Aunt May

Aunt May, also known as May Parker, is a well-known character from American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 in August 1962, created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko. Aunt May is the widow of Ben Parker and the aunt of Peter Parker, who secretly becomes the superhero Spider-Man.

Throughout the stories, Aunt May has been a caring and supportive mother figure to Peter, even though she did not know about his secret life as Spider-Man for much of the time. In more recent stories, she has come to understand and support Peter's heroic actions. Later in her life, she even married J. Jonah "Jay" Jameson Sr., making her the stepmother of Peter's boss, J. Jonah Jameson.

Aunt May has appeared in many movies and animated films based on Spider-Man. She has been played by actors such as Rosemary Harris, Sally Field, and Marisa Tomei in the movies, and voiced by Lily Tomlin and Elizabeth Perkins in the Spider-Verse animated films. Her role as Peter's close family member remains important in all of these stories.

Fictional character biography

May Parker was born in Brooklyn, New York. After the death of her brother-in-law and his wife, May and her husband Ben Parker took in their nephew, Peter, and raised him at their home in Forest Hills, Queens. She stayed an important influence in Peter's life, even after he became a superhero.

As Peter started his life as Spider-Man, he worried about May's safety. At one point, May started a relationship with a villain, which made Peter very upset. Later, May met someone named Nathan and they fell in love. Sadly, Nathan passed away while protecting May. May also learned about Peter's secret life as Spider-Man after seeing him hurt in a fight.

Other versions

Golden Oldie

May Parker was changed by Galactus into a powerful being called Golden Oldie to help him. Instead of showing him places with people, Oldie found a baker from outer space who made huge snack cakes to feed Galactus. Later, it was shown that May's change was just a dream. This story was a funny copy of old Hostess cake ads and was part of a special funny issue by Marvel.

May also appeared as "Golden Oldie" in a funny story with Iron Man, and in other stories with names like "The Astonishing Aunt Ant" and "Auntie Freeze."

MC2

In a different time line called MC2, May Parker passed away in The Amazing Spider-Man #400. In this world, it was May who passed away instead of an actress. Peter’s daughter, May "Mayday" Parker, was named after her. Mayday became a hero named Spider-Girl and met the real May when she traveled back in time. In the end of Amazing Spider-Girl, Aunt May helped Mayday understand herself better and save Peter from a bad man named Norman Osborn. At first, Mayday didn’t recognize her because she looked younger, but she finally understood who she was.

Spider-Man: Life Story

In this story, the characters grow up normally after Peter Parker became Spider-Man in 1962. Before 1977, May married a man named Otto Octavius, but they divorced because he had trouble controlling his anger. In the 1980s, Mary Jane had a hard time taking care of May when she started to forget things, especially when Mary Jane and Peter had twins. This caused problems in their marriage because Peter didn’t want to send May to a home for older people, and Mary Jane was tired of taking care of May and their children alone. Mary Jane left Peter and took the twins, and Peter took care of May. May passed away sometime before 1995.

Spider-Verse

During the "Spider-Verse" storyline, many different versions of Aunt May were shown:

