What happened to all of Peter Parker's Grandparents?

[jebsib]

Assuming they are all dead, but it is unusual for a young man to have lost parents and all sets of grandparents.

It's very strange that any grandparents are never mentioned - obviously the role was filled (for narrative purposes) by May & Ben, but still…

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Assuming they are all dead, but it is unusual for a young man to have lost parents and all sets of grandparents.

Well here's the statistics (https://adoption.com/how-many-orphans-in-the-us). There are somewhere around 443,000 orphans in the US in the past decade. That number might have been higher during World War II and the '50s and early '60s when the character was first concieved (and when his creators came of age).

It's very strange that any grandparents are never mentioned - obviously the role was filled (for narrative purposes) by May & Ben, but still…

Obviously the Doylist reason is that Uncle Ben and Aunt May be the only family Peter has left. His parents are not important, his extended family is not important, and that means grandparents too are not important.

[HypnoHustler]

The only one we know about (to my knowledge) is Mary Parker’s father William Fitzpatrick. So Peter’s maternal grandfather. He received some mentions and panels in ‘Untold Tales of Spider-Man’ #-1 (as in minus 1... it was a special company-wide flashback month in 1997. Some really fun comics came out).

You can read about him here. https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Willi...ck_(Earth-616)

[Revolutionary_Jack]

The only one we know about (to my knowledge) is Mary Parker’s father William Fitzpatrick. So Peter’s maternal grandfather. He received some mentions and panels in ‘Untold Tales of Spider-Man’ #-1 (as in minus 1... it was a special company-wide flashback month in 1997. Some really fun comics came out).

You can read about him here. https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Willi...ck_(Earth-616)

Wow, Peter's mother's Dad was quite a stud.

Obviously, Peter didn't inherit anything from that side of the family.

[jebsib]

Good points all!

I think it's weird that Spidey - having appeared in thousands of stories in the last 60 years, and Marvel's flagship - and having had his family life (May & Ben, Richard & Mary) examined quite a bit, that we are not clearer on the fate of his immediate family tree.

[Mister Mets]

Assuming they are all dead, but it is unusual for a young man to have lost parents and all sets of grandparents.

It's very strange that any grandparents are never mentioned - obviously the role was filled (for narrative purposes) by May & Ben, but still…

Ben & May were older, so we could assume it's not too unusual for their parents, who would be around 25 years older, to depart from this world.

That mainly leaves Mary's parents, and we don't know much about them, or that side of the family.

* Edit- Aside from Mary's mother dying when she was young.

[Snoop Dogg]

All killed by the Spanish Flu.

[jetengine]

Isnt the idea something like Peters parents had him when they were 40 somethings so Ben and May were roughly 10-15 years older ? So Peter at age 15 (spider bite) is living with his 65-70 year old aunt/uncle ?

Depending on when the story is set (sliding timeline aside) at minimum the grandparents would be in their 70s. Which again, depending on the timeline could mean their already dead or (if in a modern era) at best capable of keeping an eye on him when he's not being too active.

[Alan2099]

Isnt the idea something like Peters parents had him when they were 40 somethings so Ben and May were roughly 10-15 years older ? So Peter at age 15 (spider bite) is living with his 65-70 year old aunt/uncle ?

Yeah, there was a rather significant age difference between Ben and Richard.



As for Aunt May's parents.

We know her dad walked out on her when she was in her teens and her mother blamed her for it. They've both passed away since.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

As for Aunt May's parents.

We know her dad walked out on her when she was in her teens and her mother blamed her for it. They've both passed away since.

That does explain a lot about May's devotion to Peter, her refusal to have him be abandoned the way she was, and to be the mother to a kid who's not her own blood to compensate for her own biological mother rejecting her.



Anyway, I feel that the Parkers and the people Peter's related to should be as mundane and down to earth as possible as a contrast to his superhero world (this is a big reason why people have issues with Peter's parents being SHIELD and all). It shouldn't be like Bruce Wayne, who has a patrician legacy and whose rich ancestors were on the good side of American history right throughout or Superman's Kryptonian ancestors and whatnot.

[Scott Taylor]

Good points all!

I think it's weird that Spidey - having appeared in thousands of stories in the last 60 years, and Marvel's flagship - and having had his family life (May & Ben, Richard & Mary) examined quite a bit, that we are not clearer on the fate of his immediate family tree.

Do we know who Ben Grimm's grandparents are? Johnny Storm? Bruce Banner? Is there even one grandpa in the entire Marvel Universe who gets any comic time on a regular basis?

DC has done this with Batman, I'm pretty sure. He's had his grandpa and other distant relatives come up quite a bit. Not sure who else.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Do we know who Ben Grimm's grandparents are? Johnny Storm? Bruce Banner? Is there even one grandpa in the entire Marvel Universe who gets any comic time on a regular basis?

Stan Lee? But yeah, you are right.

Iron Man is another character who does have a lot of family legacy issues, but even then I don't think Howard Stark's dad is of importance or consequence.

DC has done this with Batman, I'm pretty sure. He's had his grandpa and other distant relatives come up quite a bit. Not sure who else.

With Batman the issue with the Waynes is that this is an old rich family and yet the immediate generations of Waynes (Thomas and Bruce) are only children. Where are the cousins, uncles, aunts, and distant relatives out to carve up the estate and go all Knives Out on each other? It's quite unusual for such a patrician Old Money family (think Rockefellers, Morgan, and other old money people) to basically be distilled to such a thin branch. Anyway, Bill Finger explicitly said that Bruce should have a patrician ancestry and trace his roots to colonial Old Money types. So that's a part of the creator's vision there. But neither Ditko nor Lee attached any great importance to Peter's ancestry or any such thing.

[jebsib]

Do we know who Ben Grimm's grandparents are? Johnny Storm? Bruce Banner? Is there even one grandpa in the entire Marvel Universe who gets any comic time on a regular basis? .

We don't - but Spider-man is a bit of a special case, no? So much of his history focuses on family relationships, the vacuum created by his deceased parents, his adoption by uncle and aunt… it just seems like throwing out a line as to why his 4 grandparents aren't here feels more natural than for someone like Bruce Banner, whose PARENTS weren't even alluded to for the first 23 years.

[Alan2099]

Do we know who Ben Grimm's grandparents are? Johnny Storm? Bruce Banner? Is there even one grandpa in the entire Marvel Universe who gets any comic time on a regular basis?

DC has done this with Batman, I'm pretty sure. He's had his grandpa and other distant relatives come up quite a bit. Not sure who else.

Rage used to live with his Grandma. Then they killed her.


Oh! Wait. I got a good one for ya'!

Corsair, from the X-men series. He's Cyclops's dad and Cable Grandad.
... and speaking of time traveling white haired cyborgs with glowing eyes named Nathan, Reed Richards's father and Franklin's grandfather has gotten quite a bit of pannel time over the years.

Not exactly on a regualr basis though.