she eventually ended up raising Peter by herself. Without the influence of Ben, Peter became a troublemaker, even going so far as to steal cars, and was eventually exposed to a gamma bomb that transformed him into this reality's version of the Hulk (Bruce Banner becomes this world's Spider-Man during experiments on the animals that were affected by the bomb).

[edit] Golden Oldie

May Parker was transformed by Galactus into the cosmically-powered being Golden Oldie to serve as his herald. Rather than lead him to populated worlds, Oldie discovered an extraterrestrial baker who bakes planet-sized snack cakes which sate Galactus' hunger. May's transformation is ultimately revealed as a dream. The issue, a parody of an old Hostess snack cake advertising campaign, was part of Marvel's "Assistant Editors Month" series of humorous issues.^[17]

May also appeared as "Golden Oldie" (this time an Iron Man parody) as well as "The Astonishing Aunt Ant" and "Auntie Freeze" in an issue of What If?.^[18]

[edit] MC2

In the alternate timeline known as MC2, May Parker's death in The Amazing Spider-Man #400 was valid. It was May who died in this continuum, rather than an actress.^[19] Peter's daughter, May "Mayday" Parker, was named for her. Mayday became the super-heroine Spider-Girl and met the original May when she found herself displaced in time, although Mayday makes no attempt to explain who she really was.^[20] When Spider-Girl was trapped in an illusion by her enemy, Misery, she was given encouragement from a familiar spirit. She recognized the spirit as being Aunt May.^[21]

[edit] Trouble

The 2003 limited series Trouble was marketed as the "true origin" of Spider-Man. In that story, teenagers named Ben, Richard, May and Mary met while on summer vacation, and May became pregnant with a child she named Peter. None of the characters' last names were revealed. The story did not become canon because of its negative reception.

[edit] Ultimate Aunt May

In the Ultimate version of Spider-Man, Aunt May was a strong and independent woman in her late forties or early fifties, significantly younger than her original Marvel Universe counterpart. After the death of her husband Ben Parker, she was the pillar strength for her nephew Peter. She was slightly overprotective of her nephew, and not supportive of Peter's secretive behavior. Aunt May was quite good with computers and liked to search for things on the Internet. At one time, she had romantic feelings for John Stacy, the policeman who investigated Ben's murder and father of Gwen Stacy prior to him being killed by a Spider-Man impostor. May has been seen working in an office cubicle and attending a PTA meeting.

Having gotten over the traumatic event of her husband's death, Aunt May went on a date while Spider-Man is dealing with Deadpool and the X-Men. As he was returning home from the skirmish, he decided to reveal his secret identity to her, only to find that she had left a note on her phone saying that she was staying the night with her date, Professor Miles Warren, Harry Osborn's hypnotist/therapist (on Earth-616, Warren is the Jackal).

Peter revealed his secret identity to Aunt May after he found Gwen Stacy's clone at her old house.^[22] Aunt May screamed at Peter and Gwen to leave the house, as she despises Spider-Man. At that moment, Peter's father appeared, apparently not dead as Peter had thought.

Peter learned that May had known his 'father', in truth a clone of Peter and not really his father, had been alive for some time and had kept the secret from him to "protect him".^[23] After a long talk between Peter and his 'father', Nick Fury and a team of Spider Slayers surrounded the Parker home, which triggered a transformation in Gwen, turning her into Carnage. May then suffered a heart attack. She was rescued from dying by Sue Storm of the Fantastic Four.^[24] She returns to Peter and accepted him as Spider-Man, though she was not at all fond of his costume.^[25] Aunt May was still in the hospital talking with Mary Jane about Spider-Man's popularity.^[26]

After recovering, May returned home, and focused on her talking with Peter about his double life. Peter told May why he became Spider-Man, and May told him that Ben would be proud of him for doing so.^[27]

During the events of Ultimatum, May was taken in for questioning by the NYPD concerning her odd connections to several vigilantes, most notably Spider-Man. No charges came of it, following the change in Spider-Man's status caused by Ultimatum.

[edit] Marvel Noir

In Spider-Man Noir, May Parker was a socialist activist in charge of a Welfare Center established by the murdered Ben Parker.

[edit] Marvel Zombies

In the Marvel Zombies alternate universe (Earth-2149), Spider-Man was bitten and transformed into a zombie, leading him to devour first Mary Jane, and then Aunt May, despite warning her to lock herself in the bathroom because he couldn't control himself. However, Spider-Man thereafter felt remorse for his act of cannibalism, repeatedly referring to their deaths after he has feasted. Eventually, this lead him to turn against his fellow former metahuman and mutant colleagues.

