Spider-Man: No Way Home's Darkest Twist Has Happened Before

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Warning: This article contains major spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home and Marvel's Spider-Man video game! Be sure to check out IGN's review of the new Spider-Man movie.

If recent Spider-Man movies have taught us anything, it's that Peter Parker is just one strand in the vast web that is the Spider-Verse. No two versions of Spider-Man are identical, but as Spider-Man: No Way Home showed us, many of them experience similar tragedies and failures over the course of their respective careers. Tragedies like the death of Aunt May.

Like so much in No Way Home, this depressing plot twist has its origins in Marvel's Spider-Man comic books. Let's take a closer look at how the comics handled the death of Aunt May, and how that death has been reimagined in other branches of the Spider-Verse.

Aunt May's Death in the Spider-Man Comics

The classic comic book version of May Parker is depicted as being quite a bit older than the MCU version, and it's often seemed as though the chronically ill May has been near death's door for most of Peter Parker's adult life. Fate finally catches up with May in 1995's The Amazing Spider-Man #400.

Art by Mark Bagley. (Image Credit: Marvel)
Art by Mark Bagley. (Image Credit: Marvel)

Having recently suffered a stroke in an earlier issue, May's condition worsens in this chapter. However, she hangs on long enough to receive the happy news that Peter and MJ are expecting a baby. May also reveals that she's known for years her nephew is Spider-Man and is proud of him. Having come clean, May finally succumbs to her illness and dies, prompting a tearful funeral scene.

This issue was published at the height of Marvel's infamous Clone Saga crossover, though it's generally much more highly regarded by fans than the rest of that storyline. Peter's clone Ben Reilly also plays a heavy role in this story and grieves May's death as deeply as Peter himself. And compared to No Way Home making May a casualty of Norman Osborn's feud with Spider-Man, it's interesting to note that this death is purely through natural causes.

How Was Aunt May Resurrected?

If you've read more contemporary Spider-Man comics, you've probably noticed May is alive and well again. It turns out even she isn't immune to the revolving door of death and resurrection that affects nearly every popular Marvel character.

As the increasingly convoluted Clone Saga wound to a close in the late '90s, Marvel introduced a number of plot twists that effectively canceled out the biggest developments from earlier in the crossover. After temporarily handing the Spider-Man mantle to Ben Reilly, Peter discovers he was the original after all. Peter and MJ's baby is quietly written out of the picture. And May rejoins the Spider-Man supporting cast after it's revealed she had been kidnapped by Norman Osborn and replaced with an impostor.

Somehow, May retained no memory of that ordeal, and it turns out the real May never knew Peter was Spider-Man. However, she does discover the truth later on when she walks in on a badly injured Peter sleeping off his fight with Morlun. That prompts an uncomfortable conversation between the two, with Peter forced to apologize for hiding the truth from May all that time.

8 Amazing Spider-Man Team-Ups

For a hero who has been an outlaw for most of his fictional lifespan and who has often bemoaned his loner status, Spider-Man has lots of friends in the capes community. We’ve seen that come into play in the MCU, where Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has been mentored by Iron Man and saddled up with the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy. And now he’s got a new bestie in Doctor Strange in the latest Spider-film, Spider-Man: No Way Home. You can read Amelia Amberwing’s IGN review on No Way Home here. <br><br> In the comics, it’s a safe bet no one in the Marvel universe has teamed up with as many heroes as Peter Parker. For a long time, those temporary alliances occurred in Marvel Team-Up, but also in the various other titles under the Spider-Man editorial bubble. Some have had a lasting impact on Marvel canon, such as Spidey’s long relationship with the Fantastic Four, while others have been interesting one-offs and some have been downright… weird. <br><br> So to celebrate Peter’s latest tag-team, we’ve spun together a list of eight memorable comics where J. Jonah Jameson’s least-favorite wall-crawler joined up with other heroes… and even the occasional villain. <b>Wolverine<br> Spider-Man and Wolverine #1</b> <br><br> It’s hard to properly describe how big a deal this one-shot was when it was published in 1987. Wolverine was arguably more popular among comics fans than Spider-Man was. Adding to its uniqueness is that writer Christopher Priest (then going by Jim Owsley) and artist Mark Bright crafted a standalone story set squarely in the Spider continuity of the day. Set in Germany and dripping with Cold War allusions, it marked the most significant pairing of Marvel’s top two heroes up to that point. It also underscored how, despite his years of fighting all sorts of supervillains, delving into the lethal waters of international espionage unnerved Spidey. <br><br> This story featured several key moments of great impact in Spider-Man’s life. For one, it includes the rekindling of Peter and Mary Jane’s romance. Second, the story turned on the death of Ned Leeds. Leeds had gone with Peter to Germany to investigate a mysterious spy known only as “Charlemagne,” who turned out to be an agent Logan had known for years. The death of Leeds caused a big brouhaha at Marvel, according to Priest. He has told this writer that he caught major heat within the bullpen for killing off the character, who was to be revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #289 as the masked villain Hobgoblin. Priest insists he cleared with then-Spider-Man writer Roger Stern that Leeds was not the Hobgoblin before killing him in his story, and that it was decided after his story to put the longtime supporting character under the mask. View 9 Images<b>Yellowjacket and the Wasp<br> Marvel Team-Up #59-60 </b> <br><br> Marvel Team-Up featured mainly one-and-done stories, but by the late ’70s it would occasionally tell multi-part tales like this where Spidey teamed with the husband-and-wife Avengers Yellowjacket and the Wasp. It’s one of the best of the too, coming from the legendary duo of Chris Claremont and John Byrne who had a too-brief run on MTU but made their presence felt with emotional thrillers like this. <br><br> The trio fight the fire and ice bad guy Equinox, who comes loaded with a backstory packed with pathos. Part one features the death of an Avenger as Hank Pym appears to be killed by Equinox. Of course, that doesn’t turn out to be the case, but without this turn we wouldn’t have been treated to that incredible Dave Cockrum cover to issue #59. The issues still hold up as a classic example of compact Bronze Age comics storytelling by two masters of the medium. It also offered up a then-rare chance for the Wasp to stand on her own and out of the shadow of the rest of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. <b>The X-Men<br> Marvel Team-Up #4</b> <br><br> This early issue of MTU featured Spider-Man pairing up with the original X-Men. What made this notable was that at the time the X-Men title had been cancelled, so this was a rather rare sighting. The only original X-Man who didn’t take part was Hank McCoy, as he was trying to hide the transformation he was going through to become the fabulous furry version of the Beast everyone knows today. <br><br> As for the story itself, it features a classic Marvel setup where the mutants believe Spidey has kidnapped an old friend of Professor Xavier’s. Eventually they learn that it was Morbius the Living Vampire who was behind the abduction. In the modern day, this story would have been stretched out over six issues. Gerry Conway and Gil Kane did it all in one 20-pager. <b>The Thing (and Friends)<br> Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2</b> <br><br> The 1970s featured all sorts of trippy occurrences in comics, with a good many of them emanating from the psychedelic imagination of Jim Starlin. His years-long Thanos saga came to an end with this story, which he plotted, wrote and partially penciled, with Joe Rubenstein doing the finished art. While it may seem random to see this long-running story wrap-up in an annual for an unrelated title, Marvel at that time often used annuals as part of ongoing storylines. <br><br> It actually was a continuation of the events that began in Avengers Annual #7, and Spider-Man is looped into the action by visions of Thanos implanted in his mind by Moondragon. Those projections serve as a neat way to catch the reader up on what’s happened until now. A major-league donnybrook ensues that ends when Spider-Man releases the spirit of Adam Warlock, who turns Thanos into a block of solid granite. So ended the threat of Thanos for more than a decade. <b>Red Sonja<br> Marvel Team-Up #79</b> <br><br> One of the weirdest team-ups in Spidey’s long history came in this issue when he partnered with then-girlfriend Mary Jane. Actually, it was MJ transformed into the Hyborian Age warrior Red Sonja by some well-placed comic book sorcery. <br><br> The resulting story gave readers the chance to see the web-slinger partner with Sonja against the threat of the evil wizard Kulan-Gath in present-day New York City. This was another gem from the comics dream team of Claremont and Byrne.

