52 Ancestors Week 32: Free Space

 From Amy Johnson Crow: Week 32

The theme for Week 32 is "Free Space." Use this week to write about anything you want! Or, if you want to stick to the theme, consider someone who moved to where they had more space (land), a homesteader, or maybe someone who played a lot of bingo.

This universe is just one of many in the totality of existence

    I love writing these free space blogs. The last time we had this prompt for 52 Ancestors I wrote about the genealogy of the Incredible Hulk aka Bruce Banner since "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" had just debuted on Disney Plus. It was a fun and goofy romp and it allowed me to really exercise my comic nerd AND genealogical muscles. What do you say we do this again? Who is it going to be this time? I think you'll find this next character to be quite....amazing.

And thus a legend was born!

    Spider-Man. Spider-Man. The wallcrawler has been doing whatever a spider can for as long as I can remember and Marvel celebrated his 60th anniversary in 2022. Created by Marvel legends Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1962 during the creative boom that saw the debut of iconic comic characters such as "Fantastic Four", the "X-Men", "Iron Man" and the "Avengers". What set Spidey apart from all of the other heroes at the time was that he was a teenager and back in 1962 publishers balked at the idea of a teenager headlining his or her own book. They were almost always the sidekick to the main hero. In Spidey's case, he was always his own sidekick.

    Publisher Martin Goodman fought with Stan Lee over the concept since he felt that people weren't keen on teenage heroes at the time other than DC's "Robin" and people didn't like spiders in general. Eventually, Goodman went along with Stan's pitch and put the story into the last issue of a comic book that was due to be cancelled thanks to sagging sales. The book was of course "Amazing Fantasy" and in its heyday it was known to have science fiction and horror stories for readers to enjoy. The very last issue, issue 15, saw the debut of the webhead and it is now priced at over a million dollars if the comic is in near-mint condition that is. Thankfully, it's been reprinted thousands of times over by now! 

     Sometimes taking a chance on a character really pays off.  People liked the character because he was all too human. He had faults and foibles like many of Stan's other characters. And these weren't your average cookie-cutter superheroes, either! They were people like you and me since they fought each other and illnesses as well as the baddies. Sometimes these tales to astonish came with lessons akin to the ones found in Greek mythology. In fact, the very first Spidey story came with a very important lesson that readers all over the world took to heart: "With great power, there must come great responsibility".

     Over the years, we've seen Spidey grow, fight a literal menagerie of animal themed supervillains, go into space, go to college, get married, become a teacher, photographer and scientist. Eventually, he even join the ranks of Earth's mightiest heroes, the Avengers. Not bad for a kid from Queens, right?

Such a sweet moment!

    On the genealogical side of things we learn about Spidey's family quite early on in the pages of Amazing Fantasy. Right off the bat we learn that Spider-Man is really a youth named Peter Parker and was being raised by his doting aunt and uncle, Ben and May Parker.

    Parker's parents weren't mentioned for a good while in the comic and I'll get into details on that in a bit. Over time we were given bits and pieces of information regarding his origins. He was born in Forest Hills, Queens to Richard and Mary Parker and if you were in the Marvel Universe, you would find his birth records in the New York State Archives. Benjamin was significantly older than his younger brother Richard and once young Peter was orphaned at a very young age, he and his wife took the child in and raised him as their own.

    Life was pretty sweet for the Parkers despite Ben losing his brother and sister-in-law. Ben worked as a carnival barker on Coney Island in his youth and eventually he met a beautiful young woman named May Reilly who just so happened to live in the same Brooklyn neighborhood as he did. Unfortunately, another man put a wrench into their relationship plans. In the end, Ben won her heart and the two lived happily ever after.

    Parker's last name is of English origins and while we don't know much about Ben and Richard's parents; we did get some canon information regarding their names. 

Heroes of the Golden
Age

    When Marvel was celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the company in 2009, they used the in-universe newspaper known as "The Daily Bugle" to tell stories about various events happening in the Marvel universe at the time of the company's humble beginnings in 1939. 

    The "newspaper" printed stories about two of Marvel's first heroes, the android Human Torch and Namor, the Sub-Mariner and other articles referenced characters who would one day become important players in the Marvel Universe.

    Among the various articles were human interest stories and birth announcements like the ones you'd find in old newspapers today. One of the stories was one where Peter and and Ann Parker announced the birth of Benjamin Parker.

    Sadly, Benjamin Parker would show up in the Daily Bugle newspaper archives many years later when the robber his nephew failed to stop at a wrestling event murdered him in cold blood. Ironically, it was this event that caused publisher J. Jonah Jameson to take an interest in the kid. I say it's ironic because we all know how much Jolly Jonah sees Spidey as a menace.

          As it turns out, J. Jonah Jameson wasn't the only Marvel character who was watching out for young Peter in ways both large and small. Peter's parents Richard and Mary weren't your typical parents. They were actually agents of the C.I.A. and Richard himself was recruited by none other than Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Yikes. Good luck finding information on his parents. I hope you have level nine clearance.

Awww!

    Mary was already a C.I.A. operative herself at the time and the two hit it off. She was a translator and had a studious nature which complimented Richard's tendency to make jokes from time to time. Gee. I wonder which one their son takes after. The answer is BOTH!

    Eventually, the couple got married and not long afterward they found themselves involved in plots revolving several longtime Captain America villains such as the Red Skull, Baron Zemo and Baron Strucker. Since Cap was under the ice at the time, it fell on their shoulders to fill the void he left behind. 

