Perhaps This Will Teach Him The Importance Of Full Disclosure

While I was going through my collection, I came across a Spider-Girl issue that seemed somewhat relevant, under the circumstances. In Spider-Girl #44, Pete gets on May's case for being irresponsible*. In this case, May had waited until she only had one webbing cartridge left, before telling him she needed more. Well, that's teenagers for ya. Pete reads her the riot act, and when May asks whether he every made any mistakes, Pete boldly proclaims that he was 'absolutely perfect'. MJ, loving spouse she is, opts to wait until May has left to laugh herself silly at that comment**.

Anyway, Peter decides to go patch things up with May, and explain while being responsible is such a big deal to him. Which means he explains the hole Uncle Ben and the Burglar situation, something he apparently hadn't done previously. May is affected by his story, but it also piques her curiousity. She wants to know about her "Uncle Ben", who we know as Ben Reilly, Mr. Scarlet Spider himself. THis is where Pete's decision making takes what is probably a turn for the worse.

Pete says he isn't certain how he and Ben were related, but given Ben's last name (Aunt May's maiden name), they were probably cousins, though they were 'closer than brothers'. He tells her about how he and Ben didn't get along initially, then Ben left to wander the country for awhile, before coming back when Aunt May fell ill. About the time Peter mentions that Ben had spider-powers, May gets suspicious. How'd that happen, she wonders? Pete deflects with some half-truths about 'mad scientists and crazy experiments', and how he doesn't really understand the process, and continues the story, up to the point where Norman Osborn killed Ben. That did give Mayday a little more insight into her dad's issues with the Osborns, so that was nice.

But it's a little interesting that Pete left out all the stuff about clones. I can't really understand why, given all the weird stuff May had dealt with. Granted, most of her difficulties have been with low-level villains, typically working for various mobs, but I can't figure "Clones!" would shake her that much. I guess she could start questioning whether her dad is the real Peter Parker, but it wouldn't change how she'd feel about him, so I think the risk with that is pretty low. There's the possibility she'd wonder what Kaine's connection to all this is, and whether she'd realize he's as much her "uncle" as Ben was, but his features have degraded enough I don't she'd see the resemblance, and somehow I don't see Kaine admitting it to her himself.

I bring it up since one of the cover solicitations (maybe October's) showed May is going to have it out with the other May here pretty soon, and if she knew that her family has history with clones created (or whose creation was sponsored by) Osborns, that might make it a bit less disconcerting. At least she would have some idea what's going on, you know?

* Pete does that a lot.

** For the record, Pete laughed along with her, so he's not completely delusional.