It doesn't matter if they actually had movies or not before, because they've already permeated every other media outlet. Even if they hadn't been so prevalent, I'm willing to bet I still wouldn't have been impressed by these characters. Take Iron Man; he's Bruce Wayne, minus the depth and plus a robotic super suit.
Thor; a pagan God conceived before the written word. If I wanted to know about Thor's exploits, I'd rather read a Norse mythology book.
Black Widow? Please, the only reason she was in that movie was because Joss Whedon needed some T&A to offset all the homoerotic tension between the bicep-flexing male heroes, and to provide fap-fuel for all the escapist neckbeards who saw it on opening weekend.
I won't even mention Captain America because nobody gives a fuck about Captain America.
As for Hulk, I actually preferred the 2003 iteration over the new one(s). It tried to go above and beyond the source material and create a conflict that was actually complex and personal. But of course, everyone else hated that one, so they rebooted it and made it as dumb and boring as possible and that was the one that carried over.
I think if you took The Avengers movie and replaced the titular characters with completely original action heroes that didn't already have a huge following, the movie would have flopped and been regarded as just another overlong, noisy, mindless Hollywood cashgrab. It was a completely risk-free affair, and that's part of why it bored me to tears.
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