The latest comic book movies underperformed because they were mediocre and featured B-level characters. If Guardians 3 is as good as expected then all this talk about comic book movie fatigue will look pretty silly, again.
That's the MCU's secret; they're always mediocre.
I'm frankly tired of all this snobbish criticism of the MCU. The same arrogant dismissal of genre movies has been the norm forever whether it was westerns and film noirs in the 40s and 50s, sci-fi and action movies in the 70's and 80's, or comic book movies in the 21st century.
every one of those genres was subject to massive oversaturation and the only reason we now look with confusion at past criticism of them is that a minority of films from those genres persisted because they were really great standout examples of the style
personally i don't hate superhero movies because they're all bad or because i hate the fanbase (though they can get pretty annoying like every fanbase can); the reason i hate superhero movies is that the film industry at a certain point is zero-sum and these movies with their inflated budgets, their all-star casting, and all of this manufactured insecurity about "elitism" the second anybody deigns to critique them... these films push other worthy movies out of production entirely, sucking up all of the funding, talent, and screen space in theaters; or worse, they "influence" them (read: a studio said it would make more money if you added explosions and a really bad romantic B-plot). this is a phenomenon that has already devastated broadway; i am not interested in having this happen to film as well.
the batman is the only superhero film i have thoroughly enjoyed
