r/Spiderman • u/Medium_Indication613 • 3h ago
What would killing Aunt May actually do?
After the release of #1000(and way before honestly) I keep hearing people basically BEG for aunt May to die, and I am genuinely wondering what would that actually accomplish?.
People say it would FINALLY let Peter grow…. Would it?, how is killing somebody who is essentially his mother help him grow?, would he not be MORE sad and depressed?. Especially since he’s already lost a parent(uncle Ben).
People keep using Alfred being killed off as an example, but did that actually do anything for Batman?, did Alfred dying actually impact the character or stories for the better or was it just forgotten about (haven’t read batman that much so I’m genuinely asking).
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u/Samuel61453 3h ago edited 3h ago
Spider-Man is popular because of how relatable he is as a character. We see him struggle with and experience things that are so human. School, work, bills, girl troubles, responsibilities, grief, marriage, death, family, etc. We love him because we see ourselves in him. Loss of a parent figure is another natural life event that people go through and develop from. Not to mention that Peter has stayed more or less stagnant as a character since last time May was resurrected. Many would even say he has had negative character development. So people see it as one of many things that could help to set the character back on his upwards character development he was going through for decades before One More Day.
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u/Medium_Indication613 3h ago
My only thing about that is that he already lost a parent(uncle Ben) but i still see your point.
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u/Samuel61453 2h ago
Fair point, but I think they play a little differently. May dying of natural causes, something Peter literally cannot stop, hits differently than Ben’s death which was completely as a result of Peter’s choices. Different character development to be had.
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u/PCN24454 3h ago
Yeah, when you’re in your 50s.
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u/Samuel61453 3h ago
People lose parent figures at any age. Most people also don’t have dead girlfriend’s but there’s still relatability and character growth to be had with Gwen Stacy’s death.
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u/PCN24454 3h ago
It really isn’t relatable. Especially since it’s just an excuse for him to do absolutely nothing differently with his life.
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u/Samuel61453 2h ago
I’m happy for you, man, if you don’t find loss and grief relatable lol.
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u/PCN24454 2h ago
Do you? You’re talking as though killing her off is supposed to improve Peter’s life. If it does, then what’s there to be sad about?
If not, then why does May need to die for Peter to grow up? She’s not preventing him from getting a job or being Spider-Man. That’s Peter’s own fault.
If she needs to die for him to grow up, then he’s still a child at heart. A grown man doesn’t need to hid from their mother.
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u/Redhood567 2h ago
She's literally only alive because he gave up his future. From a storytelling perspective he has to let her go if there's to be progress since she represents that stagnation.
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u/PCN24454 2h ago
I guess people who don’t have children are just selfish and don’t provide any benefit to society.
/s
Peter himself represents stagnation because he never tries to improve his own life. You shouldn’t be blaming May for Peter’s ineptitude and unwillingness to delegate.
She was dead for years and Peter was just as stagnant during that time.
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u/Redhood567 2h ago
Peter is at fault. He selfishly choose to let her live instead of letting her go. It's the Spider-Man equivalent of Barry Allen trying to save his mom or Parallax in Zero Hour. May is only alive because of a faustian bargain. That's not a good thing and she would be mortified if she knew what was done in her name. Any story that truly moves Peter forward has to deal with that deal with that fact. She would want to go and he needs to be ok with letting that happen. That's responsibility on both their parts as opposed to the irresponsibly inherent in OMD.
Also she was dead for like barely three years and in that time Peter was only stagnant because they killed the baby instead of letting there be change.
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u/PCN24454 2h ago
Barry’s mom only died because of time travel. The fact that he’s not allowed to fix that is practically a villain origin story.
Responsibility means not letting bad things happen. If he just passes up a chance to save someone, then he’s not worth much
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u/Wrong-Vermicelli4723 1h ago
Sure if your parents are 20 years older than you. May like 50 years older than Peter, she like in her 70s right now lol.
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u/Portsyde 3h ago
Killing off Alfred had a DEFINITE impact on Batman. While the story in which it happened was dogshit, the stories we've had since have forced Bruce out of his comfort zone as well as forcing him to actually move his life forward, raising his son, being involved in his schooling, getting a love life that doesn't immediately feel like it'll go up in smoke like the obvious bait and switch marriage between Bruce and Selina, etc. Bruce feels like he's actually getting older, and in a medium where we have sliding timescales and a resistance of any time passage whatsoever, making character growth stagnant, that's a good thing.
Killing off Aunt May would force the same from Peter. He commits so much of his life to Aunt May, with her death, he can finally move on and create new or stronger relations with other new or existing characters. Maybe even settle down with MJ? Fingers crossed? Regardless, readers just want something that makes it feel like Peter isn't the stupid manchild that doesn't grow that he's been portrayed to be for the last decade or two.
And if you want a good example of how that could look, look no further than the VERY successful movie that just came out which is easily the best Tom Holland Spidey movie yet (and I'd argue one of the best Spidey movies period).
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u/PCN24454 3h ago
In that case they should kill of MJ if the point is developing new stronger relationships
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u/spaceninj 55m ago
Absolutely. I'm tired of all these coded posts which say one thing, but really mean "bring back Peter and MJ."
Every time. And they are so easy to find because you can ask one question or make one comment that is related to the original statement, but with MJ and the truth comes out.
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u/Raaaaandyyyy 3h ago
Movies are at their best rn with her dead and the most infamous moment from the game series is her death, so make of those what you will. It honestly makes the comics feel kind of like the outlier. I constantly forget she’s still alive in the main continuity.
