Kieran Shiach

Superman is the most iconic superhero in the world, and he's loved by millions --- but he's not necessarily the easiest character to get to grips with if you haven't been exposed to the right material. Even as a massive Superman fan, I'll admit that it can be a bit hard for some readers to wrap their heads around exactly why he's so great and why he matters so much. We've put together a list of the ten essential Superman stories for any reader looking to dive into Superman fandom.

Lobster Johnson stories are always fun, whether it's in the present day where he continues his adventures as a ghost, the past as a pulp hero, or in-between as a fictional character within the Mignolaverse. He's someone you can pretty much do anything with. In that vein, ComicsAlliance has an exclusive preview of Mike Mignola, John Arcudi and Tonci Zonjic's Lobster Johnson: The Pirate's Curse #1, on sale next week from Dark Horse.

Thanks to the Netflix television show, Iron Fist is a character that's on a lot of people's minds, but not quite for the reasons Marvel may want. The casting of Finn Jones is regarded by many as an ill-conceived choice that adheres too closely to the comics and leans on tropes of the white savior. Inspired by Kris Anka's 2015 redesign of the character as an Asian-American hero, some of comics' best artists have offered their own interpretations of this more badass, more culturally relevant, and --- let's be honest --- more downright sexy Danny Rand.

The curiously-odd-but-surprisingly-obvious franchise crossover is all the rage in comics right now, but Dynamite Entertainment might have just set the bar at a new level. This June, Chris Sebela teams with Annapaola Martello for KISS/Vampirella, which sees the iconic vampire hunter teaming up with the legendary rock band for an adventure set slap-bang in the middle of the '70s LA rock 'n' roll scene.

If there's one thing comics could genuinely always do more of, it's high-octane comics that are too fun to care about being anything else and if that doesn't also describe metal/punk legends GWAR, I don't know what would. Following up a successful Kickstarter campaign last year, GWAR: Orgasmageddon has been picked up by Dynamite for a wide release, bringing the mayhem and destruction to an even larger audience.

While DC Comics hasn't been as event-orientated as its superhero comics competitors in recent years, the publisher is bringing back the summer event in a major way this year. Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV will team with Jim Lee, Andy Kubert and John Romita Jr. this summer for Dark Days: The Forge and Dark Days: The Casting, two one-shots that lead into a major event that Snyder has been building towards for years.

Justin Jordan and Ibrahim Moustafa's Savage Things continues a trend of recent Vertigo titles by breathing new life into the once ailing imprint, and the blacker-than-black-ops chaos is already riveting to behold, even one issue in. In the second issue --- out next month --- Abel is questioned over his role in the Black Forest program, and we have a preview of the interrogation.

There's been a real resurgence among tabletop gaming in the past few years; whether it's board games, roleplaying adventures or deck-building card games, the market is booming with new licenses and takes on traditional gameplay mechanics. Yesterday, Renegade Games announced it was partnering with Oni Press for a Scott Pilgrim themed deck-building game that forces players to choose between the easy path of violence or the mature route of empathy.

Titan Comics is a publisher that's great at bringing properties to comics that you might never have thought of, but that make perfect sense within the medium. Its latest acquisition is Jack Campbell's sci-fi series The Lost Fleet, which arrives in a miniseries titled The Lost Fleet: Corsair, written by Campbell himself with art by Andre Siregar and Sebastian Cheng.

There's a long history of musicians crossing over into comic books and trying their hand at a new craft, and while some, such as Gerard Way and Max Bemis have made great impressions on the industry, there's always a Gene Simmons or Courtney Love who doesn't quite manage to pull it off. Later this year, Marvel Comics will release an original graphic novel titled Masters of the Sun: The Zombie Chronicles, which sees The Black Eyed Peas' Will.I.Am stepping away from the studio to tell a story about aliens and zombies in LA's hip-hop culture.