Avenging Spider-Man #11
Now
Copperhead has just robbed a bank and is making his escape. Luckily, Spider-Man is happening by. The bank employees are excited because they hope to hear one of Spider-Man’s patented one-liners. However, the web-slinger quickly subdues Copperhead and takes off. The bank managers are disappointed that the web-slinger didn’t make any jokes and even Copperhead agrees that the entire situation was weirdly out of character for Spider-Man.
At a cemetery in Queens, May Parker and her husband Jay Jameson wait for Peter Parker to arrive. He’s an hour late, but May thinks this is fine and says she’ll be fine while Jay is gone, telling him to come back to pick her up in an hour.
May walks over to the gravesite of Ben Parker where she finds her nephew waiting for her. The first thing he says when he turns to face her is that Ben Parker’s death was his fault.[1] May knows this is how Peter feels because this is every year. However, just like every other year she refuses to hear his explanation because she finds the assertion ridiculous.[2]
Then
On the night of Ben Parker’s murder, Peter had returned home in the pouring rain after running off into the night. May was worried about Peter and where he went, figuring that he followed the police. However, Peter had secretly gone after Ben’s killer as Spider-Man and discovered that it was a burglar he could have stopped days earlier. Deeply upset, Peter tells May that it was his fault. At the time, May refused to hear anything of the sort and hugged her nephew.
Now
Hugging her nephew again, May tells Peter that she misses him and he asks how Jay is doing. May tells him not to mention Jay in front of his Uncle. Peter doesn’t understand because he thinks that Ben would want May to be happy. May still can’t help but feel guilty because she thinks about Ben looking down on them and the idea that he is watching and seeing that she still has an active sex life after all of these years is kind of embarrassing. Peter is mortified hearing this and stops May before she goes into too much detail and she jokes that he was always such as sensitive boy.[3]
Then
Peter is laying awake in bed when he is visited by his Aunt May. She tells Peter that he’s going to have to go to school in the morning, telling him that Ben wouldn’t want him missing school. Peter surprised her by asking if his feelings of loss will ever go away. May didn’t know how to respond to the question and can only repeat what she just said about Ben not wanting him to miss school.
Now
Peter tells May that he has decided to use he is working with Horizon Labs to create a science scholarship that he wants to name after his Uncle Ben, as he always told Peter that his education was important. This makes May laugh because Ben only said those things because that’s what May wanted for Peter. She reveals to Peter that Ben barely graduated high school and finds the idea of naming a science scholarship after him a rich jest. She also admits that Ben only bought Peter a microscope growing up under duress, as he hoped Peter would become more athletic. May knew better and pressed Ben to encourage Peter to focus on his education. This doesn’t matter to Peter, who still intends on naming his scholarship after his uncle and warns her that if she keeps it up he’ll start a scholarship in her name as well. This makes May laugh and she tells Peter not to, reminding him how much she hates being in the spotlight.
Then
At the memorial service for Ben Parker, May gave a eulogy for her husband. She talks about how people who lose a loved one always wish they could have one last moment with that person. Unfortunately, May can’t say that because if she got one more moment with Ben, she would want one more, and then one more. Ultimately, she would reject that opportunity, telling the mourners that one more moment would be too painful for her to bare.
Later that day, during Ben’s wake, Peter becomes aware that his Aunt hasn’t been seen for a while. Going upstairs, he finds May crying in her room and she tearfully admits to Peter that she lied during the eulogy and would give anything for one more moment with her husband.
Now
May remarks how funny it is that they both thought their worlds were over on the day that Ben Parker died. However, here they are all these years later and their lives have moved on and they keep going. She wonders how Peter managed to get through it all since Ben was the one who gave Peter his strength. This time it is Peter’s turn to be amused and he tells her that it was her nurturing that helped him get through it all.
Then
May enters Peter’s room to tell him to get up. He refuses to get up, telling her once again that it was his fault. She tells Peter that she’ll hear none of that again. She also tells him that this is their burden to bear. Although it feels wrong and unnatural it is a normal part of life. She tells him that it’s time for him to be an adult and get up and face the world. Peter asks if he is always going to feel this way. May tells him that he is wounded and that it will change the way he sees the world. He will see the pain of the world more easily and he won’t be able to ignore it.
He will understand that life is temporary and fragile and that every death moving forward will be as important as Ben’s passing and that life if worth protecting. But she is confident that Peter will honor Ben’s life by standing on his own two feet and show the world how strong he is, that he will help people because he wil be living by Ben’s example. When Peter says that he isn’t anything like his Uncle Ben, May tells him that he can’t know that because until this moment he hasn’t had to. Unknown to May at the time, every word she said foreshadowed Peter’s entire career as Spider-Man.[4]
Now
Peter is recounting this speech from May and she is is surprised that she was able to say something so articulate at the time. She suggest that they get something to eat, but Peter tries to tell her that he does help people, like she said he would. She knows and she is convinced that Ben knows as well and suggests that they get going.
Peter lingers at the grave and once again says that this is all his fault. May points out that this doesn’t make a difference to Ben now that he is dead. Peter understands, but wishes Ben could have seen what he became.[5] This makes May smile and she tells Peter that he did, because Ben Parker saw it a long time before Peter ever did. With that, the pair head off for lunch, leaving the grave of Ben Parker behind.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Aunt May, Jay Jameson, Copperhead
Continuity Notes
1. This whole issue is about Ben Parker’s murder at the hands of a burglar. Amazing Fantasy #15, yadda yadda yadda. Per the Sliding Timescale, Ben Parker has been dead for about 13 years at the time of this story.
2. This is not entirely accurate. May has heard Peter’s explanation when she discovered he was Spider-Man. However, her memory of Peter’s secret identity was erased along with everyone else after Mephisto altered reality. See Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #35, 38 and Amazing Spider-Man #545 and 638-641.
3. May and Jay got married back in Amazing Spider-Man #600. For anyone who cares to know, per Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #2 and the Sliding Timescale, May Parker would be about 72 years old at the time of this story.
4. There are number of moments from Spider-Man history that are glimpsed upon here as Peter recollects Aunt May’s speech. They are:
There is an image of Peter Parker on a date with Gwen Stacy. The narration on this panel talks about how life is temporary and fragile. This is alluding to the fact that Gwen was eventually murdered by the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #121.
The next is an image of the Green Goblin impaled on his Goblin Glider. That happened in Amazing Spider-Man #122. However, this wasn’t the end of Norman Osborn who survived as explained in Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal #1. He would resurface in Amazing Spider-Man #413.
There is a scene of Spider-Man preventing the Punisher from shooting a gang of knife wielding thugs. This isn’t a reference to any specific moment. However, Spider-Man has always been at odds with the Punisher’s vigilante methods ever since they first met back in Amazing Spider-Man #129.
The final image is of Spider-Man pulling himself out of his own grave. Peter was once buried alive by Kraven the Hunter during Kraven’s Last Hunt. See Web of Spider-Man #31-32, Amazing Spider-Man #293-294, and Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #131-132.
5. Peter has to be the most obtuse motherfucker alive because he’s actually spoke with Ben who literally told him that he was proud of what Peter has become back in Amazing Spider-Man #500. I guess that Peter can’t tell May that he literally spoke to the ghost of her late husband but what the fuck does it take for Peter to get over this? Jesus man, see a shrink or something.
