Spider-Man lore was almost radically different, thanks to a major dropped storyline in the 1990s: the shocking return of Peter Parker and Mary Jane’s baby daughter, who was believed to be dead. Marvel had the chance to give this heartbreaking chapter in Spider-Man lore a happier ending, but ultimately nixed its plan to bring back baby May Parker.
Speaking with Popverse, legendary Marvel writer Tom DeFalco reiterated his original plan to reveal Peter and MJ’s baby was alive, after her apparent stillbirth.
Ultimately, however, Marvel stepped in and changed the conclusion of the story before DeFalco was able to finish it, resulting in one of the greatest “What If?” questions in Marvel Comics history.
Spider-Man And Mary Jane’s Daughter Was Supposed To Survive Her Tragic ’90s Fate, But Marvel Intervened
Author Tom DeFalco’s Original Plan For Mayday Parker, Explained
The death of Peter Parker and Mary Jane’s daughter in childbirth is among the most gutwrenching creative decisions Marvel Comics has ever made. It also was never meant to be permanent. In fact, the devastating news, delivered at the end of Amazing Spider-Man #418, was set up for a huge twist down the line.
That is, baby Mayday Parker was set to be revealed as alive, and reunited with her parents. Author Tom DeFalco even got as far as teasing the baby’s return in subsequent issues of Amazing Spider-Man, before Marvel abruptly switched directions, taking DeFalco off the book and bringing in John Byrne instead.
The result was the surprise return of the also-deceased Aunt May, rather than baby Mayday, in a move that still leaves DeFalco scratching his head decades later. “It was always going to be the baby,” the author notes, pointing out that his storyline had the go-ahead from Marvel before the publisher reversed course.
Marvel Changed Spider-Man Forever By Canceling Baby May’s Return
The end result of Mary Jane’s pregnancy was supposed to be the addition of Mayday Parker to Marvel canon. The story of the Parker family was supposed to move forward, similar to how Fantastic Four introduced Franklin Richards decades earlier. Instead, Marvel did the unthinkable, killing off the baby, and in a sense, Spider-Man has never recovered since.
A decade later, Marvel annulled Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage entirely, and ever since, it has kept the character in a kind of arrested development. In fact, nixing the return of baby May, Tom DeFalco’s original plan, was the first step in this direction. One made even more surprising by the character’s later alternate continuity success.
DeFalco did get to finish his original Mayday story, only in the pages of What If?, the success of which led to an ongoing Spider-Girl series. Arguably, this should have been the future of the Spider-Man franchise in canon, and Marvel’s failure to go through with it had a dramatic ripple effect on Marvel in the decades since.
- First Appearance
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Amazing Fantasy
- Alias
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Peter Parker, Ben Reilly, Otto Octavius, Yu Komori, Kaine Parker, Pavitr Prabhakar, William Braddock, Miles Morales, Kurt Wagner
- Alliance
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Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Secret Defenders, Future Foundation, Heroes for Hire, Mighty Avengers, New Avengers, Web-Warriors
- Race
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Human