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Attributes

Height: 5' 6"

Weight: 120 lbs

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Gray

Features: None

Summary

Created By: Stan Lee, Steve Ditko

Real Name: May Parker

Current Aliases: None

Former Aliases: May Reilly (maiden name), Golden Oldie

Dual Identity: None

Current Occupation: None

Former Occupation: May has no occupation except keeping her house and enjoying the company of her nephew and his wife.

Citizenship: May is a legal U. S. citizen

Legal Status: She has no criminal record

Place of Birth: Unknown

Marital Status: Widow

Known Relatives: Peter Parker (Nephew), Ben Parker (Husband, deceased) Mr & Mrs. Reilly (parents, deceased, Spectacular Annual 4 & Peter Parker Vol.2 #28), Horace Reilly (paternal uncle, deceased, Peter Parker Vol.2 #28), Richard & Mary Parker (brother & sister-in-law)

Known Confidants: Peter Parker, Anna Watson, Mary Jane

Known Allies: Spider-Man

Major Enemies: None

Usual Bases: Peter and Mary-Jane's apartment

Former Bases: Forest Hills

Current Groups: N/A

Former Groups: N/A

Education: Unknown

Powers & Paraphenalia

Strength Level: May's strength is that of a fragile elderly lady.

Powers: May has no exceptional powers.

Abilities: May is obviously good at raising children - look how Peter turned out.

Equipment: Cooking utensils, etc.

Weapons: None

Limitations: May has the same limitations as a normal human being.

Background

She loved him and refused to hear the warnings from Ben Parker, who worked at Coney Island as a barker. Ben proved to be correct about Johnny after he held up a jewelry store. Johnny threatened to kill Ben, but he had to run off after the police neared May's home. He was arrested as he tried to escape. May soon fell for the responsible Ben.

However, the romance between May and Ben was difficult, as they rarely had time alone. They were often left to take care of Ben's much younger brother, Richard. May tried to deal with the young man, but often resented having him around. She thought back to her mother's tirades: "Children are nothing but a burden." She and Ben resolved to stay childless. They kept their word, but fate decided differently for them.

After Richard Parker and Mary Parker had a child, Peter, May and Ben were often asked to care for him. Richard and Mary worked for the government and were often on missions outside of the United States. As is common with super-heroes, Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man was orphaned at an early age. With the death of his parents (who were killed in the course of duty), Peter was put into the care of Ben and May.

May initially resented Richard and Mary for leaving them a child to care for at such a late stage of their lives. But Peter was such a helpful, happy child that she soon came to dote on him. However, their happiness was not to last. Shortly after Peter acquired his Spider-Powers, Ben Parker was killed by a burglar - leaving May Parker to struggle alone raising her teen-age nephew. Her grief was compounded by guilt, as she and Ben had had an argument before he was shot. Ben went for a walk to cool off, and was shot when he returned home. May believed that if they hadn't argued, he would have stayed home and be alive. (This was said in Amazing Spider-Man #38, vol 2.)

(Purely speculation: May never said what they argued over, just that it was something insignificant. In Spider-Man Unlimited #10, it was revealed that Ben gave a co-worker a big loan for him to go to college. Hours after, Ben was murdered. The Parkers were always strapped for cash, perhaps May thought they needed the money more than Colm Mulligan did. Hmm...wonder if he is any relation to Pat Mulligan. Probably not.) May Parker played the role of over-protective Aunt, providing some irony in the contrast between Peter's bold adventures as Spider-Man and his other role as the sheltered young man under his Aunt's sometimes stifling care.

May and Ben were never wealthy, and financial matters were always a concern, exacerbated greatly by Aunt May's persistent ill-health. Many a plot line was woven out of Peter's struggle to earn money, typically by taking photos of his own alter-ego. Alternatively, there was always the 'Spider-Man discovers life-saving medicine, only to have it snatched by villain intending to use said experimental isotope for nuclear explosion' plot. Aunt May was ever-present in the early years.

Peter eventually moved out into an apartment, while Mary-Jane's Aunt Anna Watson moved in with Aunt May. The two aunts eventually succeeded in getting Peter and Mary Jane to meet. They hoped that the vivacious M.J. would bring some excitement into Peter's "quiet life." The focus of events became Peter's college life, rather than his home life.

In Amazing Spider-Man #196, a rather masterful plot was contrived, involving the Death of Aunt May. May's death was in fact faked, as part of a neatly-worked story involving some treasure supposedly hidden in the Parker Residence. The plot was conceived by Mysterio, and the burglar from Amazing Fantasy #15 - and culminated in a climactic conclusion in Amazing Spider-Man #200.

