Because there isn't exactly a continual sense of time flow in a comic (in my opinion), you can take advantage of that and pull your readers attention this way and that before they choose to move on to the next panel.

Pretty much. Just like how in animation you can do slow motion or you can zoom in or out to affect drama, that's what comics do too.

I guess I'm just trying to figure out the best way to utilise and take advantage of the comic book format,

Panel interaction. A good layout will actually pull your eye over with the page and text toward what needs to be done. This is where manga/doujin succeed a lot more than American comics, especially shoujo (although sometimes shoujo overdoes it and just creates a mess). The panels are interconnected and overlapped and you've got characters jumping out of panels or text blurring lines or full page scenes to add dramatic emphasis and say 'Look. This. Is. It.' Small panels of just a character slowly turning around, with just one text bubble encompassing all of that.

Beyond that, pacing. Manga tends to actually split text greatly--a typical page with a basic 6-panel layout will probably only shoot off one to three sentences. In the end, you get a storyboard sort of look, which paces off the text with the images much more comfortably. American comics are more interested in a graphic novel sort of look--you get tons of exposition on a single layout page, with a few pictures to illustrate the general scene.

Beyond that, I greatly enjoy comics over animation in most cases, so I'm biased. I find them much more versatile in the hands of a good comic artist than any animation.

Probably the one thing most comics have trouble doing is fight scenes though.

I think you're overthinking this, however. ^^;