Warning: Spoilers for Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin #3!The darkest aspect of Spider-Man’s character history has hardly been touched on in the movies, but now Marvel is confronting the reality of it. Spider-Man’s origin story is among the most well-known in pop culture history: the radioactive spider bite, his failure to prevent Uncle Ben’s death, “with great power comes great responsibility.” However, it is more complicated than that, something that fans can be hesitant to acknowledge.

Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin #3 – written by J.M. DeMatteis, with art by Michael Sta Maria – seeks to help readers understand exactly what Peter Parker is putting Aunt May through by choosing to fight crime.

Preview pages for the issue showcase their dynamic early in Peter Parker’s career. Notably, the story emphasizes the layer of grief that Aunt May experiences through Peter’s vigilante lifestyle, an aspect of their relationship that few Spider-Man stories, not even the movies, have tapped into fully.

Peter Parker’s Superhero Career Takes An Unspoken Toll On Aunt May

Spider-Man: Shadow of the Green Goblin #3 – Written By J.M. DeMatteis, Art By Michael Sta Maria, Chris Sotomayor, & VC’s Joe Caramagna

Shadow of the Green Goblin takes place during the first month of Peter Parker’s run as Spider-Man; the third issue opens with him saving someone from being robbed. Obviously, at fifteen-years old, his aunt is expecting him home for dinner sooner than later, and when he arrives home late, Aunt May refuses to so much as look at Peter in disgust, let alone speak to him. It doesn’t help that him coming home late with unexplained bumps and bruises quickly becomes a running theme for the teenager.

Grief is a running theme of Shadow of the Green Goblin, and it’s a pretty big aspect to Peter’s origin story that is often overlooked, both in the comics and the movies. The series taps into the grief both he and May suffered at the time, and how their feelings go unaddressed. Peter is coping – or trying to – by becoming a crimefighter out of obligation, and holding himself accountable for the role he played in Uncle Ben’s death, but he’s also still a fifteeb-year-old boy struggling to understand his emotions almost as much as he struggles to understand his powers.

Peter Parker And Aunt May Are Each Grieving Separately In Their Own Way

Peter Needs To Support His Aunt

Meanwhile, Aunt May is grieving as a woman who lost her husband and has a nephew growing far more distant by the day. Aunt May’s silence in these panels speaks volumes, and tells layers when readers remember there are stories that have either implied or outright revealed that Aunt May always knew Peter was Spider-Man. If she found out Peter is Spider-Man this early, then she is too furious to speak to a nephew putting himself in danger and lying to her about it.

If she doesn’t know yet, then it’s even worse, because this is a woman left completely in the dark about her nephew’s tardiness and mysterious wounds. In either case, Aunt May is grieving Uncle Ben’s death; not only is Peter not around to help her through the grief she’s dealing with over the matter, he’s making things worse. It’s a grim truth, one that many stories neglect mentioning in hopes of championing Peter’s decision to become Spider-Man as a freeing, heroic act. By becoming Spider-Man, he is actively torturing Aunt May.