History: (Web of Spider-Man I Annual#5/3 (fb)
- BTS) - At some point, May Parker and her husband Ben took in and
raised their young nephew Peter, whom they nicknamed Petey.
CAPTAIN UNIVERSE
(of Earth-77640)
Real Name: May Parker
Identity/Class: Alternate reality
(Earth-77640) human mutate
Occupation: Adventurer
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Justin Baldwin, Maddy Baldwin,
Robbie Baldwin, Dr. Blake, "Bombastic Bag-Ma'am" (May Parker of Earth-22339) (indirectly), Betty Brant, "Captain Spider-Ma'am"
(May Parker of Earth-42319) (indirectly), Doctor Strange, Fantastic
Four
(Human Torch, Invisible Girl, Mister Fantastic, Thing), Fred Hembeck,
Janie, Matt Murdock, Ben Parker, Spider-Man (Miles Morales of
Earth-1610) (indirectly), Spider-Man (Peter "Petey" Parker), Mrs.
Watson, numerous other alternate reality May Parker counterparts
(indirectly), possibly numerous other superhumans at the Fantastic Four
roast;
Earth-3123 natives:
Ben
Parker, Peter
Parker, Spider-Ma'am
(May Parker) (all indirectly)
Enemies: Doctor Octopus;
Earth-20143
natives: Carnage (May Parker), Miles Morales, Ben Parker, Peter
Parker (all indirectly)
Known Relatives: Ben Parker (husband), Peter
Parker (Spider-Man, nephew), Rick (nephew-in-law)
Aliases: "The Astonishing Aunt May," "Lady,"
"Ma'am," "the Super Hero Who Could Be You"
Base of Operations: Queens, New York, USA
First Appearance: Fantastic Four Roast#1 (May, 1982)
Powers/Abilities: While she did not display any superhuman abilities, Captain Universe presumably had all of the same powers of a typical recipient of the Enigma Force, including superhuman strength, flight, rearrangement of molecules and light energy projection.
She has seen projecting a sort of webbing from her wrists but whether this is a new usage of her Captain Universe or the result of mechanical web-shooters remains unrevealed.
May Parker is also a skilled knitter.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'5") (see comments)
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 110 lbs.) (see comments)
Eyes: Unrevealed (presumably blue) (see comments)
Hair: White
History: (Web of Spider-Man I Annual#5/3 (fb)
- BTS) - At some point, May Parker and her husband Ben took in and
raised their young nephew Peter, whom they nicknamed Petey.
(Web of Spider-Man I Annual#5/3) - May tasked Petey with going down to Wilson's Drug Store to pick up some medicine for his Uncle Ben. Giving Petey an envelope, May informed Petey that if he gave the druggist Dr. Mitchell the envelope she gave Petey, Mitchell would give Petey the pills and some change that Petey could spend however he liked. Along the way, Petey was convinced to use the money to buy ice cream floats for himself, "Flash" Thompson and Liz Allen by "Flash" and while they were enjoying the floats in the drug store, Dr. Mitchell came inside and informed Petey that May had called ahead to let him know Petey would be stopping by for Ben's pills. When Dr. Mitchell gave Petey the pills, Petey's change was only a quarter and upon realizing the floats would cost two dollars and seventy-five cents, Petey and his friends fell out of their chairs.
(Marvel Age I#85) - On Christmas Eve, May told Petey
to go to bed or Santa would not stop by. Despite protests that he was
too old for Santa, Petey nonetheless went upstairs and, after Petey was
in bed, May suggested that perhaps Petey would recognize Ben in a Santa
Claus costume. Ben remarked that they should at least try and May
accompanied him to the garage to find Ben's Santa suit. A short time
later, Petey came downstairs and saw Santa Claus, whom he dismissed as
a costumed Uncle Ben until he walked into the kitchen for milk and
cookies and found May trying to help Ben change into his Santa suit.
Shocked, Petey exclaimed "He's gone!" and May asked Petey who had gone,
unaware that the Santa Claus Petey had seen was a shapeshifting alien
Skrull.
(Spectacular Spider-Man I Annual#11/4) - As May and Ben Parker were preparing to see a show with their visiting friends, Justin and Maddy Baldwin, May received a phone call announcing the cancellation of the babysitter. Justin Baldwin immediately suggested Petey watch their infant son Robbie and despite May's misgivings that Petey was still a child himself, the Parkers ultimately allowed Petey to babysit Robbie. The Parkers and Baldwins later returned early due to a power failure at the Tor Johnson Theater, unaware that Petey had inadvertently been on an adventure in town with Robbie that had caused the power failure. After Petey was paid for his babysitting job, the Baldwins watched The Wally Wisecard Show with May and Ben and when the show aired footage of Petey's adventures, the Parkers yelled at Petey, who learned the lesson of "with great irresponsbility comes a great deal of trouble."
(Untold Tales of Spider-Man I '97 Annual/2 (fb) -
BTS) - Prior to a doctor's appointment with Dr. Blake, May Parker
arranged for her nephew Petey to meet her outside Dr. Blake's office at
precisely 1:30pm.
(Untold Tales of Spider-Man I '97 Annual/2) - Finishing up the visit to Dr. Blake, May Parker was given a bottle of medicine and she quickly popped the pills despite the nurse's warnings that the new medicine might leave her dizzy and disoriented. Assuring the nurse that Petey would be outside to help her get home safely, May departed Dr. Blake's office and was surprised that Petey was not there. Figuring the walk would do her some good, the disoriented May began walking home, only to have the young Matt Murdock bump into her. Assuring Matt she was fine, May wobbled her way down the street, soon thinking she had the vapors as Matt secretly followed her to make sure she made it home safely. When May nearly walked out in front of an Ajax Atomic Labs truck, Petey, who was running late, spotted May and yelled for her just as Matt dove to save May from the truck. Happy to see Petey, May turned around and Matt fell on the sidewalk. Confused, May asked what was going on and Matt explained that he was trying to save May from walking out in front of the truck, only to look over and see the truck had stopped at a red light. Petey angrily berated Matt for nearly hurting May in his attempt to shove her out of the way of the truck and May attempted to calm Petey down. Overhearing Petey's exclamations, a group of bullies began calling Matt "Daredevil" and when Matt departed to study, a guilt-ridden Petey admitted to May that perhaps there was a little of "Flash" Thompson in everyone, himself included.
