My mom has a box filled with silver age comic books that I've read several times, so I can tell you that this is exactly the kind of 'absurd accepted at face value' that the comic book industry used to thrive on.

So I'd say it's less that the world isn't ready to handle the submarine werewolf, and more that the world can no longer handle the submarine werewolf.

Why? Because the primary cliques currently controlling the bulk of the entertainment industry are kinda stuck in that teenage 'If I don't look/act serious nobody will take me seriously' fear, and they try to pressure the people who aren't in those cliques into conforming out of a fear that the 'absurd fun for the sake of absurd fun' people will somehow taint their 'serious' reputation by association.

STOP. Write books that take themselves serious. Just do it on topics that should not be taken serious. There are already enough fantasy stories that parody every trope there is and themself.