If you look at a list of the most consistently popular superheroes, a pattern arises. Good rogue’s gallery. Heroes with bad rogue’s gallery’s can pop up and become popular for a time, but they eventually seem to fade eventually. I feel it’s because superheroes tend to be quite static once you establish a certain status quo for them. It’s the villains that add flavor to the story. A Riddler story is very different from a Scarecrow story which is very different from a Joker or Two-Face story.
The problem with heroes that have weak rogue’s galleries is that All their stories tend to start feeling similar.