Polite Dissent

After a blood transfusion from Peter Parker in Amazing Spider-Man #10, Aunt May was exposed to “radioactive particles” and became very ill by Amazing Spider-Man #29 and nearly died. Her symptoms of fatigue, fainting and bleeding were consistent with radiation poisoning. Mortality is at least 50% at the amount of radiation she absorbed (and higher still in the elderly).

Damage from radiation depends on several things: the dose, the amount of time exposed, and the distance from the source. Some radiation poisoning symptoms can occur immediately, but most symptoms take longer to develop. Certain symptoms do not occur until years later.

Depending on the dose, immediate symptoms of radiation poisoning include nausea and vomiting, headache, fever, and diarrhea. Higher doses may cause a loss of consciousness, and it is theorized that very high doses (greater than 8000 rads) will kill immediately. Radiation burns generally appear on the skin within hours to weeks.

Delayed symptoms can include fatigue, infection, easy bleeding, hair loss, and skin lesions. The amount of time before these symptoms appear also depends on the dose of radiation; higher doses cause symptoms to appear sooner. In high doses shock, coma, and death can occur within days to weeks.

Individuals exposed to high amounts of radiation who survive the immediate and delayed symptoms have significantly higher cancer rates ten or more years later.

Aunt May received a transfusion from Peter in issue #10. Her first symptoms were noted in issue #29. In the bizarre world of comic-book time, it’s hard to know for certain how many months of radiation exposure she actually had.

Her radiation dose was undoubtedly a very tiny amount. However, because these “radioactive particles” were circulating in her blood (from issue #10 until they are neutralized in issue #33), she had a very long exposure time. She started with an extremely low initial exposure since she did not develop any immediate symptoms. Over time, her exposure increased from the “mild” level to the “moderate” level based on her symptoms. Mild symptoms include fatigue and fainting. There is no mortality at this level. At the moderate level, fatigue and fainting continue. Increased infections occur, and bleeding is very common. Mortality at this level is 50% at 6-8 weeks. Given Aunt May’s general debilitated state and ever increasing radiation exposure, it is no surprise that she went from mild to moderate to potentially lethal very quickly.

Treatment includes IV fluids, antibiotics, blood transfusion, and bone marrow transplantation. However, Aunt May was lucky and received the miraculous serum ISO-36 and recovered completely (or as completely as Aunt May ever recovers).