You and your absolutes. Who's the "we" here. You dismiss mediums and have quite the habit of dismissing mediums other than the one you work in. I don't buy that different mediums are necessarily and absolutely better than others. Does free verse represent progress as compared to an Italian sonnet? Of course not. It's a different form but not a better one.

: The hierarchy exists whether you want it to or not, and the fact that certain
: art forms do things better than others shouldn't be that controversial
: since I would hope it's apparent.

Of course certain art forms do some things better than others, but it's a leap to say they do all things better. Newer art forms don't exist as replacements for older art forms. Why do people almost always say that the book was better than the movie?

: Yes, because if I love seeing Kung Fu then I should gobble up all the Kung Fu
: radio dramas out there, because hey, how it's presented doesn't matter,
: right? It's Kung Fu whether you can both see and hear it, versus just
: hearing it.

Reductio ad ridiculum.

: Presentation is everything when it comes to art.

Presentation is important. Because of that comics engage people in ways that animation, films, music, novels, scuptures, and performance art cannot, and vice versa.