Background

Nathan met Peter's Aunt May in the nursing home where she was recuperating after suffering a heart attack while taking part in a Gray Power protest back in Amazing Spider-Man #176. Nathan was a charming guy, who used to be a Vauderville entertainer. He and May were soon engaged. Nathan met Adrian Toomes at the nursing home. Toomes had been depressed about his latest defeat by Spider-Man, but was encouraged to get back on the horse by Lubenski, who had no idea that Toomes was the Vulture. When Spider-Man confronted the Vulture at the nursing home, he took a random resident hostage...who naturally turned out to be Nathan. Being a feisty old guy, Nathan yelled that if Adrain wanted a fight, he'd give him one. Vulture, cantankerous as he is, couldnt bring himself to hurt Nathan and managed to escape. However, Nathan and Adrian Toomes would meet again.

May went through that whole "being dead" thing with the Burglar and Mysterio, but finally got out of the rest home in Marvel Teamup #124. She set up a boarding house at her home in Queens, and a bunch of folks moved in, including her paramour, Nathan.

Their engagement went along swimmingly for a while, until in Spectacular Spider-Man #113, Nathan got rather vindictive over some guys who had taken the boarding house hostage. After the head bad-guy had actually been webbed up by Spider-Man, Nathan opened a blind so that the SWAT team outside thought they had a clear shot, and sniped the guy. May was not very amused, and she called off the engagement, though she let him stay.

From there, things went downhill. Nate had a gambling problem, and he lost a bunch of cash, including some he "borrowed" from May. He then took his life insurance and made an illegal bet on the success of an assassination attempt. Spidey foiled the attempted murder, but then the Vulture (one of the hired killers) decided to pick a hostage from the crowd. When it looked the Vulture decided to grab May, Nate grabbed the Vulture's back, forcing him to let go of May, but then suffered a heart attack from the shock of being so high up.

Spidey caught him before he fell, but he died of heart failure anyway. His bet had fallen through, so he never repaid May the money he owed, but instead he saved the life of the woman he loved - even though it cost him his own. The Vulture came to appologize to Aunt May for accidentally killing Nathan (whom he still remembered for his encouraging words at the nursing home) after he discovered he had cancer, but May couldnt find the strength to forgive him. Later, she told Peter that she felt a part of her heart break when Peter's parents died, another piece when Uncle Ben died and the last when Nathan passed.

Thanks To:

The assistance of the Marvel Chronology Project is gratefully acknowledged.