As the old saying goes, a hero is only as good as their villain. Yes, we want to see the heroes win, but a credible villain will push the hero to the limit, making their triumph all the more satisfying when it happens.
With Thanos, we have had 17 movies with the heroes, getting to know them and their personalities, foibles, quirks and passions. That's why they could afford to spend large parts of IW focussing on Thanos; we need to build him up as a credible opposition to all the heroes, as well as justify the super long build up to having him properly appear in a movie.
I agree with Joker though. That's one of the main reasons I don't watch Gotham (a Batman show without Batman).
I love Marvel and the MCU but I want DC to succeed as I love those characters too. Plus, more great comic book movies can only be a good thing.
As I said before, the MCU started at the right time. It was bad timing for DC though as they were still finishing up the Nolan Bat trilogy. However, rather than make a movie, see if it's successful and then decide to make another, they could have (quietly and in the background) planned out their entire slate or phases. Once Nolan had finished the Bat trilogy, they could have announced the first movie in the line-up and THEN, if the movie was good, announce the general plan going forward.
Kevin Feige is a master at working the press to his advantage and engaging with the fandom. Which is part of the reason fans have so much faith in the direction of the MCU; we know it is leading somewhere. They have so much goodwill that even movies that come out are judged to only be a moderate success (like Antman & the Wasp) people are still eager to see the next two, three, four movies that are coming out. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said with the DC movies.
DC's run of films were great 20 + years ago. Back then, Marvel was struggling with Howard the Duck and the very first Punisher (even though I like this movie). The Hulk and Avenger series was okay but left a lot to be desired in my opinion. They didn't really make leeway until the Blade trilogies and then decided to pursue the Hulk and learned from their mistakes.
Marvel's new formula was planned out ahead of time and started with Iron Man in 2008 to introduce main and supporting characters like Nick Fury, Hawk eye, and Black Widow. They then ventured into introducing the other characters like Thor, War Machine, the new Hulk, and Captain America before getting into the first Avengers which was the 6th movie in the MCU and the end of Phase 1.
Unlike Marvel, DC started with Man of Steel, then Batman vs Superman and introduce Wonder Woman who just showed up before briefly launching the Wonder Woman movie followed by The Justice League after teasing characters like Cyborg, Aquaman, and the Flash briefly in Batman vs. Superman. Now, the Aquaman movie is coming out late this year while the individual Batman, Flash, Green Lantern and Cyborg movies are going to be released years after with no current time frame.
You can tell that they were rushed and they tried to follow Marvel's formula which didn't work well for them. Their current universe is a big mess with each movie leaving a lot to be desired minus the Wonder Man movie. This is just my opinion of course, I did enjoy Man of Steel, Batman vs Superman and the Justice League on their own and hope that the DCEU will succeed. Just as a whole, its a big mess and they really need to start their own formula and make movies without the dark night time vibes (which gives me the impression that day time doesn't exist), like they've been doing. They really need to take the time to develop these character arcs since it did take Marvel 10 years to being out Infinity Wars and Thanos to the big screen while teasing this story line over the last 17 movies.
It is VERY slow to pick up. I have to say by season 3 it found its footing but I get people don't want to wait that long for something to become interesting especially with all the good shows available these days. Still the first two seasons had enough there to keep my interest because I liked a few of the characters and wanted to see how they progressed. Penguin for instance is one of my faves. Also I love Barbara Gordon's crazy lol
The Marvel shows on Netflix are the same, it took a while to build the character arc of each show in order to give the audience and non-comic book readers a glimpse of the character's past. I think the most painful ones are Iron Fist and Jessica Jones since it took 4 episodes for Danny to prove his identity in Iron Fist and I didn't care much for Jessica's character arc, it was really slow going, even worse than the other three shows.
With that said, I may start watching Gotham again since you mention that it will eventually get good.
