A very long time ago a young and eager fan
wrote a but if a deep-dive into the layout of Mayday’s Room.
Today, an older, more cynical, and time-poor fan writes a potted history of the
Parker Family Home.
This will not be a definitive, exhaustive
look at every appearance of the Parker residence. The aim of this post is to
provide some history and context to the home now owned and occupied by Peter,
Mary Jane, May, and Benjy Parker in the MC2
by looking at its published history.
Let us start with some background and
details about the house. Located at 20 Ingram Street, ‘a quiet street
in the Forest Hills section of New York, is the neat frame,
two-story house’ (Amazing Spider-Man #316-#317, Amazing
Spider-Man Annual #1) which was owned by the bootlegging criminal Dutch
Mallone during the prohibition era of the 1930’s. The house was eventually surrounded by
treasury agents led by Eliot Ness and Mallone was sent to prison.
Rumours abound that Dutch had hidden away millions of dollars somewhere (in
his house) that was never found (Amazing Spider-Man #200, Peter Parker, The
Spectacular Spider-Man #50-#51).
At some point, Ben and May Parker
moved into the home and later their nephew Peter came to live with them
after his parents died (Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5, Amazing
Spider-Man Family #2). Unless I am mistaken, we have never seen a flashback
to a younger May and Ben moving in to Forest Hills.
Now, for the more straightforward stuff.
The Parker House first appears in Amazing Fantasy #15 when we are
introduced to Peter’s Aunt May and Uncle Ben.
Sadly, after Ben’s murder, May struggles to afford the rent and Peter
sets out to earn money to help, and eventually uses money he earned from his Spider-Man
pictures to pay off the rent for a full year (Amazing Spider-Man #1-#2).
We get an iconic look at the house in Amazing
Spider-Man Annual #1, the layout and appearance of which is fairly
consistently maintained by future artists.
When Peter is offered the
opportunity to move in with Harry Osborn in an apartment, he worries
about leaving his Aunt May alone, until she reveals Mary Jane’s Aunt
Anna has asked her to move in. Notably, Peter suggests May
could sell the house to live comfortably for the next few years (Amazing
Spider-Man #46). This implies May now owns the home…so perhaps they
were doing ‘rent to buy’ and finished paying it off? Either way, after
this we do not see the Parker House for a long time.
A detour now, because after a few
appearances of what must be Anna Watson’s House including the time where
May takes in Doctor Octopus as a boarder while Anna is
away resulting in the house being badly damaged during a super-battle (Amazing
Spider-Man #53-#55), we later see May lives in an apartment building
that may be in Forest Hills and later appearances suggest Anna
lives there too (Amazing Spider-Man #110). For anyone who’s interested,
their address is given as ‘124-05 24th St Queens, NY’ (Amazing
Spider-Man #119) after May runs away to stay with Doctor
Octopus, and it’s later referred to as their ‘Forest Hills Apartment
House’ and ‘Apartment Complex’ on occasion including when May
protests the removal of rental-control on the building (Amazing Spider-Man
#167, Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #2 and #7).
Jumping around a bit, it seems the only
time we actually glimpse the Parkers House is in Amazing Spider-Man
Annual #5 during a flashback to Peter moving a trunk to the basement
only to discover articles about his parents Richard and Mary’s
deaths and the accusation they were traitors. This presumably means May had
neither sold nor rented out her old home, though perhaps this was her clearing
things out.
This would change in Amazing Spider-Man
#170 where we witness a scene of a realtor showing the house to someone who
is very interested in the premises and agrees to rent it. Notably, the realtor
mentions May still owns the home and will use the rent money as a
pension.
This proves true, as after suffering a
heart attack during a protest in Amazing Spider-Man #176 and an eventful
extended hospital stay, May Parker leaves for Restwell Retirement
Home in Amazing Spider-Man #189. While May settles into the Retirement
Home, her Forest Hills house is entirely trashed by her tenant who
is searching for something. We learn this is The Burglar who shot and
killed Ben Parker when he shows up at Restwell seeking
information from May Parker, threatening the Home’s Dr Ludwig
Rinehart (an alias of Quentin Beck aka Mysterio)
(Amazing Spider-Man #193).
The Burglar
reveals he was looking for something when he entered the Parker Home and
shot Ben Parker, but he cannot extract the information from May
with her nephew Peter visiting so often. The disguised Mysterio
offers to deal with Peter and secretly plans to do the same to The
Burglar once he learns exactly what he is after (Amazing Spider-Man #194).
The criminal Mysterio, maintaining
his disguise as Dr. Rinehart, enacts his plan by faking May Parker’s
death to ensure Peter would no longer be around to interfere, sending
him a note informing him his aunt has died (Amazing Spider-Man #195). Notably,
Rinehart even mentions that May was using her home to pay for her
stay at Restwell and asks if Peter wants to make arrangements for
this. Peter makes a trip to his childhood home only to discover it has
been ripped apart which leads him to realize he recognizes the name ‘Rinehart’
(Amazing Spider-Man #196).
