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LEGACY #995
Amazing Spider-Man #31
Written by: Joe Kelly
Art by: Patrick Gleason, Marcio Menyz
Cover by: Patrick Gleason, Dean White
Page Count: 32 Pages
Release Date: Jun 17, 2026
Character art from Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 5 #29 (Francesco Manna and Carlos Lopez)
"Your story will change lives, Peter. That's your greatest power. If you're not telling it because you're afraid of what will happen to me, that's rubbish. Family is a source of strength, not weakness. It should set you free, not hold you back."
Created By - Stan Lee & Steve Ditko
First Appearance - Amazing Fantasy #15 (Aug. 1962)
Aliases - May, Aunt May
Identity - No Dual
Status - Inactive
Bio
Since she was young, May Reilly wanted to be one thing: a pianist. Despite growing up as the oldest sister in a broken Brooklyn home, May worked hard to make her dream come true and spent her time after school both teaching herself piano and working as a waitress in Coney Island to help support her family. It is here that she met Ben Parker, at the time a street musician busking near her place of work, and the two quickly bonded over their love of music.
This close bond with Ben eventually blossomed into true love, and the couple faced many years and challenges together. Ben joined the U.S. military to fight in Vietnam and became disillusioned with the American government, turning to journalism after his term of service. Meanwhile, May was forced to abandon her dream and become a white-collar worker due to financial needs, whilst having to deal with both the death of her youngest sister Annie and the discovery that she was infertile.
Fate had other plans for her, however, when the 1 week stay of her 8 year old nephew turned into permanent guardianship of him due to the death of his parents. May and Ben raised the boy as their own son, and Peter grew up loved and adored by them. Life for the Parkers was looking up... and it just as quickly was torn asunder.
Being diagnosed with leukemia and the death of her husband Ben shortly after had a profound effect on May. While Peter got a job at the Daily Bugle to help support both of them, May found herself lacking purpose. Volunteering at the F.E.A.S.T. Center in East Village to "find some light in the darkness", May found a close friendship with shelter owner Martin Li and a renewed passion in helping those in need until eventually becoming the Operations Manager for the shelter.
Additionally, May had kept a secret from his nephew for a long time: she had known he was Spider-Man for years. She revealed this to him after her leukemia came back from remission, and their bond became stronger than ever. This knowledge allowed Peter to rely on May for support not only in his civilian life but his superhero life as well. However, her condition kept getting worse and eventually May's leukemia became fatal.
It was during her final hour and Peter's lowest emotional point that the extra-dimensional demon known as Mephisto appeared before Peter and offered him a choice: if he forever gave up his marriage to MJ, May would be cured of her cancer. Peter, battered emotionally and afraid of losing another person he loved, almost went through with it. However, it was May's words that reinforced him and helped him accept that she was ready to move on.
Rejecting Mephisto's offer, Peter held her aunt's hand as she passed away peacefully feeling nothing but pride and love for her nephew and his legacy as both a hero and a father.
Personal Information
Full Name: Maybelle "May" Parker (Reilly)
Living Status: Deceased (died from leukemia)
Place of Birth: Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Place of Residence: Queens, New York City, New York
Education: High school
Occupation: Operations Manager at F.E.A.S.T. Foundation, formerly office worker for Capital Inc and waitress
Languages: English
Gender: Cis
Sexuality: Straight
Physical Characteristics
Gender: Female
Age: 69 at time of death (born May 5th, 1936; died June 28th, 2005)
Height: 5’7” (1.7 m)
Weight: 120 lbs (54.43 kg)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Grey, formerly ginger
Skin: Fair
Ethnicity: Irish on her father's side, American/Caucasian on her mother's side
Race: Human
Other: Bald (due to chemotherapy, uses wig)
Family
Parents
Albert Reilly: father, deceased
Claire Reilly: mother, deceased
Siblings
Anna "Annie" Reilly: younger sister, social worker, deceased
Janet "Jan" Reilly: younger sister, inventor and socialite
April Reilly: distant younger sister, cut-off from the family
Significant Others
Johnny Jerome: wealthy ex-thief, broke up with him after learning of his criminal ways
Benjamin "Ben" Parker: devoted and hardworking husband, deceased
Otto Octavius: ex-fiancé, at-the-time reformed criminal, relationship ended due to his return to villainy, deceased
Children
Unborn son: sadly died from complications during childbirth
Peter "Pete" Parker: nephew and adopted son, superhero known as Spider-Man
Richard "Benjy" Parker II: grandnephew/adopted grandson, Future Foundation student
Ms. Lion: small dog companion, deceased
Affiliations
Close hero allies: May's closest hero ally was, of course, her nephew Peter AKA Spider-Man. The Scarlet Spider (Ben Reilly) and the second Black Widow (Teresa Parker) were also close with her due to being clones of her nephew.
