Ultimate Spider-Man 45
From Ultimarvel
[edit] “Guilt”
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Inker: Art Thibert
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Publication Date: November 2003
• May Parker is meeting with a therapist. It is obvious she had been here before. The therapist asks how Peter is doing. May tells her that they had a bit of an incident recently. May then explains how she received a call and was told that Peter’s school was being evacuated due to an incident at a neighboring school (Ultimate Spider-Man 42). May says she then ran out of work without telling her boss where she was going. She then was unable to find Peter at both Midtown High or at home (Ultimate Spider-Man 43). May then received a phone call from one of Peter’s teachers telling her that Peter had skipped class that day (Ultimate Spider-Man 44). May then says when Peter finally came home that night, she had a meltdown.
• A flashback is shown where May demands to know where Peter was during the day. She grabs his book bag from him and opens it while yelling and demanding that she wants to know what he has been up to. A book falls out of Peter’s bag. May recognizes it as one that belonged to his mother. Peter explains that he was at the food court reading the book, and that he didn’t feel like going to class. Peter tells May that he did not know that school had been cancelled and would have called if he knew. May begins to cry and tells Peter that she thought he was dead.
• May confesses to her therapist that the reason she was scared is because of Spider-Man. She then recounts a day when she was out shopping and witnessed Spider-Man apprehend a gang of muggers who were on roller skates (Ultimate Spider-Man 22). The event just caused May to be afraid of the outside world because of all the confusion and bedlam that occurs in it. She has focused on Spider-Man as a fear because he has been present in many events in her recent life: the apprehending of the burglar that killed Ben Parker (Ultimate Spider-Man 5), Norman Osborn’s attack on Midtown High (Ultimate Spider-Man 6), the death of John Stacy (Ultimate Spider-Man 31), and she also mentions that a neighbor belives that Spider-Man lives in her neighborhood. May states that she knows the feeling is irrational but she believs that Spider-Man will be the cause of Peter ’s death.
• May states that she feels guilty for seeing a therapist. She states that her sister died 10 years ago and then her husband died the previous year, she did not see a therapist after either of these events. However when John Stacy died, she decided to see one. May says this feeling of guilt manifests itself in her decision to take in Gwen Stacy. May believes she is using Gwen to keep herself from being alone with her thoughts and the ghosts of her loved ones.
• May confesses that after seeing the videotape Peter found of the picnic in the park from over 10 years ago (Ultimate Spider-Man 33), she has become convinced that anyone she loves will die. She then says she purposefully picks at Peter and tries to push him away because if she gets to close to him, he will die.
• The therapist gives May positive reaffirmation and tells her that she should talk to Peter about the feelings she is having. She says the shared tragedy they are experiencing is causing them both problems and this connection can help them both feel better. She also tells May that she believes that the romantic feelings that May had for John Stacy is causing her guilt which is causing these fears to manifest. Howver she says May should be applauded for being able to move on and should not feel guilt about these feelings.
• Later that night at the Parker home, May asks Peter if he wants to go out and see a movie with her, just the two of them. Peter happily accepts.
Notes:
- The book that falls out of Peter’s book bag is “The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood” by Howard Pyle.
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