When does subtext become plain old text?

Consider this Green Lantern sample:



Manly encounter eh?
(Oh and take note of the spines don't work that way panel)

Oh, while we're at I did a post passing on an award a while back. Except I wrote it, then hit publish about 5 days later so I'm not sure how many people saw it. Since I'm recommending stuff I decided to highlight/link to it, so y'all would see it.