the hierarchy and pop art

While I was looking for an artist to right about I found Susan J. Napier. I remember during last class we spoke of comics not being taken very seriously and I still can't really understand why. In greek mythology aren't the stories fantastical and maybe even hard to believe. How is that any different from and action comic from marvel for example? Even anime which is what my main focus will be, share and have adopted many of the greek or roman styles of exaggeration. Yet people call anime and comics alike, pop art. Will these two worlds ever be meshed? I can't even begin to fathom what would happen if someone had made a life size spiderman sculpture out of marble. These great stories and these great characters which have been a part of our history for 70 plus years deserve that kind of respect. Or maybe its just something not enough people understand. What do you guys think ?