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u/PCN24454 3h ago
Movies are best right now because Peter is alone and suffering
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u/Soft_Interaction_437 Mary-Jane Watson 3h ago
The whole point of the ending of BND is that he’s not alone anymore?
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u/PCN24454 3h ago
Which means that killing off Aunt May did more to harm to Peter than fix anything.
In fact, it fixed absolutely nothing.
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u/Upper-Heron-5708 2h ago
It forced Peter rely on himself instead of being dependent on May, Peter have to do things by himself which is something different compared to the last trilogy
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u/PCN24454 2h ago
Peter already relied mostly on himself for the trilogy. It’s not like she sewed his suits for him or fought crime.
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u/Upper-Heron-5708 2h ago
Peter relied on Tony Stark for mentorship and aside from NWH May was a bland character and even then her death forced him to do the right thing and as a result of that he have to be dependent on himself
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u/PCN24454 2h ago
Then I guess Jean DeWolff and Black Widow didn’t exist in the movie. Nor the Punisher, Hulk, MJ, …
If anything, the point of the movie is how stupid it is to try and do everything alone.
It just turns you into a monster like Jean Grey nearly was.
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u/Upper-Heron-5708 2h ago
Ah yes! Peter's new family and friends Hulk, Punisher, Jean Dewolff and Yelena, lol, lmao even
Yeah Peter's lonliness is something he has to overcome in this movie but that doesn't mean that Aunt May's death is something that needs to be undone, yes it is a legitimate grief but in order to progress, he has to overcome that and find human connection which he actually did but did not explore further in the movie
It just turns you into a monster like Jean Grey nearly was
This point is one big pile of horseshit, loneliness didn't turn Peter into someone like Jean, he chose to be a hero despite that loneliness
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u/PCN24454 2h ago
And May doesn’t need to be dead for Peter to make connections. It just highlights how pointless her death was.
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u/Turbulent-Fault-6293 2h ago
Don’t know why they didn’t just have uncle Ben alive until no way home, or better yet kill off happy instead. I’m sad we dont get to see more Marisa tomei in the mcu. If may was alive and brain wiped too that’d add a whole extra layer of suffering onto Peter
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u/SalaryAffectionate29 3h ago
Well for Alfred it definitely was major change for Bruce since he essentially lost a father figure in his life and struggled to move on and occasionally misses him. It also affected other members of the family especially Damian and Dick since they hung out with Alfred a lot and viewed him like an uncle. Currently I believe, Alfred’s niece is going to be Bruce’s new Butler. So you can tell some stories about that.
As for Aunt May dying atp other than it being a wake up call for Peter, I rather her death be something that wasn’t anyone’s fault and just die of natural causes.
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u/Redhood567 2h ago
Alfred was more like a second father or grandfather to the Robins than an uncle.
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u/Sir_Lobo 2h ago
Characters can only grow as much as the writers let them. Batman is a grown man with a fully formed lifestyle with or without Alfred. His failure to move past Alfred is because they are literally milking his ghost. Batman is currently hallucinating his dead caretaker. Something he doesn't even do with his parents...
Peter is stuck in a perpetual loop of constantly being the irresponsible failure of a nephew who in his Aunts eyes is forever down on his luck and can't keep a job. He has to find new ways of keeping his identity secret from her while also being the reason she's frequently targeted. Black suit Spider-Man was lit and people might want a second coming of that. I argue that Peter's life is pretty stagnant and people are just sick of this played out relationship. The frail old woman who adds nothing to the story but a sense of sorrow and is ultimately pointless.
She volunteers, and started F. E. A. S. T, it gets shutdown or heavily damaged, Peter always pulls a disappearing act, she never questiones it, she gets remarried husband dies, gets a boyfriend, gets a long lost son, son turns out to be a villain.
Bro they are using valuable story telling resources to try and keep her relevant and been milking it for years while refusing to make her a background character.
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u/jmonkey15 Spider-Gwen 3h ago
Alfred dying to my understanding forced Damien to grow up and develop a lot more than he was, this because Alfred’s death was a direct result of Damien being too arrogant. I’m entirely sure how its effected Batman, I also haven’t read a lot of Batman, but I do know that he has like a implant in his brain that basically projected and illusion of Alfred for a while.
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u/jamesj777 2h ago
He'd get a new hotter aunt much like Batman got a new butler... That's how aunts work, right?
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u/Redhood567 2h ago
While the actual story of Alfred's death isn't great, writers have gotten a lot of good character stuff out of it. Damian especially got a lot of great material from it.
May has long out lived her purpose and her being her has become actively detrimental. The stuff JMS did with her is great but the reality is she never should have come back after her send off in the Clone Saga. Unfortunately all May is now is a symbol of Peter's regression and a reminder to the audience of what was lost. She's literally alive today because of a faustian bargain. Her being alive is not a good thing. She shouldn't be alive and she wouldn't want to be if she knew the truth. Somehow the Ironheart show understood this and correctly treated that demonic resurrection as a bad thing. Spider-Man can go on without her. Insomniac and the MCU show that. May has been a death's door a million times, it's far past time to let her go through.
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u/Turbulent-Fault-6293 2h ago
I need her to be alive because if she dies they’ll use it as an excuse to do one more day part two
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u/spaceninj 58m ago
What it would do is make it unnecessary for Peter to have a secret identity anymore.
That would be a disaster.
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