Amazing Spider-Man Why does Aunt May look so old? Makes no sens!!

[ft88]

She did spend time raising a daughter mermaid and then losing her to the sea......

 

Now her nephew is Puny Peter Parker becoming Spiderman. The shock of discovery could only break her frail heart!

[Phicks]

The title of "aunt" may also be an honourary one, i.e., she may just have been a friend of Peter's parents. Have the comics ever actually told us if she was sister to Peter's father or mother?

[fiendish]

It makes emotional sense, I think. Aunt May, freshly widowed, is Spider-Man's kryptonite. She's the object of his guilt, and his main (pre-girlfriends) point of vulnerability. In the Lee/Ditko run, part of what keeps Spider-Man so angsty is the fact that he can't open up to Aunt May about his "other life," CUZ SHE'S TOO FRAIL AND CAN'T HANDLE IT!

 

So I never had a problem with her looking like she'd blow away in a high wind, because that visually reinforced how vulnerable she was, both physically and emotionally.

[AtlasFan]

Didn't it shake out that Aunt May was once the Red Skull's girlfriend?

[jaybuck43]

Didn't it shake out that Aunt May was once the Red Skull's girlfriend?

No, she proposed to Jimi Hendrix.

[entalmighty1]

Didn't it shake out that Aunt May was once the Red Skull's girlfriend?

No, she proposed to Jimi Hendrix.

 

Wait, I thought she was Oprah's adopted sister?

[Harry Lime]

Average life expectancy in the US was about 68-69 in the early/mid 60's so the depiction of May as a frail, old woman was in line with the expectations of the time.

[SupergirlDC1959]

I was reading issue #32 today and they have Aunt May in the hospital for radiation poisoning (in her blood) due to the fact in a earlier issue (can't remember the issue #) Peter Parker under went a life saving blood transfusion with his AUnt May to save her life (with his infected Spider-Man blood). Now Dr. Connors AKA the Lizard will help save her life (I think he will I have not started issue #33 yet).

[VintageComics]

I mean she is not his grand mother she is his Aunt!! Peter is what 17 or 18 early on in the ASM series and his aunt looks like she is at ''death's door''. I am reading the marvel masterworks reprint series and I am at issue #29 and so far she has almost passed away multiple times. She should be what about 20 to 30 years older (or so) than Peter Parker but she looks like she is 80 years old what is up with that?

 

My own grand mother is in her mid 80's and she is just as fragile as Aunt May no way was she like that in her 60's. Most people in the 60's are not that frail unless they have some serious illness.

 

Because it's part of the story telling that made Spider-man an internationally recognized icon.

 

 

[tv horror]

I never tire of reading the fist 150 issues, as for issue 33 it is a classic. That transfusion was the very incident that I thought would cause May to be Madam Web! I was so disappointed that they ever went with this route as it would have been so interesting instead they made Madam Web a stranger.

[ComicConnoisseur]

I never tire of reading the fist 150 issues, as for issue 33 it is a classic. That transfusion was the very incident that I thought would cause May to be Madam Web! I was so disappointed that they ever went with this route as it would have been so interesting instead they made Madam Web a stranger.

I love those first 150 issues as well. If you want to compliment them with another good run I suggest the Todd McFarlane ASM run 298-323, 325, 328 and Spider-Man #'s 1-14, 16.

McFarlane brings back the excitement we loved in those classic 150 issues!

[jaeldubyoo]

Aunt May looking so old makes no sense, yet you have a guy, bitten by a radioactive spider, with super powers making sense? It's comics. Comics are an escape from reality. Fun and entertaining, but not real.

[rjpb]

Aunt May was old and frail because Lee and Ditko conceived her as such from the start. I doubt Stan gave a second thought as to her actual backstory, or exactly what the familial relationship was, any more than anyone thought about how exactly Auntie Em is related to Dorothy.

 

Any explanation that comes later is retconning, and not relevant as to why she was old and frail in the first place.

[mattinglymint23]

I Believe Ben Parker was about 15 or 20 years younger than May. If I recall she met him when he was graduating college or leaving service. 1930's version of a cougar.

[Comicopolis]

Didn't it shake out that Aunt May was once the Red Skull's girlfriend?

No, she proposed to Jimi Hendrix.

 

No, that was The Black Hand.