[edit] In other media

[edit] Television

• May's first appearance in animation was in the first season of the 1960s Spider-Man series as part of the episode "Horn of the Rhino". In the episode, she's seen trying to nurse Peter over a severe headcold and very abruptly telling J. Jonah Jameson that he was not to call Peter about photo assignments until he had recovered. May apparently made an impression on Jameson as he told Betty Brant that he didn't ever want to speak to May again. May had also made two tiny appearances in the first two episodes of the second season of the 1960s Spider-Man series. In the second season premiere where it revealed about Spider-Man's origin, she and Uncle Ben made a tiny cameo about what Peter was doing after no one knew he was bitten by a radioactive spider. In "King Pinned," she was taking medications to cure a sickness she had only it was making her feel worse. It was then revealed that it was a drug created by the Kingpin that would be fake medicine for the elderly to take that would make them feel worse to the point of death, but the plan was foiled by Spider-Man and Aunt May was saved, along with every other elderly person who took the drug.

• Aunt May appeared in the pilot episode of the 1970s live-action The Amazing Spider-Man series played by Jeff Donnell and in one subsequent episode, "Night of the Clones," where she was portrayed by Irene Tedrow.

• Aunt May appeared in the 1980s Spider-Man TV series voiced by Linda Gary.

• Aunt May appeared several times in the course of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends voiced by June Foray. The Spider-Friends secretly operated in her house.

• Aunt May notably appeared in the 1990s Spider-Man: The Animated Series with Linda Gary reprising Aunt May for the first three seasons and later voiced by Julie Bennett in the last two seasons. In this version, her character hated Spider-Man deeply but loved his alter ego, her nephew Peter Parker. As in the comic at that time, she did not know that her nephew was really Spider-Man. She had many encounters with villains Spider-Man fought like Venom, the Hobgoblin, Doctor Octopus, Morbius, the Chameleon (who was imitating Anna Watson), Tombstone, Green Goblin, the Scorpion and the Shocker. She has a past with Keane Marlow as friends. Keane was also friends with May's late husband Ben (and unbeknownst to her, he was also a member in the 1940s superhero team called the Six Forgotten Warriors as the Destroyer). May was friends with Anna Watson, and despite their friendship and May's kindness towards Mary Jane, Anna had no respect for Peter and he had to tolerate her (though there was a time when Peter blurted out to her in anger where she blamed him for Mary Jane getting kidnapped by the clone of the dead Hydro-Man) and Anna even once expressed respect for him when he was with Mary Jane after she was saved from the Hydro-Man clone. May even gave Peter and Mary Jane her and Ben's wedding rings when Peter and M.J. were getting married. By the series finale of the show, it was revealed that when the Beyonder and Madame Web rounded up Spider-Men from different realities, in the Scarlet Spider and Spider-Carnage's reality, Aunt May was dead along with Uncle Ben, but her cause of death was unknown. It's possible she might have died in the same manner in The Amazing Spider-Man #400.

• Aunt May did not make an appearance to the spin-off show of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Spider-Man Unlimited, but was mentioned numerous times by Spider-Man throughout the series and was seen in the opening credits, hugging Peter when they were at Uncle Ben's grave. She also didn't make an appearance in Spider-Man: The New Animated Series which was a spin-off show to the Spider-Man movie nor was she mentioned by any of the characters in the show, but in the pilot episode in Canada, she was seen in one of Peter Parker's photos with Uncle Ben (and in the second photo was Peter's parents).

• Aunt May Parker appeared in The Spectacular Spider-Man voiced by Deborah Strang. She appeared to be slightly younger and less fragile than her other counterparts (minus the Ultimate universe), but she was still overprotective of Peter (though like her movie counterpart, she believed Spider-Man was good). In "Persona", she began to feel faint while cooking dinner, but shook if off the moment Peter arrives. In "Group Therapy", she suffered a heart attack while out to a Broadway show with Anna Watson during the Sinister Six's attack. Peter, who was under the influence of the symbiote suit, was unaware of it until Mary Jane Watson visited to tell him May was in the hospital. She recovered and headed back home for a Thanksgiving dinner with Peter, her doctor, Gwen and Captain George Stacy at the end of the first season, where May informed the others that she was writing a cookbook and had already received an advance from a publisher.