May has had her share of adventure, as does anyone even loosely entangled in Spider-Man's web. She frequently runs into super-villains of all breeds, and has been regularly kidnapped. In an especially memorable story, she nearly married Doctor Octopus, who only wanted her for the nuclear reactor on an island she had inherited. In Marvel Team-Up #137, she became the Herald of Galactus. But that's a story for another time.

For a while, after Peter moved out, she turned her home into a boarding house for retired persons. At this time, she met and began a relationship with Nathan Lubensky, a wheel-chair bound grey-haired gentleman house-guest. Nathan had his own personal failings, and the relationship had its ups and downs - eventually ending in tragedy at the hands of the Vulture.

In Amazing Spider-Man #400, Aunt May finally left Peter and Mary Jane in a moving story which also provided the impetus for Ben Reilly, the Spider-Clone to finally introduce himself to Mary-Jane and Peter. The greatest tragedy came with the ill-conceived "The Final Chapter" story starting in Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #441, which recently 'revealed' that the woman who died in ASM #400 was a DNA-modified actress, and that the real Aunt May had been held captive by Norman Osborn, and her head now contained an implant which was killing her, but if removed would detonate a genetic bomb that would reduce humans to their base genes. Norman would then remake them.

The "Heart of Spider-Man", they called her. For one year and-a-half after reboot they used her as a piece of furniture. Starting with those ridiculous conversations with a huge pack of friends, and, of course, ending in those wonderfully wondrous moments where she told her nephew to eat more, because he was too fragile, not forgetting the hair-fix which removed all the wrinkles in her face. Her return was pointless. Then Mr. Jenkins came aboard Peter Parker: Spider-Man, and she actually started to be a person once again.

One year later, J.M. Strackzynski took over Amazing Spider-Man, and he shook the ground even further. After a colossal battle between Spidey and Morlun, May went to Peter's apartment only to find him lying on his bed recovering from his injuries, with a torn Spider-Man costume on the floor. After spending a whole day Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #37 dealing with her new-found knowledge, she decided to confront Peter in a touching conversation Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #38. Currently, she's bent on improving the public image of Spider-Man and in trying to forgive Peter for so many years of lies.

May's opinion means a great deal to Peter, and he took her advice to follow Tony Stark's offer to unmask and become his protege during the Superhuman Registration Act. Peter defied Stark after realizing that the captured super humans were placed in a gulag like prison, and he took May and Mary Jane out of Stark Towers. He joined the resistance, led by Captain America, and thus became Iron Man's enemy, as well as an enemy of the state. Peter hid May and MJ in a cheap hotel, only to have thier cover blown by a prostitute, who sold the information of their whereabouts to the Kingpin. Fisk hired a sniper to kill Peter and his family, but only May was hit in the attack.

The attack put May into a coma and the hospital bills were more than the fugitive Parkers could handle. May was put in the charity ward, and would be taken off life support once the charity ran out. Peter confronted Tony Stark to pay for the bills, but Stark was more concerned with capturing Peter. Peter escaped, but managed to get the bills paid with the help of Stark's butler, Edwin Jarvis, whom was romantically involved with May.

In between hunting for the sniper and swearing murderous revenge on Wilson Fisk, Peter asked Madame Web to psychically contact his aunt. He needed to speak with her one last time. During the seance, Peter asked her to hold on, that he would find a way to help her. May refused. She was tired and had been down this road before. While the bullet was meant for Peter, losing him would put the world in danger. She accepted her fate.

Peter, however, did not. He went to Doctor Strange in search of a mystical cure after medical science had done all that it could. Strange briefly gave Spider- Man the ability to talk to many people at once and he contacted everyone from Doctor Doom to Doctor Octopus to Reed Richards. None could (or would) help him. As he left Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, he was greeted by Mephisto. The demon offered to save May's life, in return for his marriage to Mary Jane. Merely taking Peter's soul would be no good, as a soul that sacrifices itself to save someone else doesn't suffer as fully. And really, whats the fun in that?

The marriage was much more interesting to the Lord of Hell. Theirs was a marriage literally made in heaven, and their souls would scream in loneliness forever after they were separated. Mephisto gave Peter and Mary Jane twenty four hours to decide, or else May would die. Much to MJ's surprise, Peter said he could live with ending their marriage. She made a deal with the creature, whom kept his word. Peter woke up and his aunt was alive. He was no longer married, in fact, he had no memory of being married. And Harry Osborn was alive again.

Thanks To:

The assistance of the Marvel Chronology Project is gratefully acknowledged.

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