I read a fair bit of fantasy and historical prose. And one thing that nearly always strikes me (compared to Marvel) is that a lot of the better written novels or series often feature worlds which "feel" more reasonable/ realistic than Marvel's world setting.
What I mean by "realistic" in this sense is that once writer has made his initial fictional assumptions, he works out what might reasonably happen if those assumptions are true. For example, in Patrick O'Brians fictional naval battles...a first rate ship with say 78 guns doesn't lose a gun battle to a frigate with 8 light guns...if the frigate captain is daft enough to allow his ship to be trapped in still air, his ship gets blown to smithereens. He doesn't win because he's a tough dude with attitude! Equally the frigate can outrun a first rate, in most sea conditions
Or take a comic example: Greg Rucka's Lazarus..Greg makes some broad assumptions about how future may pan out (a growing scarcity of resources, some break throughs in bio-engineering, family combines dominating wide areas of the Earth, etc)...but once those assumptions are made, he works out what might happen logically and consistently. A Lazarus (a bio-engineered house champion) does not lose fights to plucky mortals.
Compare that to Marvel...the overall storytelling world doesn't pan out. Take the Jonathan Hickman Avengers run I'm reading (and enjoying incidentally) now. This is full of ultra powerful characters...guys who can destroy planets (and some more powerful still), ruthless villains very happy to kill, etc. Oh...and a level of super hero technology that allows Tony Stark to build a Dyson sphere around sun in a couple of days, and capture a significant level of the suns' total energy, and use it for his own purposes.
And yet we're supposed to believe that Captain America...a normal peak human (i.e. can maybe lift 20 stone above his head, and run 30 miles a hour) and Hawkeye (wow the guy's got a bow and arrow, and can shoot straight) are major players in the pitched battles..they go into fight after after fight...and nothing happens to them, save a bit of blood is sometimes shown on face...and sometimes (shock, horror)...their costume is ripped.
Complete nonsense. And there are sorts of other ways world doesn't make overall sense. Given level of technology, why are there any cars anymore?? What weren't practically all humans bio-engineered to godhood 10 years ago (given the level of scientific feats routinely achieved in a matter of hours)?? Etc, etc.
I know there are writers that can still tell good stories in this overall setting. But I actually think those good stories are achieved in spite of the overall setting, rather than because of it.
Can anything be done to improve overall setting? If so, what??
Or does it have to stay more or less as it is now, and all the mishmash excused with the ever-popular phrase "That's comics."? (NB...No, it's the way Marvel...one very successful purveyor of some comics decides to operate!)