(Petey II#1) - May and Ben Parker prepared to leave
for Ben's nephew Rick's wedding to Lisa. Ben tried to hurry May up but
she insisted on getting Petey situated first since the neighbor Mrs.
Watson was seemingly called away out of town and Petey's regular
babysitter Janie had apparently come down with a 24 hour virus. May
informed Petey that they had to find a last minute replacement and
revealed that Janie had recommended her friend Susan Storm to babysit.
Susan soon arrived and informed May that she had to bring along her
little brother Johnny since May's request to babysit was short notice.
May admitted she didn't mind that Johnny came along but questioned
where Johnny was. After Susan yelled for him, a laxidazical Johnny
entered the room and May immediately noticed that Johnny and Petey were
around the same age. As she remarked that the two boys should get along
famously, Ben yelled for May to come along and May left, grumbling that
the Parker men were impatient.
(Marvel Age I#42 (fb)) - At one point after Peter
became the heroic Spider-Man, May Parker was kidnapped alongside Betty
Brant by the villainous Doctor Octopus. She later sat in a rocking
chair and knitted.
(Fantastic Four Roast#1 (fb) - BTS) - May Parker was granted the cosmic Uni-Power, which she used as the heroic Captain Universe.
(Fantastic Four Roast#1) - When the heroic Fantastic Four were invited to a celebrity roast in their honor to celebrate the anniversary of the team's founding, Captain Universe appeared and spoke at the podium, asking if it were time for milk and cookies. The roast's host, Fred Hembeck, remarked that it wasn't quite time, as they first had to give the Fantastic Four time to respond to their roasters.
(Spider-Verse III#2 (fb) - BTS) - At some point,
Captain Universe adopted a spider-themed mask to disguise the lower
portion of her face and hair.
Comments: Created by Fred Hembeck, Jim Shooter and Almost Everybody.
Captain Universe's physical stats are based on May Parker of Earth-616.
A Hembeck-drawn Aunt May appears in Hembeck: The Best of Dateline @!!?#, published in 1979 by Eclipse Comics. One might argue that it is the first appearance of the Earth-77640 Aunt May, as it was drawn by Hembeck, but since it was published by Eclipse Comics, I'm inclined to treat that appearance as an alternate reality May. If someone provides a strong argument for the inclusion of that in this profile, I may add it in at a later date.
Despite May Parker being Captain Universe in the Fantastic Four Roast#1 story, a male Captain Universe appears on the issue's cover. He is not seen in-story though.
There is nothing that
outright states that the Captain Universe May Parker in Fantastic Four
Roast#1 and the one seen in Spider-Verse III#2 are the same character
but there is equally nothing concrete to say it isn't either. Plus, the
Earth-77640 Captain Universe May was already existing prior to
Spider-Verse III#2. One might argue against treating them as one in the
same since
there are slight differences in the mask of the two and we hadn't seen
Earth-77640's May Parker be able to shoot webbing in any appearances
prior to Spider-Verse III#2. Additionally, one might argue that Peter
Parker is the Spider-totem on Earth-77640 since Spider-Man does exist
in that reality. However, we've seen multiple Spider-totems in the same
reality before such as Earth-616, Earth-1610, etc. so I don't think the
Spider-totem argument is a truly valid one. Plus, we've never seen
anything that shows Earth-77640's May gaining spider-powers so she may
not even be a spider-totem. To
explain away the webbing and mask differences, one could argue that
since those empowered by the Uni-Power have been known to manipulate
molecules, perhaps May-77640 eventually learned of Peter's dual
identity and chose the spider-themed mask in honor of her beloved
nephew. As for the webbing itself, it could simply be an alteration of
molecules made to resemble webbing that May
projected to assist against Carnage and not truly the chemical or
organic webbing used by
many other Spider-totems.
Profile by Proto-Man
and Copeinator123.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Earth-77640's Captain Universe should be
distinguished from:
Appearances:
Fantastic Four Roast#1 (May, 1982) - Fred Hembeck (story, layouts), Jim
Shooter (plot assist, editor), Almost Everybody (art)
Marvel Age I#42 (September, 1986) - "The Greatest Marvel Annual of Them
All: Amazing Spider-Man Annual#1, 1964" story - Fred Hembeck (writer,
art), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Web of Spider-Man I Annual#5 (1989) - "Petey" story - Fred Hembeck
(writer, art), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Marvel Age I#85 (February, 1990) - "Claus Encounter!" story - Fred
Hembeck (writer, art), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Spectacular Spider-Man I Annual#11 (1991) - "With Babysitting Comes
Great Responsibility!" story - Fred Hembeck (writer, art), Danny
Fingeroth (editor)
Untold Tales of Spider-Man I '97 Annual (1997) - "The Devil & Mrs.
Parker" story - Fred Hembeck (writer, art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Petey II#1 (March, 2010) - Fred Hembeck (writer, art), Stephen Wacker
(editor)
Spider-Verse III#2 (January, 2020) - Ryan
North (writer), Pere Perez (penciler), Jordi Tarragona Garcia (inker), Nick Lowe
(editor)
First posted: 06/29/2022
Last updated: 06/29/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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