Each week, CBR has your guide to navigating Wednesday's new and recent comic releases, specials, collected editions and reissues, and we're committed to helping you choose those that are worth your hard-earned cash. It's a little slice of CBR we like to call Major Issues.

If you feel so inclined, you can buy our recommendations directly on comiXology with the links provided. We'll even supply links to the books we're not so hot on, just in case you don't want to take our word for it. Don't forget to let us know what you think of the books this week in the comments! And as always, SPOILERS AHEAD!

FUTURE STATE: DARK DETECTIVE #1 (DC)

Batman Dark Detective Future State feature

COMIXOLOGY

While Tim Fox has taken over as the main Batman in the Future State timeline, Bruce Wayne still has a place in Gotham City, and that role is explored in Future State: Dark Detective #1. Featuring a main story by incoming Detective Comics team Mariko Tamaki, Dan Mora, Jordie Bellaire and Aditya Bidikar. While the story main serves to establish the point that Bruce Wayne is a man on the run, it does so with style to spare. Mora's dynamic work finds a pitch-perfect compliment in Bellaire's colors, which turn Gotham City into a neon dystopia.

This issue also includes "No Future, No Past," a story starring Grifter and Luke Fox by Matthew Rosenberg, Carmine di Giandomenico and Andworld Design. Like this issue's main story, this back-up finds the former WildStorm hero and the former Batwing on the run on a Gotham controlled by the tyrannical Magistrate. With art that mixes detailed close-ups with kinetic action, this team-up tale makes a solid compliment to the main story.

RELATED: DC Announces New Batman Series Co-Starring Scooby-Doo

S.W.O.R.D. #2 (MARVEL)

X-Men SWORD Magneto Cortez 2

COMIXOLOGY

While the X-Men have been part of Marvel's King in Black crossover since it began, it hasn't really affected any of Marvel's ongoing mutant titles until S.W.O.R.D. #2, by Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti, Marte Gracia and Ariana Maher. While the idea of jumping into a massive crossover with a second issue might seem daunting, this cosmic series is a perfectly well-suited tie-in to the event, as its off-world mutant team responds to the invasion happening on Earth below.

Like many of Marvel's other ongoing X-titles, this comic features a huge cast from every corner of mutantdom, and the comic gives several relatively obscure mutants a time to shine in a crisis. Schiti's fluid linework is as sharp as ever, and Marte's colors give it a glossy sheen. Paired with a whip-smart script, S.W.O.R.D. has quickly established itself as one of Marvel's must-read X-books.

CHRIS CLAREMONT ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL #1 (MARVEL)

claremont special cover header

COMIXOLOGY

Thanks to his franchise-defining work on X-Men and elsewhere around the Marvel Universe, Chris Claremont is one of the most impactful Marvel creators of all time. And in celebration of his many decades of work, the Chris Claremont Anniversary Special features a new story by Claremont and art from Bill Sienkiewicz, Sean Chen, Diego Olortegui and Brett Booth, among others.

Built around Sienkiewicz's well-drawn New Mutants framing story, this special offers a time-jumping tour that reviews some of Claremont's most famous characters and stories. It's a strange book that rewards a deep knowledge of Claremont's bibliography. Die-hard Marvel fans may be intrigued to find plenty of characters who haven't appeared in decades, but less seasoned readers may find the narrative more disjointed than anything else.

RELATED: Jack Kirby's Son Condemns Rioters Using Captain America Symbols

FUTURE STATE: JUSTICE LEAGUE #1 (DC)

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COMIXOLOGY

Future State: Justice League #1 sees two of DC's mightiest team assemble in vastly different futures in a pair of two solid stories. In Joshua Williamson, Robson Rocha, Daniel Henriques, Romulo Fajardo Jr. and Tom Napolitano's Justice League tale, Tim Fox's Batman, Jonathan Kent's Superman and Yara Flor's Wonder Woman team up with the other heroes of DC's next generation. With a brisk pace and energetic art, this feels like classic Justice League action, especially once the true villains of the story become apparent.

Where most of Future State's dystopias feel ostensibly rooted in science fiction, Ram V, Marcio Takara, Marcelo Maiolo and Rob Leigh's Justice League Dark story brings together this world's remaining magic heroes in a time of burning angels and tortured demons. While Takara's art really comes alive with more horrific imagery, the full-length story makes this solid issue a true double-feature.

KING IN BLACK: THUNDERBOLTS #1 (MARVEL)

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COMIXOLOGY

To help deal with the Symbiote invasion that's taken over the Marvel Universe, some of Marvel's most despicable criminals have been assembled as the latest incarnation of the Thunderbolts in Matthew Rosenberg, Juan Ferreyra and Joe Sabino's King in Black: Thunderbolts #1. Brought together by Kingpin and led by the Taskmaster, this comic gives the villains a mission and throws them into the middle of an alien invasion, where they're picked mercilessly.

While the issue's plot has more than a little in common with 2016's Suicide Squad movie, this is still a worthwhile issue. Rosenberg has a talent for throwing scrappy bands characters together in no-win situations, and that skill is on full display here. Ferreyra's work is spectacular, boringly the carnage of the massive crossover to life with a painterly, even delicate, attention to detail.

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