Ultimate Spider-Man: Guilt
Issue: #45
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Inker: Art Thibert
Colors: Transparency Digital

May Parker is attending a therapy session. In a flash-back, she picks up where the last issue left off: Peter is coming home after being missing all day, and May demands to know where he’s been. She seizes his backpack, shouting that it’s not the first time he’s skipped school, and a book falls to the floor. It’s the adventures of Robin Hood, and it had belonged to Peter’s mother. He tells May that he was at the food court reading, because he remembered this book and didn’t want to just sit in a class where he had already done the work and was getting A’s. May gets upset because no one had known where Peter was and she had feared he was dead.

The therapist asks if Peter might be on drugs, and May denies it. Then she confesses that part of the problem is Spider-Man. May had been shopping a couple of weeks back, and had witnessed Spider-Man beating up a group of thieves. May is concerned that, on top of the violence and terrorism in the world, that there are now people running around in costume and doing whatever they want. Spider-Man is all over the news; there’s a rumor that he might live in May’s neighborhood. She has this fear that he might actually harm Peter some day.

May knows about the Green Goblin’s attack on Peter’s school, in which Spider-Man played a part. She also knows that Captain Stacy was killed by someone in a Spider-Man costume. She sees Peter starting to go off by himself the way his father had, she hadn’t known where he was during the school evacuation, and she had had an irrational fear that Spider-Man had hurt him.

She also confesses for feeling guilty about going to a therapist about fact that Captain Stacy had been killed, when she had had both a sister and a husband die and hadn’t sought help for either situation. She’s afraid that she’s using Gwen as an excuse to have someone to talk to so her memories of her dead loved ones don’t haunt her. She feels as though everyone she loves ends up dying. She admits that she checks on Peter every night, and many nights he’s not in his room. She thinks he’s going down the street to see Mary Jane Watson. May is convinced that she’s let Peter have his freedom so that she can keep him at arm’s length, and that that will save his life.

The therapist assures May that she’s not responsible for anyone’s death, and points out that she’s coping with grief by reaching out to others. She’s let Gwen move into her house. The therapist suggests that May needs to spend more time with Peter; both of them might have the same issues because of their shared tragedy.

After the session, May finds Peter at home coming out of the shower. She suggests they go on a date, just the two of them, to a movie. As Peter gleefully runs up the stairs to get ready, we finally see a smile on May’s face.

Submitted By: Seldes Katne