The V

There is no quibble vote. If you wish to vote for a third option, pretend one of the first two is it, and then select that.

Eoin

Aunt May should be THIS CLOSE to a fatal heart attack at all times.

So are we to assume that this poll is referring exclusively to the real Aunt May and not the actress who was responsible for all the ass-kicking in the comics?

I kind of like Straczynski's take that Aunt may has always known at that Peter has been underestimating her.

AGAIN.... Fake Aunt May was only in a single issue (#400) and existed MAINLY to explain away the character's on-screen death.

I don't think it's a coincidence that the more the current books have focused on giving May a relationship and her own life, and kicking her out of the books for a while, they've gotten better quality wise. She's back now, but they're doing something interesting with her being zapped by Mr. Negative.

That Aunt May was an actress or a Doombot or a clone or the Chameleon! If you think she's frail then you've never read more than two spider-man comics in his life. Unless you're referring to the hundreds of times she has been portrayed as frail...

Eoin

May Parker's hooked up with Doc Ock, protested against mistreatment of seniors, teamed up with the Punisher, and become a Herald of Galactus-- Ass Kicker!

Clearly, she was frail in the beginning but gained some powers of her own from the blood transfusion Spidey gave her and the substance he later used to cure her of radiotion poison from it.

Physically frail, which is what I voted for.  But you're going to get quibbles and Ass-Kicker votes because she's got undying reserves of inner personal strength, which make her the subject of good stories where her inner resolve contrasts with her outer physicality, and lesser ones where she was made into Golden Oldie, etc., etc.

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[kbox]WOULD![/kbox]

That was the Ultimate version though, wasn't it?

I always liked the idea that Peter keeping the secret from Aunt May because he thought it might kill her was just a great big example of Peter's unfortunate tendency to always make it all about him.

Yeah, I've decided that anyone who voted ass-kicker just wants to imagine she's have enough energy to keep up with them in the sack. Shudder.

Eoin

Ugh, no. I just think frail old people are fucking boring, and can fuck off to a nursing home to die. Ass kicking old people can frequently be pretty entertaining, though.

-------- Editor for the Eastern Standard blog.

Who was that actor a few years ago at the Oscars who was doing one-handed pushups on the stage, and he was about 90 years old.  Jack Palance or someone.  Man I would not have wanted to walk on his lawn.

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That was Palance, yes.  According to Mark Evanier, he was one of the inspirations for Darkseid...

Not emotionally frail, but physically frail. It's not interesting to watch an old lady kick ass, especially in a superhero comic where everyone kicks ass. Being clever is interesting there. I suppose I should have been clearer in the poll.

Eoin

I meant physically frail.

-------- Editor for the Eastern Standard blog.

This Palance angle might explain at least one scene in the original Forever People run where Darkseid upbraids the kids for lack of discipline.

According to Evanier, it may have been something about his voice. *shrug*

About 73. Which is still fairly impressive.

(The following year, host Crystal arrived on stage atop a giant model of the Oscar statuette, being towed by Palance using his teeth.)

I remember that.  He stopped in the middle to do more pushups.

Since I haven't read Spider-man for a long time, I have to ask is the reason this poll is up because a recent issue of Spider-Man have Aunt May beating someone up or something?

Somebody posted recently about an old WEB Annual back-up story in which Aunt May foils a bunch of terrorists or something; I assume it's related to that.

Aaron Veenstra web | pod | mail Wii: 1265 0398 1520 0257 PS3: asveenstra

But, as mentioned before, that was just an actress paid by Norman Osborn and not the real Aunt May.

For fuck's sake!

The actress was only in ONE SINGLE STORY: Amazing Spider-Man #400, which was done MAINLY to erase that single story (Aunt May's death) from canon, since May died on panel.

Aunt May is an ass-kicker in the sense that she might potentially beat the bad guy with her handbag and distract him long enough for Spidey to get a punch in. Elderly Punisher, no; Elderly Lady You Still Shouldn't Fuck With, yes.

Or as it was so succinctly put in Spider-Man 2:

"We sure showed him, didn't we, ma'am?"

"What do you mean, WE?"

Yeah, right. Next you're going to tell me there were Doom appearances between FF#200 and Simonson's run that weren't Doombots...