    Hey. Someone had to help save the world while Cap wasn't around.

 

    Despite the hardships they had to endure from mission to mission, Richard and Mary were overjoyed when they learned they were having a baby boy. Fate changed their plans when they were called into service shortly after Peter was born.  After leaving Pete with Ben and his wife, they embarked on a mission to Algeria. While there they discovered one of Red Skull's goons was a mole in the F.B.I. They tried to expose him and were tragically killed in a sabotaged plane.

    To make matters worse Richard and Mary were called turncoats by that mole and their reputations were tarnished in the intelligence community until their son cleared their names years later as Spider-Man. The mole really didn't do them any favors as he broadcasted the news and papers everywhere told the same story. Ben and May tried their best to shield Pete from those stories while he was growing up. Thankfully, their names were cleared and the stories were redacted.

Totally not "Scarlett"
from G.I. Joe.

       The only thing about Richard and Mary you'd be able to find in the Marvel Universe is unfortunately the exposé on their so-called "betrayal" and eventually their vindication. You definitely wouldn't find information about Peter's sister, Teresa.

    That's right. Peter Parker had a hidden sister all this time and no one knew about it. Not even Peter! Comics are weird and let's not even get into the time when Peter's parents "came back from the dead" as robots. 

    Anyway, Teresa here claimed to be the daughter of Richard and Mary Parker. She was born in secret thanks to her parents' profession and was adopted while Peter went to live with their aunt and uncle. The two siblings eventually crossed paths when Parker was saved by two gunmen. I think Peter would have been fine, lady. Spider-sense and all that.

   

    Well, she couldn't have known Peter was bitten by that spider and gained all those powers. So, you can't really blame her.

    After a very confusing story involving several of Spidey's oldest villains she left the C.I.A. and was recruited by Nick Fury to join S.H.I.E.L.D. Like I said. Fury has a vested interest in the Parker family. They teamed up a few more times in various comics and eventually she was introduced to their aunt. However, they decided it was best to not reveal her true identity to her. Sigh. Comics. Ya gotta love 'em.

    The jury's still out on whether or not Teresa really is the daughter of Richard and Mary. You would think Peter would take an AncestryDNA test. Then again....they'd find abnormalities in Peter's spit linking him to Spider-Man. That's okay. There are other options. He and Teresa could just visit the Baxter Building and have Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four conduct the test himself. With the way Reed works, the results would be in by the time Teresa and Pete get a cup of coffee. Unfortunately, writers like to drag this stuff out at the reader's expense.

 

They actually televised this
wedding believe it or not.

    Aside from a family deeply entrenched in the espionage racket, Peter has had numerous girlfriends whose names would definitely be in various articles and magazines.

* Former Receptionist turned Reporter Betty Brant.

* Gwen Stacy, the daughter of a police captain. She was killed by Spider-Man villain Green Goblin and her death signaled the end of the Silver Age of Comics. Her death would definitely be in various newspaper archives in New York.

* Felicia Hardy aka the Black Cat

    And most famously of all, supermodel/actress Mary Jane Watson who he eventually married. Despite the intervention by various interdimensional entities claiming to be the Devil, I like to think their marriage record is STILL being held at City Hall in New York City. Yeah....I'm not a fan of "One More Day" a comic which saw the end of the Parker/Watson marriage in the lamest way ever. I won't go into details here. Let's just say it was......BAD. Very bad. Check the Wikipedia article for details. I am not a fan.

    Don't worry, friends. Peter and MJ still have an on again/off again relationship and she still remembers him being Spider-Man. There are even versions of Peter in the multiverse (Or Spider-verse if you prefer) who have had children with MJ. My favorite is Mayday Parker aka Spider-Girl.

MAYDAY!

    Named after her great-aunt. May comes from a world where MJ had a baby with Peter and that child was kidnapped by one of Spidey's villains. She was rescued by one of Peter's many clones. (I really don't want to go into too much detail on his clones. They're basically his brothers if you think about it.)  

    Anyway, she developed her spider-like abilities at an early age and upon becoming a teenager she decided to follow in her father's footsteps as a spider-themed heroine. She joined her universe's Avengers and had many adventures with other spider-characters within the Spider-verse.

    Peter and MJ had a second child in that universe named Ben. It remains to be seen if that kid will be crawling on the walls like his old man. She has met the Spider-Man of Earth-616 who is "our" Spider-Man and like many of Marvel's other children of heroes from alternate realities she tries very hard not to compare him with her father. Though....would Earth-616 Spidey still be her father? Try explaining that to Ancestry.com.

   

    As you can see, the family history of Spider-Man is quite the web of intrigue. We've got CIA agents, secret sisters, daughters from alternate universes and all kinds of drama involving the loves of Peter's life. Through it all, fans all over the world still love the adventures of our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. Are the stories convoluted? You betcha. They're still fun and in the end that's what comics are all about.  

   

    Despite the crazy tales I mentioned in this week's blog, Spidey is one of the most grounded heroes in the Marvel pantheon. His tales of tragedies and triumph make him one of the most beloved characters of all time. And hey there are probably some family stories out there that make this tame by comparison. I think that's what makes Spidey so relatable. If you take away the fantastical elements, his life as Peter Parker is still a family story well worth checking out.

'Nuff said!

See you next time, true believers!

Spider-Man and related characters are property of Marvel Comics.