There is a fine line between homages and ripoffs. Maybe Joker isnt a complete ripoff, but it feels like I just bought a DC skin pack DLC for Taxi Driver/KOC. Im a simple man: I like to see things pop from the comics onto the screen, provided they are good stories. I would love to see an X-tinction Agenda adaptation or a Kingdom Come adaptation make it to film.
The simple fact of the matter is thatmost cape stories are some of the lowest tier writting there is. They feature men in silly costumes beating each other up, never killing each other for the sake of the narrative, while having convulted plots, asspulls that come out of nowhee and so on and so forth. You could get away with it in a cartoon, but nobody's going to drop millions to adapt Chuck Austen's X-Men. I know I know, there are tons of classic stories, but they'e that because either they break the mold, or because they're more accessible. And that's for the Big Names, or at least those ones who have been in publication for a looooong time. Because if you start going into stuff like Deathlok or Darkhawk, you're merely going by a premise there, since the plots and whatnot themselves are trash-tier. And that holds for about, what, 85% of the Cape stuff.
Look, we like all those things, but objectively speaking, they're literally drawings with basic words stuck on top, especially superhero ones. They're not grand tales, they're meant to humor kids and early teens for a while, until they discover "gritty and mature" stuff in their teens, then some indie stuff in their late teens, and are done with the hobby by their early/mid 20s. At least that's the way it should be. Now, if we're talking about stuff like Comic Books in general, then that's wholly different from Capes. There are tons of comics that can be adapted and make for great films, but that's a wholy different discussion.
There seems to be an increased obsession with making supervillains ultra-realistic and sympathetic, meanwhile there isnt anything near the same energy being funneled into superheroes like Superman in terms of depth.
It's easier to make a more "meaty" movie with villains. A Lex Luthor film would be Wolf Of Wall Street/Wall Street with some Mad Scientist stuff thrown there and mixed with something like House Of Cards or Ides Of March. A Doctor Doom film would be a Gothic Romance or a Political Drama. Because the villain has no "villain", you get to disregard the whole Cape aspect and just do a normal movie with some "flair". But a SuperHero has to wear the over-the-top costume, has to save the world, has to beat up a villain and so on an so forth. You don't go into a Captain America movie expecting 2-hours of a man-out-of-time dealing with his surroundings and shot as an Oscar Bait movie. Sure, you could do that, but with a "new IP", not "CAPTAIN AMERICA". Meanwhile, Lex is a guy in a three piece suit. Doom is a Dictator/King. If you made a Vandal Savage or Ras movie, it'd be about Evil Highlander or Ninja Warlord, dressed in normal clothes with "normal" ambitions and plots. Deathstroke is a Merc, which means that a movie about him would be very easy to do. You get the point. Villains have less otherworld demands and can thus work as serious movies.
How about depth without inherent contradiction? Hulk is just an overgrown Banner now, Steve Rogers is just an over-aged regressing character who Thanos-snapped Peggy Carters former family into oblivion, Thor is just an overweight joke, and nothing but watered down female-versions of Iron Man + everyone else on the horizon to make sure that the ever-present neo-chivalry is in full effect. Call it whatever you like, left or right, it aint good.
It's all because of the shared universe ********. Back then you got a Trilogy and that was it. So you had a limited pool of characters, a couple of stories and you had to get the point across. The Hero was the main star, and the films were about his journey. Nowadays you have to make room for interconnectivity, you cannot take the story where you want it to go because there's a shared overarching plot, you cannot have your own mini-universe with rules and most importantly, you have to SUBVERT THE EXPECTATIONS! And that last part is responsible for what you're talking about.
See, back in the day, the whole point of a superhero flick was to see the guy suit up, his powers come alive and the villain have some insane scheme and a cool costume. The hero got the girl, there was some nice action and everyone was satisfied. You played around with the concept, but that was the gist of it. They were more Kid-Friendly versions of stuff like Predator, Commando; Action Flicks in general. But now you just cannot do that due to the current climate.
If Fantastic Four is done right I hope its enough to correct the downward trajectory.
Eh, kinda. The F4 bicker a whole lot, and tons of stories take place in the Baxter Building. Just have them be a wholesome family of WASPs who goes all Star Trek and has Cosmic Adventures. Not much else is needed. Which kinda proves again that the concept is better than the vast majority of the source material...
Spoiler: 
