The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is, in large part, a novel about comic books, the classic superhero titles from the Golden Age, half a century ago. The novel reflects well on comics; you finish reading it with a newfound admiration for the formal techniques of the comic artist, with a sense of what remarkable things the comic medium can support.
Then you remember that you've just finished reading a novel, not a comic book, and that everything you've learned and "seen" about comics has been conveyed through words and words alone. And this is why I think that The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is also a novel that increases your respect for the possibilities inherent in the novel.