system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[DC/Marvel] How do superheroes routinely invent things that outpace far more advanced civilizations?

This is mostly a Marvel question. Earth is a relatively unadvanced civilization compared to, say, the Kree or the Shi’ar, yet it seems like humans constantly invent things that these societies haven’t. Dr. Doom has a time machine. Reed Richards has an entire multiversal council of his alternate selves. At the very least, Iron Man-caliber armor should be standard issue among alien soldiers, as should a Captain America-esque super soldier serum. In the MCU, Kang/He Who Remains discovered multiversal travel and basically became a time god… had no one else in the universe, even from more advanced civilizations, discovered this yet?

DC has this problem to some extent. Earth is a galactic backwater compared to, say, New Genesis, but Batman is consistently creating shit that can damage New Gods, Kryptonians and whoever else the plot needs him to beat.

I know the actual answer is just “the plot is on Earth and the main characters are human,” but what is the in-universe explanation for why such insane scientific advancement is coming from such a small group of people at this specific point in time? And why haven’t more advanced alien civilizations beaten them to everything they’ve invented?
gpt
So much like our current continuity, most species’ development is cumulative in nature. First comes the basics of math and physics, then comes nuclear mechanics, then relativity and so on. Breakthroughs are rarely isolated; for every Einstein there were years of other brilliant minds laying the framework for their advances. Newton is one the few cases where someone did most of the heavy lifting themselves. Most species in other universes follow this model, albeit further along that axis of development. 

Compare this model to Marvel and DC Earth. You have many, many Einstein and Newton level or beyond geniuses all working simultaneously on multiple fields, building and improving upon each other and stealing stuff from other more developed species along the way to boot. This is very unusual and has proven to be dangerous at times as new inventions are tested and found too late to be volitile or have unintended side effects.