With Peter Parker out of the picture,
The Burglar tells ‘Rinehart’ what he is after; Dutch Mallone’s
hidden millions. Turning the tables, Rinehart reveals himself as Mysterio
and tells The Burglar of his Nursing Home scam: ensuring the
residents’ wealth and properties are signed over to him so he profits when they
pass away. However, having learned of The Burglars plan to find the
hidden millions, Mysterio changes his plan and captures him. Spider-Man
makes his way to Restwell Retirement Home and battles Mysterio
who now technically owns the Parker’s house. Their fight continues at Spider-Man’s
old home in Forest Hills where Mysterio is now searching for Mallone’s
treasure, before returning to Restwell where Spider-Man is
rendered powerless with a dart full of ‘depressant’. Mysterio apparently
cuts his losses and escapes as he does not appear in the following issue (Amazing
Spider-Man #198-#199).
Meanwhile, The Burglar escapes his
bondage and Peter returns to his Aunt May’s old home and decides
to solve the mystery. Paying a visit to Anna Watson next door, Peter
asks about the tenant living in May’s house but she can only suggest he
ask the rental agency. Peter does so and learns the name of the tenant: it
is The Burglar who killed Uncle Ben. Piecing things
together, Peter learns the story of Dutch Mallone’s
treasure, the reason The Burglar went to the Parker’s home
the night he shot Uncle Ben (Amazing Spider-Man #200).
The still depowered Peter returns home
only to be captured by The Burglar, who reveals that Mallone shared
a jail cell with him and had spilled the location of the treasure while talking
in his sleep. Eventually taken to the warehouse where Spider-Man first
captured The Burglar, Peter learns Aunt May is alive
before fighting The Burglar, who dies of a heart attack after Peter
shows him he is Spider-Man. In the end, May reveals to Peter that
she and Ben had found a box of Mallone’s while pulling down wallboards,
but it’s contents had long ago been eaten away by silverfish. The whole event
was for nothing. Presumably, with Mysterio’s scam revealed, and May
still alive she would retain ownership of her old house (Amazing Spider-Man
#200).
Still recovering from her recent illness
and kidnapping, May returns to Restwell Retirement Home (Peter
Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #38). While there, she meets and begins
a relationship with fellow resident Nathan Lubensky (Peter Parker,
The Spectacular Spider-Man #47). May
mentions she wants to move back into her home and turn it into a boarding house
in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #68. Nathan and May
attend a leaving party at Restwell in Marvel Team-Up #120 before unofficially
opening her home for boarders in Marvel Team-Up #124. Almost a week
later May obtains a special licence as a special-status landlady from
the tax authority. We learn that along with Peter and May, Nathan
has also invested his own savings to convert May’s house into a boarding
house (Amazing Spider-Man #238).
May and Peter
are targeted by Mysterio in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #50-#51,
who returns still seeking Mallone’s treasure. Peter reveals the
truth about the treasure being destroyed by silverfish, though Mysterio
naturally initially does not believe him. Peter continues to assist May’s
boarding house financially, as seen in Peter Parker, The Spectacular
Spider-Man #78.
Much later, the now married Peter
and Mary Jane Parker are evicted from their Bedford Towers home
on Christmas Eve and forced to move in to Aunt May’s boarding house.
Peter struggles with this as he feels he has long since outgrown the situation
and it compromises his self-image as an adult. After being offered a room
behind a gym by Flash, Peter visits Uncle Ben’s grave and
finds Aunt May there which finally makes him realize he should accept
her offer (Amazing Spider-Man #314).
Having learned Nathan has heart failure
and only about six months to live, May considers phasing-out her
boarding operations. Peter and Mary Jane are offered a loft above
Harry and Liz Osborn’s own place in SoHo (Amazing
Spider-Man #321). The couple move out of May’s place in Web of
Spider-Man #57 and the other boarders begin to find other accommodations,
with the last moving out in Amazing Spider-Man #326, leaving only May
and Nathan in the house.
Nathan dies
after an encounter with The Vulture in Amazing Spider-Man #336
and following his burial, when Peter and Mary Jane offer
to have May stay with them for a while but she says she must get used to
living alone again (Amazing Spider-Man #337). While May does find
a new companion in Willie Lumpkin, she seems to continue to live
alone.
Let us skip ahead to Amazing Spider-Man
#391 where May, alone and filled with pent up emotions after a visit
from Mary Jane, collapses to the ground and fortunately found
shortly after by a returning Mary Jane. It is revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #392
that May has suffered a stroke and fallen into a coma. After some weeks
in hospital, May regains consciousness (Web of Spider-Man #123)
and returns once more to her home in Forest Hills (Amazing Spider-Man
#400).
