The Comics Form, Superheroes Part II

I wasn't planning on writing another post right away on the comics form and superheroes, but then I realized I forgot something. The first part of my theory can be read here. The basic gist is that the reason that superheroes became the dominant subject in the comics world is that it takes full advantage of the comics form, that superheroes are intrinsicly able to make use of the comics form.

Unfortunately, I spent the entire post talking about printing techniques and the historical part of formalism (layers upon layers people!). There is also the idea to consider that, in the infancy of both the modern comics form and of the superhero story, the superhero story uses the sequential form of comics to great ability. The most basic superhero story, beating someone/thing up is simply a series of moments.

You could argue that everything is a series a moments. Not so. The most basic of stories, from point A to point B, involves no backtracks, no pauses to consider things, no flashbacks. Granted, superhero stories use them, and often use them to great effect, but the simplest of superhero stories by definition is a point A to point B deal. As opposed to say a simple detective story, which takes a certain amount of denoument, and explanation at the end.