Peter Parker: Spider-Man #33
Maybe Next Year
On the anniversary of Uncle Ben’s death, Peter Parker is out on patrol as Spider-Man and thinks about how quickly time has passed by. With another year gone by, he pauses long enough to shed a tear for his late Uncle.[1] He thinks about how Uncle Ben’s death taught him that with great power comes great responsibility. Still, it kills him to watch Aunt May cry over the death of her husband when it was his fault and he has to keep it a secret. Still, he thinks how he has used his powers to stop so many super-villains over the years. Still, despite all this, Uncle Ben’s death is a particular wound that will never heal.
At that same moment, Aunt May has arrived at Ben’s grave where she finds a card left by Peter and places new flowers in the pot left in front of Ben’s grave. Peter doesn’t join May on these visits to Uncle Ben’s grave because he has another tradition he does on the anniversary of Ben’s murder. Returning to his apartment, Peter changes into some fresh clothes and grabs his Mets cap and baseball glove. He then takes the train out to Mets Stadium.[2] Along the way to the ball game, he thinks about how much he can relate to the Mets who are always considered well-meaning losers who occasionally do well, just like him with his career as Spider-Man. He likes how fans always have hope for the Mets despite the fact that they usually perform badly.[3] As he approaches the stadium, he asks his Uncle Ben if he thinks the Mets will win the World Series that year.[4]
As he goes through the turnstiles, Peter recalls the first time Uncle Ben took out to see a Mets game when he was a little boy. They had gotten the tickets from the owner of the local corner store as Ben thought it was time Peter learned about baseball. From the moment the National Anthem was sung and the game started, Peter fell in love with the game instantly. However, he was deeply disappointed when the Mets lost and at the end of the game, he told his Uncle Ben that he didn’t want to come out to any more baseball games. That’s when Ben took the opportunity to make this a teachable moment for Peter. He told Peter that you can’t get upset over losing a game because you can’t always win no matter how hard you try, but you never give up. He explains that you have to lose in life sometimes in order to really appreciate how sweet it is when you win. That’s what started their new mantra, “maybe next year”, they’d say whenever the Mets lost on their annual outing to see a game. They had gone for six or seven years without incident until one day when Peter thought he was going to catch a home run ball. Instead of landing in his glove, the ball struck Peter in the head knocking him out. To ease people’s concerns, the Mets sent their mascot to the scene. This is the first thing that Peter saw when he woke up and seeing the massive baseball head of the mascot caused Peter to scream and pass out of fright.
Peter remembers the most important game of all, it happened just before Uncle Ben died. By this point, Peter was a teenager and was growing tired of hearing Ben’s “maybe next year” speech and didn’t want to go until Aunt May guilted him into going along with Ben after seeing how hurt he was that Peter wasn’t joining him. Although Peter was a miserable shit the whole way there, he soon changed his tune when the Mets began winning. The excitement he felt in the moment made him completely understand what Ben once told him about winning. Tragically, this was three days before Uncle Ben was murdered.
In retrospect, Peter thinks about how he really misses Uncle Ben and he only comes to the games to remember him. By the time he is finished his recollection the game is over, the Mets have lost, and the stadium is now empty. With his yearly routine over, Peter returns home telling himself the same thing Uncle Ben used to say, maybe the Mets will win next year.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Uncle Ben, Aunt May
Continuity Notes
At least we’re getting the Uncle Ben reference out of the way this issue. Amazing Fantasy #15. For anyone who is wondering, according to the Sliding Timescale, Uncle Ben would have been dead for roughly 10 years at the time of this story.
Actually this story states that Peter always goes to Shea Stadium to watch Mets games. This should be considered a topical reference since Shea Stadium was torn down in 2009 to make way for a new stadium.
Peter drops some references about the Boston Red Sox here.
First references the infamous incident during the 1986 World Series when Bill Buckner allowed a ground ball to roll between his legs as though he saw it for himself. Any notion that Peter watched this game as it happened should be considered a topical reference.
He also mentions the “Curse of the Bambino” a superstition that believed the Red Sox were cursed as they hadn’t won the World Series since 1918 at the time this story was written. This curse hasn’t been the case since the Red Sox have won the Series in 2004, 2007, 2013, and 2014. References to this “curse” still being active and a lack of Red Sox winnings should be considered topical.
There are multiple references to the Mets seldom winning the World Series. At the time this issue was published the Mets had only won the Series twice in 1969 and 1986. As I write this now in May 2020 that is still the case, still the scarcity of the Mets winning the World Series should be considered a topical reference as this fact will likely change. Also, Peter is probably referencing actual Mets games in this story, but I’m not going to research all the statistics just to tell you what games those were, you should know these references are all topical by now.
