InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Let's go Nun Bowling!"

Doop (xdoop) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-08-22 17:24:00

Entry tags:

char: ben parker, char: may parker, char: nathan lubensky, char: spider-man/peter parker, creator: al milgrom, creator: bill mantlo, creator: kerry gammill, creator: sal buscema, publisher: marvel comics, title: spectacular spider-man

Aunt May, in "Memory Lane"

This is from Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #4. It's written by Bill Mantlo and illustrated by Kerry Gammill and Sal Buscema. The cover is by Al Milgrom.

Just a head's up: the "if he can't have her-- no one will!" stuff is totally misleading.

Nathan Lubensky, May's fiancé, calls Peter for help.

However, Peter and Nathan both eventually fall asleep looking out for May.

Peter wakes up and sees May take a taxi to Coney Island.

Later...

After May returns home (with Nathan worrying that she may be going senile), Peter tries finding out more about the letters.

Peter remembers the photo and realizes May is returning to her childhood home.

Peter sees some thugs start to follow May in after they notice her purse, and decides to go in and deal with them.

Peter attacks the thugs before they can get to May.

The issue ends with May returning home to Nathan.

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psychop_rex
2009-08-23 07:22 am UTC (link)

Awww - that was nice. It's always interesting when we get a look at Aunt May's past - for so much of her career, she's been more or less a cipher, always eventually falling back to being the fragile old aunt with a heart of gold who fusses over her nephew. We don't know that much about her as a person, so stories like this automatically become worthwhile. (Well, if they're written well, anyway.)
This is also interesting because it takes a nicely balanced look at the characters. Johnny Jerome may be a crook, but he's not a psycho or a thug - he genuinely cares for May, and believes that his way of doing things is the only one that will work. (And to be fair, he's far from the only man of his generation who thought that way - the Depression made a lot of people desperate.) And May obviously knows this, because while, in the long run, she loved Ben more than Johnny, she evidently still has feelings for him - yet, at the same time, is rooted enough in her present life to know that you can't change the past. It's a nice little meditation on how the right or wrong choice can change your life.

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felinephoenix
2009-08-24 05:31 am UTC (link)

Agreed. This was a... I'm not sure if this is quite what I mean, but nothing else is coming to mind, so... a mature story? One that showed how May had grown from a naive young woman to the character as we know her. I really appreciated that, not to mention the look at what Uncle Ben used to be like! (I know some writers - notably Jenkins, who I think wrote at least two stories about Ben and Little Peter - have written about Ben, but for someone who was such a big influence on Peter you'd think we would know more about him.)

And I liked that May still had some feelings for Johnny. I think that's realistic. I loved that she was able to forgive him, too. Despite the "great power equals great we all know what" thing, I think Aunt May has had just as much - if not more of - an effect on Peter's morality.

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	psychop_rex 2009-08-24 07:04 am UTC (link)
	It's also nice that the young May is recognizable as the old May - that is to say, young and naive though she is, there are still the character traits that will be with her as an old woman. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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