Aunt May (Rosemary Harris)


 * "I believe there's a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally allows us to die with pride, even though sometimes we have to be steady, and give up the thing we want the most."
 * ―Aunt May

May Parker, commonly known as Aunt May, is a fictional supporting character from the Marvel Comics' Spider-Man series. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko in 1962. She was portrayed by Rosemary Harris in all three of Sam Raimi's film series. She is depicted as a housewife who is widowed by the events of the first film. She was the one who encouraged Peter the most throughout the films with her words of wisdom as Uncle Ben had done before his death, in the second movie even managing to make him try to return to his Spider-Man life after giving up the persona.

Spider-Man
Aunt May and Uncle Ben take care of their nephew, Peter Parker for unkown reasons in the absence of his parents. After Ben was shot and killed by a carjacker, Peter and May shared their grief for Uncle Ben. Later, when Peter moves into an apartment with his friend Harry Osborn, Aunt May visited them for Thanksgiving dinner. She was not shy about reprimanding Harry's father Norman for his rude and boorish behavior that day.

Shortly thereafter, when Norman, learns of Spider-Man's true identity, he attacked May at her home while she is saying her prayers. May is terrified by The Green Goblin's daemonic appearance, and is hospitalized after The Green Goblin injured her in the attack. After his defeat May attended Norman's funeral alongside Peter, Mary Jane and Harry; soon after that, she and Peter visited Ben's grave located elsewhere in the very same cemetery.

Spider-Man 2
Aunt May continued to keep her eye on Peter, while having her own financial difficulties since the death of her husband. Eventually the bank forced her to sell her house and live in a smaller apartment. Her opinion of Spider-Man was not high at the time, claiming "the less we see of him, the better." However, when May's visit to the bank with Peter was interrupted by a robbery perpetrated by Doctor Octopus, Octavius took her hostage and climbed up the side of a skyscraper with her. She was in turn, rescued by Spider-Man, and in return, she helped Spider-Man during the battle by batting Doctor Octopus' head with her umbrella. From that point onwards she believed that Spider-Man was, in fact, good. It is implied, but never stated, that she may have deduced his secret identity as her nephew.

Later, Peter's powers began to wane because of a subconscious desire to live a normal life, and he decided to give up his costumed persona. When Pater visits her Aunt May speaks fondly of Spider-Man which encourages him to resume his heroic activities. She later expresses that she feels she caused Uncle Ben's death, prompting Peter to admit that he felt he caused the death by not stopping the killer. May is understandably stunned and sad, but later thanks Peter and tells him that admitting the truth to her was a brave thing to do.

Spider-Man 3
Later, when Peter informed May about The Sandman's apparent demise at the hands of Spider-Man (under the influence of an alien symbiote), she delivered another speech, which was more of a warning to Peter of the danger to oneself in seeking revenge. Peter was at first shocked at his aunt's reaction, for he expected Aunt May to be glad as The Sandman was the one who killed Uncle Ben. Peter soon realized that this is not the case, and Aunt May says that Uncle Ben would never have wanted such revenge.