I...am not a fan of this issue. I found that Wells went a little too far in trying to make Aunt May interesting and wound up leaving her almost unrecognizable. I mean, I like an Aunt May who isn't just a frail oldster. But, Wells almost gives us the return of Evil May here. I kept expecting Mr. Negative to be lurking in the background somewhere, cackling evilly.
It's hard to put my finger on the overreach exactly, but I think it's the fact that May is way too sharp with Peter here, sharper than she's ever been. She's incredibly dismissive of his pain, both as a child and as an adult. It's made all the worse by the implication that she knows that he's Spider-Man. I once read something by a former Spidey author or editor (maybe Wacker) where he felt that Aunt May didn't realize that Peter was Spider-Man until the early 200s. Before that, she was so incredibly negative about Spider-Man that it would''ve been extremely cruel for her to subject Peter to that ongoing criticism while he was trying to save the world (or at least Queens). She was easier about Spider-Man after the early 200s, implying that she had realized that it was Peter. I feel like that logic applies here. If she knew that Peter was Spider-Man, then maybe she shouldn't be so dismissive of his belief that he was responsible for Uncle Ben's death. It would at least raise the possibility that she didn't know the whole story and that maybe she should let Peter tell her. By refusing to do anything of the sort, she seems to be happy to let Peter wallow in his pain, which isn't exactly the Aunt May I know and love. I'm not saying she has to be only supportive all the time. Slott did great work with her in "Amazing Spider-Man" after Peter got exposed as doctoring photos, telling him that he had to take responsibility for his actions and keep going. Wells does successfully invoke that aspect of May here, where she tells Peter in the days after Ben's death that he has to get out of bed and face the world. I recognized that Aunt May. But, the Aunt May who laughs at Peter's attempts to honor his uncle and dismisses his assertion that he was responsible for Ben's death without even asking why he feels that way isn't the Aunt May I know and love.
Ben also gets a remake here, being revealed not to be the unfailingly supportive uncle we knew him to be but a frustrated jock trying constantly to push sports on nerdy Peter. The less said about that revelation, the better.
After Jay's chat with Peter in "Amazing Spider-Man" #692, I had expected some sort of heart-to-heart with Aunt May that raised the possibility of them having a veiled discussion of him being Spider-Man. But, I didn't expect it to also raise the possibility that Aunt May is a mean old bat. I think I'm just going to mentally delete this issue from my memory and keep my view of May as provider of unquestionable support and excellent wheatcakes.
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