[edit] Films

• In Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films, Aunt May was played by Rosemary Harris as a housewife who is widowed by the events of the first film. She was the one who encouraged Peter the most throughout the films with her words of wisdom as Uncle Ben had done before his death, in the second movie even managing to make him try to return to his Spider-Man life after losing his powers.
  • In the 2002 film Spider-Man, Aunt May and Uncle Ben took care of their nephew, Peter Parker. After Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) was shot and killed by a carjacker, Peter and May shared their grief for Uncle Ben. Later, when Peter had moved into an apartment with his friend Harry Osborn, Aunt May visited them on Thanksgiving. She was not shy about reprimanding Harry's father Norman for his rude and boorish behavior. Shortly thereafter, when Norman (who had become the villainous Green Goblin), learned Spider-Man's identity, he attacked May at home while she was saying her prayers. May was terrified by the Goblin's demonic appearance, and was hospitalized after the Goblin injured her. May showed up at Norman Osborn's funeral alongside Peter, M.J. and Harry; soon after that, she and Peter visited Ben's grave located elsewhere in the cemetery.
  • In the sequel, Spider-Man 2 (2004), Aunt May continued to look after Peter, and had had financial difficulties since the death of her husband, forcing her to sell the house and live in a smaller apartment. Her opinion of Spider-Man was not high, claiming "the less we see of him, the better." However, when May's visit to the bank with Peter was interrupted by a robbery perpetrated by Otto Octavius, Octavius took her hostage and climbed the side of a skyscraper with her. She was in turn, rescued by Spider-Man, and from that point believes that he was good. Later in the film, Peter's powers began to wane because of a subconscious desire to live a normal life, and he decided to give up his costumed persona; Aunt May made a speech which encouraged him to resume his heroic activities. Whether she had deduced his secret identity or not was not made explicit; however, the bank robbery scene, in which she took notice of Peter fleeing and where May reacted suspiciously after Spider-Man told her, "We sure showed him", and May's later speech to Peter about the need for Spider-Man to return, suggested that she may in fact know of her nephew's alter-ego. Also in the film, she expressed that she feels she caused Uncle Ben's death ("You wanted to take the subway, and he wanted to drive you. And if I had stopped him, we'd all be having tea together"), prompting Peter to admit that he caused the death by not stopping the killer. May is understandably stunned and sad, but later thanked Peter and told him that admitting the truth to her was a brave thing to do.
  • In Spider-Man 3 (2007), Peter told Aunt May that he was going to ask Mary Jane to marry him, after which the two embraced. May then told him that he needed to come up with a good way to initiate the proposal, and that he needed to put his wife before him, no matter what. She then related to Peter how Uncle Ben proposed to her, and that they would have been married for fifty years "this August", had Ben not been killed. She then took off her engagement ring and asked Peter to use it to propose to M.J. May was also present alongside Peter when Captain Stacy told them that Flint Marko, his uncle's "actual" killer, was on the run. She played a strong role in providing moral support to Peter, but nothing much was really done by her in the third movie, nor was she ever targeted by Spider-Man's foes as in the previous two movies. Later, when Peter informed May about Sandman's apparent demise at the hands of Spider-Man (under the influence of an alien symbiote), she delivered another speech, which was more of a warning to Peter of the danger to oneself in seeking revenge. Peter was at first shocked at his aunt's reaction, for he expected Aunt May to be happy as Sandman was the one who killed Uncle Ben. Peter soon realized that this was not the case, and Aunt May said that Uncle Ben would never have wanted revenge. Much later, May talked to Peter in his apartment where Peter says that he's done terrible things (after separating from the symbiote suit that had caused him to hurt Mary Jane and Harry). He tried to return her ring to her, but Aunt May said that she knew that he would find a way to put it right, and gave it back. May later showed up at Harry Osborn's funeral at the end of the film. As an April Fool's Joke in 2007, IMDB listed her as Aunt May/Carnage, stating in their trivia that It was decided she would become Carnage at the close of the film as a shock to the Audience.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Video Games

• Aunt May was featured in is the Spider-Man 2 video game voiced by Mindy Sterling.
• Aunt May was also mentioned in the Ultimate Spider-Man video game.
• Aunt May was mentioned to be a playable character in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 video game which turned out to be an April Fool's joke.

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Comic Book Awards Almanac
• The Women of Marvel Comic's Aunt May Page
• Aunt May's Profile at Spiderfan.org
• Aunt May on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki