Here’s Foxfire, gunning for Nighthawk, even when it looks like the story’s over. Now, this is cut between Nighthawk’s monologue with Hyperion – we talked about this in the last post. After this three-panel clip, we will cut back to Nighthawk arguing that the real problem with the Squadron’s utopia program is its assumption that everyone is as good, as virtuous as they are, an assumption they cannot in fact make – in other words, you could never guarantee that whoever inherited their legacy, whoever was entrusted with it, would adhere to their moral code – would not seek to pervert that legacy for their own ends.
And between these two acutely philosophical passages, Foxfire makes her decision. I mentioned the rhythm of this before – the dialling up the action, the increase in speed, tension, threat. What is she going to do? But let’s notice another layer of this, too – the apotheosis of Spectrum and Foxfire’s relationship, truth-telling, coming to terms with each other. We’re working out.a subplot here, resolving it, and just as we cut back to Nighthawk, in that third panel, we’re left with Spectrum’s interior monologue – dipping us into another PoV before we’re back to Nighthawk and his righteous crusade.
So we are compelled to read – it’s more than a demand, it is the form of the text – you have to read like this – on multiple levels, in an incredibly compressed space of time: action falling (the aftermath of the battle) and rising (Foxfire’s decision), the philosophical (at least, philosophy in the Mighty Marvel Manner, which is not nothing), the interpersonal, the intra-subjective. And at the same time, we’re paying off through-lines (personal, plot, symbolic) that have been building over several issues (since issue 1, for Nighthawk). So this is an exceptionally dense, rich, layered reading experience.
Archaeology of the Frivolous - Comics, Culture, Criticism 