Though we don't always think of them as such, the games we play as children (and, let's be honest — as adults) often help us creatively process information in ways that end up being useful in our everyday lives. For the heroes of this week's best new comics, though, the lines between fantasy and reality are so blurred that it's difficult to discern one from the other.

If and when we make contact with life from other planets, there are a number of different ways that things could play out. Everything could be perfectly peaceful, and maybe even kick-start a new age of scientific advancement. Or, we could be thrown into a cataclysmic war against beings we're not at all equipped to fight.

It's not often that bo staffs and laser guns end up being lumped in with one another, but the plots of this week's best new comics just so happen to make that very much the case.

It's that magical time of year when we all indulge in the thrill of letting ourselves be spooked and alarmed by the things that go bump in the night and this week's best new comics are all tailor-made to get at the heart of some of the things that scare us the most.

Every morning, millions of people across the world crawl from their homes and make agonising journeys underground through the dark, dank portals we commonly refer to as subway systems. In exchange for money and pieces of our souls, these portals get us where we need to go — and, unfortunately, the prices we pay for those journeys climb ever higher and higher.

You know that feeling you get when someone with an egg avatar slides into your DMs at 3 a.m. to tell you how much they wish you didn’t exist, and you wonder to yourself, “Who the is this person and what the hell is wrong with them?” Of course you do. So do the heroes of this week’s best new comics.

As relaxing as turning the pages of a comic book can be, it’s increasingly common for people to do the vast majority of their reading on the glowing electronic screens we carry with us at all times. And if they’re already online, a person might soon find themselves drawn elsewhere — deeper into the digital rabbit hole of the internet that’s just a few taps away.

There was once a time when we all feared that hyper-intuitive artificial intelligence and robots might one day pose a threat to humanity, but to look at our current technological landscape, it's seeming much more likely that our collective obsession with our phones and the growing gig economy might be what does us in.

The Boy Scouts and vending machine sandwiches aren't really similar, though they are both designed to provide people with the things they need: guidance, information, or, well, nourishment.

If you spend any time on social media, then you’ve undoubtedly at some point found yourself exhausted, annoyed, and wondering if the internet was a mistake. Those of us who spend too much time staring at screens often joke about how we should never tweet or post and should perhaps just log off.

Everyone has different ways of coping with the day-in-day-out toil of working a job, optimistically trudging toward whatever one’s version of a “weekend” is. But for many, to work often means to pour yourself into labour that doesn’t necessarily bring you any sense of joy, freedom or expression.

What does a perfect world look like, exactly? Is it a place where everyone agrees to get along because we’ve set aside our differences, or is it a place where the trauma that so often gives birth to those differences never existed at all?

Even though the culture has bought into the idea that a person's teenage years are some of the most tumultuous of their lives, sometimes one of the weirdest parts of transitioning into adulthood is realising that you were actually way more together (relatively speaking) when you were younger.

If you, like me, are a sensible person who knows better than to willingly put yourself in obvious danger, then you know to stay far away from large bodies of water, because they are teeming with aquatic horrors just waiting to kill you. This is a fact.

The single-minded determination of a person hellbent on avenging their murdered family members is strangely similar to the passion displayed by very committed tech enthusiasts who line up for launch day events.

As much as we all like to fancy ourselves as self-sufficient islands, it's impossible to really get through life while also enjoying yourself if you don't have people in your corner who want to see you succeed.

Narratively, this week's best new comics have little in common other than the fact that they're a testament to the fact that everybody needs a little help to make it through hard times - and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.

In times of great need or extreme stress, pretty much everyone's survival instinct kicks in and we all default to certain coping mechanisms that have gotten us through our entire lives. For some people, that means cooking. For others, it means performing.

Close your eyes for a moment and try to imagine the apocalypse. What's it like? Would you survive? Often, when we think about the end times, we envision desolate landscapes devoid of all life, and destabilised communities that are constantly at war for whatever scant resources are left.

You know the funny thing about Brussels sprouts? Most people who think they don't like them have actually just never had them prepared the right way. Rule of thumb: Always roast them, never steam them. Because to steam a Brussels sprout is to invite a world of terror and anguish into your life.