Superhero narratives tend to focus on the costumed individual doing the fighting, but Peter Parker's entire operational capacity as Spider-Man depends on a stable home environment that someone else has to provide, maintain, and fund, largely without acknowledgment.
Aunt May keeps a household running on what is repeatedly established as a limited income, while also absorbing the practical costs of raising a teenager who disappears at unpredictable hours, returns injured with unconvincing excuses, and requires constant covering for his double life.
Her emotional stability functions as Peter's actual home base far more than any secret lair or high-tech facility might. A hero who is repeatedly beaten, exhausted, and isolated needs a reliable place to recover, and that recovery infrastructure is built and sustained entirely by May, without compensation or credit.
The financial angle deserves more attention than it typically receives. May's ability to maintain housing stability despite Peter's inconsistent income from freelance photography work is itself a minor logistical miracle that goes almost entirely unremarked upon in most tellings of the story.
Her role as emotional anchor after repeated personal tragedy also can't be overlooked. May absorbs profound loss multiple times over the course of the narrative while still functioning as the stable adult presence a traumatized teenage vigilante needs to remain psychologically functional enough to keep showing up as a hero.
When May's household stability is disrupted or threatened in various storylines, Peter's performance as Spider-Man visibly deteriorates, which is the clearest possible evidence that her presence functions as necessary infrastructure rather than incidental background support.
Spider-Man may be the one swinging between buildings, but the actual foundation making that possible, financially, emotionally, and logistically, is built and maintained by someone who never puts on a costume and rarely gets asked what she needs in return.