Marvel nearly killed off Aunt May a second time in 2007's One More Day. With May mortally wounded by an assassin's bullet, Peter agrees to a bargain with the demon Mephisto. He sacrifices his marriage in exchange for May's life. These days, May is still alive and once again doesn't know her nephew's secret.

Clearly, Marvel Studios and Sony borrowed elements of One More Day to craft the plot of No Way Home. However, Mephisto doesn't factor into the plot of the movie, and Peter's end goal is recovering his secret identity, not saving May's life. Another key change: In the MCU, May is the one who gives Peter the iconic lesson about power and responsibility, not Uncle Ben. Whether or not the MCU's Ben was even a major figure in Peter's life is still one of the biggest mysteries in this series. Maybe Spider-Man: Freshman Year will have the answer?

Ultimate Spider-Man's Aunt May

Marvel's long-running Ultimate Spider-Man comic remixed and reimagined many elements of the Spidey mythos when it debuted in 2000, and perhaps no character changed more as a result than Aunt May. The Ultimate Universe's May is much younger and more assertive than her classic counterpart. She's also arguably dealt with more personal tragedy.

That much was made clear in 2010's Death of Spider-Man, which indeed culminates in the death of Peter Parker. Peter dies heroically defending May from Green Goblin, an intriguing contrast to May's death in No Way Home. That death paves the way for Miles Morales to step up and fill the void as the Ultimate Universe's Spider-Man.

Art by Mark Bagley. (Image Credit: Marvel)
Art by Mark Bagley. (Image Credit: Marvel)

Peter's death and Miles' origin story heavily inspired the plot of 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. May's own post-Death of Spider-Man role is also reflected in that movie, as she becomes a loose sort of mentor to Miles as he first comes to terms with being Spider-Man.

Thankfully, this version of May is given a happy ending. Shortly before Marvel ended the entire Ultimate line in 2015, writer Brian Michael Bendis revived Peter and reunited him with his loved ones. There may even be some version of this alternate universe where Peter still serves as Spider-Man. Miles, for his part, is now a resident of Marvel's core comic book universe.

Aunt May in Insomniac's Spider-Man

Alongside The Amazing Spider-Man #400 and No Way Home, the 2018 game Marvel's Spider-Man completes the holy trinity of Aunt May deaths.

The game's storyline draws a fair amount of inspiration from writer Dan Slott's Amazing Spider-Man series (Slott and his frequent co-writer Christos Gage consulted on the game), including depicting May as an employee of Martin Li's FEAST charity. That much is also reflected in No Way Home.

However, in the game's case, May becomes one of many victims of the Devil's Breath plague outbreak. As Peter races against time to develop an antidote, May refuses to allow him to use some of his precious supply to save her. In a scene very similar to the events of The Amazing Spider-Man #400, May reveals she always knew Peter was Spider-Man before she dies. Unlike that comic, however, there's no reason to assume May will return in the upcoming Spider-Man 2.

For more on No Way Home, find out what the mid-credits scene means for Venom's future and see IGN's 10 biggest WTF questions about the sequel. You can also dig in on our No Way Home ending explained!

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

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