I have some of the same issues with the genre. One problem is that the stakes are never very high or real, especially in Marvel, where nobody of consequence ever dies. Forget the protagonists, even villains like Loki or the Winter Soldier are at no risk of dying. The Marvel EU now has something like 10-20 characters who don't seem to be at risk of dying anytime in the moderately foreseeable future.
If someone dies that isn't an outright monosyllabic alien monster, there's a good chance they'll be brought back, and even if they aren't, they'll be rebooted within 5-10 years anyway.
