10 Most Tragic Deaths In The History Of Spider-Man

4. Aunt May

She had to go at some point, right? Aunt May must be a gosh darn miracle of modern science or something, because the old biddy managed to cling on for a good forty years before seemingly carking it for good. Not bad for a woman who was elderly and frail back when she was introduced in 1965, and has managed to scrape by through literally dozens of storylines where she's on the edge of passing away, in the way that an extremely old woman should be. Look we weren't angling for a sweet old lady to die or anything, it just started to stretch believability a little that she'd still be alive after all this time. Yes, stretched believability. In a Spider-Man comic. Shut up. Maybe our assumption that she would never die - as there was no evidence that she ever would, what with all the times she came close and the Marvel editors chickened out - was what made it all the more tragic when she finally did. May's passing came during one of those rare moments of relative quiet and togetherness for Peter Parker. He and Mary Jane were married and living together, they were happy, the clones hadn't turned up yet. Of course that had to be spoilt, and in the landmark issue 400 of Amazing Spider-Man, no less. The story even starts with a fake out, May almost dying only for Peter to remind himself that he has cheated death numerous times, and built a life for himself. She comes out of a coma. She learns Mary Jane is up the duff. Everyone is happy! To celebrate, her doting nephew takes her to the top of the Empire State Building. When she promptly has a heart attack and passes away, after telling Peter she knows he's Spider-Man. We're sensing a theme here...