• An Aunt May from another world appeared in a memory with her Uncle Ben. They told a girl named Peni Parker that she was the only one who could continue a special project after her father died fighting. Peni agreed, and a spider bit her, giving her special powers. When a villain named Addy Brock lost control of a big machine, May flew in to stop it but was caught inside. After a hero named SP//dr stopped the machine, Addy and May were gone.
• In another world, Aunt May and Uncle Ben were with Peter at the hospital after he had a bad reaction to a spider bite and fell into a deep sleep. Because of this, their house was empty when it was robbed by the thief who hurt Ben in Peter’s main story. Peter turned into a spider-themed hero called Man-Spider and attacked May and Ben, but he was stopped by Spider-Man Noir. Another hero named Six-Armed Spider-Man made a cure, and Peter could live normally with May and Ben.
• On Earth-803, May Reilly lived in an old-time style New York. Her father studied animals, and one day she let a spider out of its cage to comfort it, and it bit her. She learned to never let anyone trap her. After her father passed away, she made a suit with mechanical arms that let her climb walls and shoot webs. When the mayor was kidnapped, she stopped the bad guys and joined a team of spider heroes. She helped fight bad guys with Spider-Man 2099 and others.
• On Earth-11, May Parker told her niece Penelope Parker about the spider bite that gave her spider powers. Aunt May encouraged her niece to use her powers to help people instead of hiding them.
• On Earth-3123, Aunt May became a hero called Spider-Ma'am after she was bitten by the spider instead of Peter. She helped Peter with his spider powers. During Spider-Verse, she faced a villain named Karn. She offered to give her life to save her family, which made Karn pause because she reminded him of his mother. Other spider heroes convinced him to join them. Later, during "Spider-Geddon", Spider-Ma'am fought the bad guys again. After they were defeated, a hero named Superior Spider-Man made clones of the bad guys as babies. Spider-Ma'am decided to raise them with her husband.

Spider-Geddon

During the "Spider-Geddon" storyline, in one world, May was Hispanic and didn’t know that her husband and nephew had spider powers after a blood transfer saved Uncle Ben’s life.

Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows

In this SecretWars story, when Peter was captured and his life flashed before his eyes, he saw himself at Aunt May’s funeral, showing that she had passed away before this happened.

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Aunt May is based on the real-life mother of writer Brian Michael Bendis. She is younger than in the usual stories and is the sister of Mary Parker and wife of Ben Parker.

Peter told May he was Spider-Man after finding a clone of Gwen Stacy. May was angry and kicked Peter out because she hates Spider-Man. Around the same time, a man who looked like Peter’s father appeared. Peter learned that May had known this man, who was actually an older clone of Peter, but she kept it secret to “protect” Peter. After talking with this man, Nick Fury and some spider-fighting robots called Spider Slayers attacked the Parker house. This caused Gwen to turn into a villain named Carnage. May had a heart problem but was saved by Sue Storm from the Fantastic Four. She made up with Peter and accepted him as Spider-Man, even if she didn’t like his costume. Peter told her why he became Spider-Man, and May said Ben would be proud.

In other media

Television

May Parker has appeared in many Spider-Man television shows. She was in Spider-Man (1967), voiced by Peg Dixon, and in Spider-Man (1977) and The Amazing Spider-Man (1978), played by Jeff Donnell and Irene Tedrow. She also appeared in Spider-Man (1981), voiced by Morgan Lofting, and in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, voiced by June Foray. In Spider-Man: The Animated Series, she was voiced by Linda Gary and later Julie Bennett. She showed strong love for Peter Parker but disliked Spider-Man. She also appeared in The Spectacular Spider-Man, voiced by Deborah Strang, and in Ultimate Spider-Man, voiced by Misty Lee, where she knew Peter's secret as Spider-Man.

Film

In Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy, May Parker was played by Rosemary Harris. In The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, she was played by Sally Field. In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, she was voiced by Lily Tomlin and helped Miles Morales become Spider-Man. Alternate versions of May also appeared in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, May Parker is played by Marisa Tomei. She appears in Captain America: Civil War, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home, and Spider-Man: No Way Home. An alternate version of her also appears in Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, voiced by Kari Wahlgren.

Video games

May Parker has appeared in several video games. She made a cameo in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and appeared in the Spider-Man 2 game, voiced by Mindy Sterling. She was in Lego Marvel Super Heroes, voiced by Kari Wahlgren, and in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 game, voiced by Diane Michelle. She is a playable character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 and appeared in Marvel's Spider-Man (2018), voiced by Nancy Linari. In this game, she volunteers at a homeless assistance group and helps others until she falls ill. She tells Peter she knows he is Spider-Man and is proud of him before passing away.