After writing a review of Captain America: Civil War for this website, as I was posting it on social media, a lot of the comments that I got agreed with my sentiment that Marissa Tomei is the most attractive Aunt May that we’ve ever seen. George Constanza could not be reached for comment.
In the DVD Stan Lee’s Mutants Monsters and Marvels, which came with my original 2002 Spider-Man DVD, Stan Lee mentioned that he created Aunt May for the comics so that Spider-Man could worry about her, giving him an additional challenge. If he goes east, he can stop the villain who is going to blow up the city, but Aunt May needs her medication and the pharmacy is west. It gave this relatable character an additional headache besides his crime-fighting and the bullies and the angry girlfriends and Mr. Jameson.
That was back in the 1960’s. Today, someone old enough to be someone’s aunt might have grown up in the 60’s and be a bit livelier than the doting grandmother-type. The Ultimate Spider-Man comic books did an excellent job of making Aunt May a bit more fun. She was an ex-hippie who was a bit more aware of what the young people were into. But she was still an older woman and the thing both of these versions had in common was that Aunt May was always looking out for Peter Parker. She was his conscience. And, like most superheroes, Spider-Man kept his identity a secret to protect those that he loved, harsh lessons he learned with both MJ and Gwen in multiple movie versions.
But does making May younger diminish the challenge that she once represented in Spider-Man’s life, that of having to take care of her in her old age? Will the producers of Spider-Man: Homecoming give Aunt May a health problem? Money has always been one of Peter’s challenges, a woman who just lost her husband (Uncle Ben is not mentioned in Civil War) and has to care for a teenaged boy would definitely have those problems. Of course, now Spidey has a rich friend in Tony Stark who is very generous with grants, so has Aunt May been reduced to just eye candy for Tony Stark and any audience member who likes the mature women? Comment below.
Miss Parker just doesn’t know!
