1) Batman #128 - Written by Chip Zdarsky, art by Jorge Jimenez, colors by Tomeu Morey
Give Chip Zdarsky time and he will make any story worth telling. His run of Batman started out slow, but a few issues in it has now picked up to dizzying speeds. Introducing a new "villain" right away was a risky gambit, and robots aren't exactly original, but tying the villain into the Tower of Babel storyline was a stroke of genius. It proves Batman really only trusted himself to take himself out, and now that is put to the test as the entire (well not entire, though they still wouldn't have a chance) Justice League tries to down Failsafe and save Bruce. The main story has drawn me in, but the side stories he tells at the end are still the gems of this run. They are eight page shorts, usually three our four issues long, which tell a longer story. The Catwoman one was an excellent story in its own right and a good teaser as to what is to come for Catwoman, without clogging up pages of the main story. The new extra story is the origins of The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, which looks like it will be an incredibly well told Joker story. Chip is here, and hopefully Chip is here to stay. Shout out to the art team for making Superman POP, homeboy looks scary. Actually the whole league looks super intimidating, which makes their beat down all the more satisfying.
2) X-Men #15 - Written by Gerry Duggan, art by Joshua Cassara, color by GURU-eFX
The X-Men have had a LOT of changes since House of X premiered in 2019. Those changes have been the X-Men's greatest strength, but also it's downfall. With so many twists and turns story wise it's kind of hard to keep track of all the various stories, timelines, and enemies the X-Men have. One issue that really grabbed me was when Wolverine, Synch, and Darwin went into The Vault for a mission. The Children of The Vault is an interesting storyline, but it's been a hot minute since it's developed. This issue brings the Children of the Vault right back to the spotlight, giving us a nice little "What If" moment. The stakes for the X-Men seem like 0% already (since they are immortal), but this threat goes beyond the scope of just the X-Men. The last time the X-Men went into the vault it gave us an engaging and deep story, so hopefully Forge's foray into the vault gives us a similar experience! Duggan and team are extremely talented, so my hopes are high.
(Dis) Honorable Mention - Amazing Spider-Man #10 - Written by Zeb Wells, "art" by Nick Dragotta, colors by Marcio Menyz
I'm going to try not to be rude, but the art on Amazing Spider-Man has been a nightmare lately. This is a mainstream marvel comic, one of it's most popular, and I feel like they are ignoring the importance of the art. Nick Dragotta is the guest artist, and it really seems like Nick was better off drawing the heroes, NOT the people behind the masks. His hero art is fine, but SWEET CHRISTMAS THE FACES.
Literally looks like Throg had a baby with Mary Parker.
Not even Willem Dafoe could pull that face off.
The beard is literally just lines! Lines! Why even have the beard! This issue is easily the worst of all ten, and that's hardly Zeb's fault. Marvel threw the "Crossover" bone to him, and he had to chew on it. This issue literally contradicts the Judgement Day Crossover. Wells portrays the Celestial as haunting the people, which is CLEARLY not what it does. Judgement Day #4 clearly established what the celestial does, it even showed it judging Ms. Marvel and how it judged her! So Wells using Ms. Marvel here is baffling, and shows he doesn't care about the crossover, which is a shame because there was a LOT of potential for Spider-Man to be judged, like Amazing Spider-Man #500 kind of did. Regardless of that, Amazing Spider-Man has been a huge improvement through 1-9, so I'm very very very ready to get back to the main story, and bring back Patrick Gleason as the main artist please, that's really the only good art of the series so far.