Seems like Aunt Petunia is less preserved than I was led to believe, at least according to Dan Slott.

The undoing of one of JB's great reveals.

Marc

I'm not convinced the change was the writer or penciller's doing.  If you take the figure in that panel and make her hair black, she's almost identical to JB's version.  Is this something that was 'corrected' by the colorist to make her look the same age as Jake?

I'm just glad they're apparently ignoring Mark Millar murdering her off.

I'm looking at the same panel and strongly disagree with you.

Marc

It's been YEARS since I read JB's story... wasn't Petunia close in age to Sue? If so, why hasn't Sue aged as much?

Okay... what about the rest of the Marvel Universe that hasn't aged that much since that original Aunt Petunia story?

The “I have really let myself go” line seems like an attempt to handwave away the age difference.

Murdered by Doctor Doom’s secret master, no less. I’d be happy if they ignored that entire run.

"I have REALLY let myself go!"

Judging by this one panel (I haven't bought the new series--I was willing to buy the first issue to check things out, but it's been sold out), it could mostly just be the artist's style.  Petunia doesn't really have wrinkles, so she might have just gained a little weight, accounting for both comments above.

The gray hair makes no sense though, however you look at it.  And we can't blame the colorist, since the hair is not blacked in at all by the artist.  Some people go gray early though--I'm surprised everybody who went through the Mark Millar issues didn't go gray.