In "Reason to be Excited," I spotlight things from modern comics that I think are worth getting excited about. I mean stuff more specific than "this comic is good," ya know? More like a specific bit from a writer or artist that impressed me.

Today, we look at the interesting (but bizarre) friendship between Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy (Ghost-Spider).

In case you're unfamiliar with Ghost Spider, she is the Gwen Stacy from another dimension who became Spider-Woman in her dimension. Sadly, her Peter Parker died. Naturally, you're all familiar with the fact that the Gwen Stacy of the main Marvel Universe died a number of years ago. This version of Gwen Stacy is also a bit younger than Peter Parker, so she's just starting out in college.

More recently, Gwen's identity was revealed as Spider-Woman in her dimension, making it difficult for her to go to college there. So in a clever twist, she has enrolled in Empire State University on the main Marvel Universe, with her commuting back and forth between the dimensions the way that a student would commute on the subway. Since there's a Spider-Woman on this world, Gwen has adopted the name Ghost-Spider.

Peter Parker is currently a teaching assistant at ESU while he finishes out his graduate degree (he had passed it, but it was when Otto Octavius was in control of his body and since it was finished using Otto's work, Peter's degree was invalidated) and he helps Gwen get enrolled at ESU in Ghost-Spider #1 (by Seanan McGuire, Takeshi Miyazawa and Ian Herring. Rosi Kämpe soon joined the creative team as the inker on the book) and while this is a bizarre deal (she's a younger version of his dead girlfriend and he's an older version of her dead friend) it somehow works...

I like Peter's help with her current symbiote suit...

Later, we see some of the confusion over their worlds...

In the second issue, things are relatively awkward when Gwen meets...Professor Parker!

It's just such a pleasant use for Peter as a supporting character in another book, a role that Peter is not exactly accustomed to, but here, it is really PETER PARKER who is the supporting character and not Spider-Man, which is a clever twist that I think really works well in the series.

I look forward to more differences in their different dimensional cultures!

Okay, this feature is a bit less of a reader-interactive one, as I'm just spotlight stuff in modern comics that specifically impressed ME, but heck, if you'd like to send in some suggestions anyways, maybe you and I have the same taste! It's certainly not improbably that something you found cool would be something that I found cool, too, so feel free to send ideas to me at brianc@cbr.com!