Groups: F.E.A.S.T. Foundation, Lookups
Powers and Abilities
Very strong-willed, empathetic and insightful
Talented cook (ESPECIALLY wheat cakes)
Extensive managerial experience
Go-to person for life advice
Impressive self-taught piano player
OOU Commentary
Aunt May is a very interesting character. Initially she was mostly a plot device for Peter; an excuse as to why he had to work for the Bugle and keep his identity secret. But over the years (and especially the JMS run), she really found her stride as a rock for Peter and both a strong-willed and insightful woman.
The two major things I did with her are the leukemia and the One More Day switch.
Regarding the leukemia, I wanted to in-canon address the incongruency with her early depictions as an old lady that is frail and faints literally all the time, combining it with her more modern cancer diagnosis in 2019. Now those things come from the symptoms of her leukemia, and her death by it also fixes the stupid bullet conundrum in One More Day (the person who was shot but managed to survive was MJ instead).
As for the One More Day switch, I, like any self-respecting Spidey fan, FUCKING HATE OMD and it's effects on Spider-Man comics after it and the characters in general. However, I thought it was more narratively satisfying to keep the concept but "fix" it so to speak than to not have it at all. OMD had the potential to be a very interesting exploration of Peter's moral boundaries, his guilt, regret and fear of losing those he loves again and again, learning to live with the consequences of his actions like his relationship and attachment to May and MJ, and much more instead of what we got.
Besides, it lets me more or less recreate the deeply emotional death of Aunt May in the Marvel's Spider-Man game which, in my opinion, is a masterpiece of a send-off to the character (replacing "Peter is almost tempted to doom New York to Devil's Breath to save May but relents because its the right thing to do even if it hurts like hell" with "Peter is almost tempted to accept Mephisto's offer and save May because he's terrified of losing her but relents because it's the right thing to do even if it hurts like hell").
Fun fact about that scene in-game: narratively it mirrors uncle Ben's death. In his case, Peter was selfish and his inaction led to Ben's death, and this was the wrong choice. In May's case, Peter was selfless and his inaction led to May's death, and this was the correct choice.
Updates
4/22/2025 - Finally landed on the outcome of the Superhero Civil War for this AU, updated information accordingly
5/2/2026 - Peter Parker's identity as Spider-Man is not public knowledge anymore, made updates accordingly
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Spider-Verse (Sony Animated Movies), Spider-Man (Comicverse)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Hobie Brown & Gwen Stacy | Spider-Gwen, Hobie Brown & Pavitr Prabhakar
Characters: Hobie Brown, Gwen Stacy | Spider-Gwen, May Reilly | Lady Spider, Pavitr Prabhakar
Additional Tags: Hobie and Gwen are besties, Gwen misses Miles, May and Ham are fighting about her left-overs again, It/Its Pronouns for Karn (Spider-Man), (technically) Any Pronouns for Hobie Brown, YES I HAVE AN AGENDER., <- i meant agenda but y'know that's also true, Protective Hobie Brown, this time just ATSV!Hobie tho. for now
Series: Part 3 of When Multiverses Meet
Summary:
Hobie already joined the Spider Society out of an impulsive decision to keep an eye on a certain drummer who dropped into his life some while ago. He's not about to be sucked into anything like this again. That means, exploring the Web-Warriors' HQ--where the HQ and the people around are equally... interesting.
