Captain America is popular in part because he stands for human values. The first Thor movie has Thor willing to sacrifice his life in a moving moment. One of the problems with BVS is the sub-text of values is either trivialized, cartooned or disengaged from character and plot.

Super villains stand for negative values but in a cartoony way rarely engaging. As Charles Solomon says, in real life most people doing terrible things don;t even think of themselves as villains.

Deadpool functions as a destroyer of human values; or if you prefer, social permission to numb ourselves to lack of human values.

Without any mention of values, reportage like this tends to come off sounding like news for very educated 14 year olds. Russ, I suspect you have more writing chops in you and I’d like to see them come out more. Your “what if” scenarios are a good place to expand.
What if Iron Man took a stand again inequality between the 1% and the 99%?

You may be old enuf to recall the Marvel comic book What If series. I’m recommending it as the apex–or nadir–of Marvel’s lack of imagination in writing in that era. More what-if thinking, please!
What if Dr. Strange decided to fight cancer as a world thought form?

What if Captain America ran for President ala Bernie Sanders? Trump-like villain and all.

What if the Human Torch tried to manage or put out a devastating wild fire?