Iron Man was considered a risk. Nobody was chomping at the bit for a movie about him or Cap. He's inarguably the most successful and beloved film adaptation of any comic book hero ever, and Cap isn't far behind at this point.

Add to that, they built an entirely unrivaled movie universe around him.

The entire MCU was built on Iron Man.

Green Arrow is a second string player at best, and yet CW wound up building multiple highly successful franchises with green Green Arrow as the foundation.

Marvel has been successful due to consistently reat casting, solid storytelling, and quality long term planning, just for starters.

B,c,d, all that is immaterial. Tell a compelling story about compelling characters, add layers of connective tissue, all processed through a highly refined machine that's proven to excute over and over and kver again, and it's a wrap.

I'd see a Howard The Duck movie on opening night at this point.