By Zack Quaintance — Welcome back to One Hot Panel, you all, an inexplicably-named feature that shows off our favorite artwork while paying homage for some reason to a Red Hot Chili Peppers album from 1995 (One Hot Minute...natch!). This week, we have several hot panels, by several excellent artists...all of which are from the Superman: Heroes special.

And friends, let me tell you...these days we have an embarrassment of riches of excellent Superman artwork. We have Ryan Sook (one of my personal favorites) doing a Legion of Super-Heroes book, and we have Ivan Reis and Joe Prado putting together an amazing and consistent run in the pages of Superman. And then this week we get this bounty of beautiful linework from a range of artists who’ve been working on Superman-adjacent comics of late, including Kevin Maguire, Mike Perkins, Steve Lieber, Mike Norton, and Scott Godlewski.

It is a good time to like to look at Superman, indeed. Anyway! You can find the picks for this week’s One Hot Panel(s) below....enjoy!

Superman Heroes #1

Artwork by Kevin Maguire and colors by Paul Mounts.

Packing a mass amount of Justice Leaguers into one panel often yields strong results, and it’s especially great when illustrated by Kevin Maguire. This panel is also perhaps the best representation of what this special is all about — Superman interacting with those around him about his big choice to reveal his identity. The last little bit that endeared this one to me is how telling some of the looks on these faces are. Pay particular attention to Booster Gold (who looks proud), Aquaman (who looks disapproving), and Plastic Man (who is just having a time)…all of these reactions get explored in varying depth later.

Probably my favorite micro story within Superman: Heroes #1 was this one featuring Booster Gold, in which he climbs a mountain near Machu Pichu (for some reason) and shouts to the heavens that Superman is Clark Kent at the exact moment he unveils his identity. That concept requires a suspension of disbelief (but these are stories about super-powered people and it’s fine), but it makes for a cute interaction between Supes and Booster. I enjoy any chance writer Brian Michael Bendis gets to play with Booster, because I think their sensibilities line up well, as evidenced by this quick-hit story.

Artwork by Mike Perkins and colors by Gabe Eltaeb.

And now for something entirely different. A Greg Rucka-scripted look at the reactions of Batman and Wonder Woman, who discuss Superman’s big choice away from Superman himself, allowing more honesty than they’d previously shared with Big Blue. The way Wonder Woman slowly teases an admission of jealousy out of Batman over the course of this vignette is really well done, with Rucka as always really giving us realistic character moments and motivations. I also think the way Perkins renders the looks on their faces as Batman pours Wonder Woman tea tells the audience so much about the dynamic between the characters.

Artwork by Steve Lieber and Nathan Fairbairn

And now for something completely different again. The Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen creative team of writer Matt Fraction, artist Steve Lieber, and colorist Nathan Fairbairn give us a fun moment between the two pals, as Jimmy reveals he’s known Superman’s identity for a while because only two people call him Jim. It’s the artwork by Lieber, however, rendering Jimmy’s facial expressions throughout that really makes this interaction live. Great stuff all around.

Click here for past installments of One Hot Panel.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.