While back in her own house, May
deduces that hero daughter-in-law Mary Jane is pregnant (with the aptly
named May ‘Mayday’ Parker aka Spider-Girl) before spending a week with her beloved nephew
Peter and, during a trip to the Empire State Building she reveals
she’s known for years Peter was secretly Spider-Man. Finally, at
home in her bed, May says her last goodbye to Peter. Peter
recounts May reading Peter Pan to him as a child as she passes
away peacefully (Amazing Spider-Man #400).
It is worth noting that May’s death
occurs amid the Clone Saga and her hospitalization was the impetus for Peter’s
clone brother Ben Reilly to return to New York City after five
years in self-imposed exile. Ben also observes his aunt’s passing unseen
and unable to be present, a truly tragic moment (Amazing Spider-Man #400).
Peter and Mary
Jane eventually move to Portland and during the events of Spider-Man:
The Final Adventure, Peter loses his spider-powers. Meanwhile
Ben Reilly assumes the role of Spider-Man. When the expectant
couple return to New York, we learn that Anna Watson has begun
getting the Parker’s House back into shape (Web of Spider-Man #127)
for them. They move in to the house (Amazing Spider-Man #413, Spider-Man
#70) and shortly after they are joined by Anna Watson who moves in
to help them with their coming baby (Amazing Spider-Man #417).
A side note; the Parker House’s
address is given as ‘309 Austin Avenue, Forest Hills’
in Spider-Man #70 when Mary Jane calls 911 for an ambulance
when Peter has a seizure. This is not the only instance of a different
address for the house, but given the prominence and recurrence of ‘20
Ingram Street’ I am going to stick with it instead.
During the Revelations arc, Peter
and Ben spend some quality time together in the attic, sorting through
their old belongings (Spectacular Spider-Man #240). This would be their
last happy moment together before Ben dies fighting the original Green
Goblin aka Norman
Osborn (Peter Parker: Spider-Man #75). Of course, Mary Jane and Peter’s
baby
May is declared stillborn in Amazing Spider-Man #418. This
is part of a horrific plot afoot and in the MC2 she is eventually returned
safely to her parents thanks to Kaine
(Spider-Girl #48-#49).
Before parents and child are reunited, Peter
and Mary Jane mourn their loss. As part of this process, Mary Jane
repaints the nursery in their home and decides to enroll at Empire State
University, and Peter considers returning to complete his masters degree (Amazing
Spider-Man #419). In the MC2, we know that Peter did, in
fact, do this as he is referred to as ‘Doctor Parker’ and works as a
police scientist (What If #105). Mary Jane’s studies also appear
to have been successful, as many years later she accepts the position of guidance
counselor at Midtown High School (Amazing Spider-Girl #8-#10, #16).
Now we can look at the MC2’s
established history involving the Parker’s Family Home. We know Peter
and Mary Jane continued to live in the house after the MC2
diverged from the Main Marvel Universe, as seen in stories set during Mayday’s
early life including the Mr. and Mrs. Spider-Man story seen in Amazing
Spider-Man Family #1. There, Mayday is left with Anna Watson
when Peter and Mary Jane leave for dinner with the Connors
only for Spider-Man to have to battle The Lizard. It appears Anna Watson
also continued to live in the house during Mayday’s infancy, though it
is possible she was just staying there to babysit in Amazing Spider-Man
Family #2.
The Parker Family remain in
their Forest Hills home throughout the MC2’s entire publication
run from What If #105 to Spider-Girl: The End. It is worth
pointing out that Anna Watson does not make any appearances in the
present-day MC2, so not only does she no longer live there, she may have
actually passed away.
Perhaps the most notable appearance of the Parker
Family Home in the MC2 was when Peter and baby Benjy were
kidnapped by the current host
to the Carnage
Symbiote.
Carnage left destruction in his wake and a message scrawled in blood (Amazing
Spider-Girl #10).
The Parker’s attic is, somewhat fittingly,
a reoccurring location of some significance. It’s where Mayday learns of
the events surrounding her father’s final battle with the Green Goblin
and the loss
of his own leg. It is also where Mayday finds her Uncle Ben’s
costume and web-shooters
before heading out to save her father (What If #105/Spider-Girl #0).
Mayday would return here on occasion to seek a costume (Spider-Girl
#7) and eventually Peter would teach his daughter to make web-fluid there
using a makeshift lab (Amazing Spider-Girl #20).
In closing, I hope the significance of the
humble abode of the Parker’s is not lost on readers. While for a long stretch
of time after Peter and his Aunt May moved out the home ceased to
hold any relevance it has since become a major part of the not just the Spider-Man
mythos, but that of Spider-Girl’s own. Acting as a point of safety and
stability, there really is no place like home.
Until I figure out if Peter paid out
the remaining mortgage or if May and/or Ben had just a little
left to pay off on a rent to buy scheme, I remain
frogoat
