Manic Expression

Aunt May’s Age in the 616 Marvel Universe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edofl2MH98I&feature=player_detailpage

Doing the event Marvel TV Month I’ve been goingover my old comics especially Spider-man and I’ve noticed that Aunt May’s ageis very odd and off in the 616 Marvel Universe. For those not familiar withthat phrase 616 is the number of the universe of the main primary MarvelUniverse where all the mainstream comic titles reside and all else are in otheruniverses or one shots. Like how DC has Earth 1 and Earth 2 and the DC AnimatedUniverse. Now I’ve said it before that I don’t really like Aunt May in the 616universe I think she’s completely useless and is just there. I’m glad she’swritten out of the stories for the most part right now.

Then I noticed something that Aunt May’s age in the616 universe is totally off and doesn’t make any sense. It’s confirmed thatAunt May is in her 80s. In issue 600 she was looking through a photo album ofwhen she was young and first started dating Uncle Ben and she was about 16 -18and from the clothing and Ben’s army uniform it was just afterWW2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which means she was born in the late 1920s along with Ben!Peter is about late 20s early 30s let’s say he’s 30 if my math is right andthis is 2012 Peter was born in 1982. Peter’s father Richard was most likelyaround 25 when Peter was born so that means Richard was born around 1957. Thatmeans there is a 25-30 year age difference between Richard and Ben (seeing asthey’re brothers)!!!!!!!!!!! Aunt May is about Ben’s age so that huge age gapapplies to her too. I mean she’s so old that now in the comics she’s married toJameson’s FATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m not saying that the age differencecan’t happen I’m saying it’s unrealistic and unlikely that Peter’s grandparentswould wait three decades to have another child. And the comic shot itself inthe foot because it established Aunt May’s age and that she was a teenagerduring WW2 and WW2 has always remained the same while everything else wascondensed. Marvel condenses their timeline so stuff that happened 50 years agohappened 20 years ago etc. except WW2 because that’s so ingrained in the 1940sthere’s no way around it which means they’ve locked up Aunt May’s age in aspecific and distinct time. They need to condense Aunt May’s age so that shewas a teenager in the 60s or 70s and in the Ultimate universe this is truebecause she was part of the counter culture movement and a hippie. And inUltimate Spider-man show she definitely has a more realistic age by most likelybeing in her late 40s early 50s with Peter at 15 which is more like the age ofan aunt. Aunts and Uncles are supposed to be around the same age as yourparents give or take a few years. Even in Amazing Fantasy 15 they looked tooold! I mean if I took out all the text in that comic and there was no culturalcontext you would think they were his grandparents not Aunt and Uncle! I findthis really fascinating that NO ONE has really caught this! I still scratch myhead at it to this very day. Oh well I love Aunt May in the Ultimate Universe(comic and show), but in 616 she has served her purpose and helped raise Peterto be a good man just as much as Ben. Marvel give her the reunion with herfirst husband and just let her go you owe the woman that much! Besides as timemoves on what are you going to do have some BS happen to make her immortal?

I hope you have enjoyed this very hugeoveranalyzing of a big discrepancy in the Marvel Universe join me next time asMarvel TV Month continues with my favorite Marvel show Avengers EMH!!!!!!