Issue(s): Strange Tales #97
Cover Date: Jan 62
Title: "Goodbye to Linda Brown"
Credits:
Stan Lee - Writer
Steve Ditko - Penciler
Steve Ditko - Inker

Review/plot:
Although the title would indicate that the May and Ben of this story have a last name of Brown and not Parker, the blurb on the reprint indicates that it is indeed Peter's aunt and uncle, so that is Marvel's official policy at this point, whatever the original intention. It certainly looks like a younger Aunt May and Uncle Ben.

In any event, the seemingly kindly couple cares for a young niece, Linda, at their beach house. She is confined to a wheelchair. The entire family is subject to sleepwalking, but when Linda makes it to the beach, it turns out she's really a mermaid. It's clear May and Ben knew she was a mermaid and they've been selfishly keeping her with them.

A lovely bizarre story, made more interesting by the possibilities raised by 'shock prone' Aunt May having this in her history.

The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Creators says that this story retells "The sea waits for me!" from Journey into Unknown Worlds #43.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 3 - first (proto-) appearance of Aunt May and Uncle Ben

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Marvel Selects: Spider-Man #5

Imagine the fun if Linda had ever come back to visit!

"Aunt May must never find out that I'm Spider-man! She's too fragile to handle it!"

"Peter must never find out that his long lost cousin is a mermaid! He's too fragile to handle it!"

"Aunt May and Peter must never find out that my fiance is Prince Namor! Peter would try to fight him as Spider-man and Aunt May would keep him prisoner!"

Waitaminit. Aunt May and Uncle Ben kept a mermaid prisoner???

It's actually worse than anything Prof. Xavier did in the old stories...

DC´s Lori Lemaris hid her mermaid identity by posing as a wheelchair-using student with a blanket covering the lower half of her body....