Pg. 2 from All-New Hawkeye #1.The image above and the image below each come from writer Jeff Lemire and illustrator Ramon Perez's All-New Hawkeye #1, and they both relate to Thierry Groensteen's idea of arthrology, or "web of comics." In his System of Comics, Groensteen states that comics are interdependent images, wherein their panels are separated but linked together in sequence and surface through a correlation that the reader tries to make sense through a narrative framework. The pages used here demonstrate that point, as they each use panels that take up entire tiers as they depict their respective characters, Clint Barton and Kate Bishop, as they (Clint and Kate) are placed in the exact same positions relative to one another in the demonstrated panels.
Not only do these panels have these characters in the exact same positions as each other, but the reader also sees how Clint and Kate's respective positions in relation to their relationship between these pages. In the above page, Clint and Kate's relationship is evidently degrading because of the latter's moral qualms about an adventure that she and Clint had in the past. This carries over to the page below, which takes place twenty years into the future, wherein Clint and Kate, now separated in spite of the fact that they take up the same spaces as they did in the page above, barely speak to each other, in contrast to how much they said to one another in the page taking place in the present course of the comic. Furthermore, the number of panels where Clint and Kate occupy the spaces they do in the pages demonstrated in this post decrease by half from page 2 to page 4, as page 2 has four panels (panels 2, 3, 4, and 6) depicting the two characters side-by-side as they say so much to each other, while page 4's panels 3 and 4 (two panels) depicts an older Clint and Kate barely saying anything to the other. Another thing that I found to be quite subtle was Clint's assertive nature toward Kate in both the present and future, even as that assertiveness was dulled by time (in that he says the most lines between these pages).
As well, each of these pages has their respective expressive functions contributing to the story of this comic, with the page above going at a moderate pace that is informed by the amount of dialogue that is exchanged between Clint and Kate. For a reader like me, it seems as if the length of panels 2-4 and 6 in page 2 is informed by how long the dialogue between Clint and Kate lasts. In the page below, however, I found myself dwelling for at least a few seconds longer, not only because I noticed Clint and Kate's respective positions, but because the "length" of panels 3 and 4 below seem to be informed more by the narrative moment that stems from the tense awkwardness passing between the older versions of these characters.
Pg. 4 from All-New Hawkeye #1.-Daniel Piatkowski
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