Pop culture has always had a struggle for legitimacy against the type of culture that tends to be representative of “high art.” And that’s not just the here and now with defenders of “art” facing off against defenders of pop culture — this goes back centuries.

If you went back in time to the year 1590 and asked any Elizabethan who would be remembered as the greatest writer of their age, they would have replied without hesitation, “Christopher Marlowe.” If you asked them about William Shakespeare, they would have thought you were insane — after all, William Shakespeare was this playwright writing and producing lowest-common-denominator melodramas and comedies for the masses. Today, one of those two writers are remembered as a footnote to the history of literature, and it isn’t William Shakespeare.

That the struggle exists today isn’t a surprise. What is different now is that the Internet is in play. On one hand, that allows anybody to speak their mind without having to worry about a gatekeeper. On the other, it allows small groups of vocal extremists to appear far more powerful and numerous than they actually are. There are those who are very sore winners now that superhero films dominate the box office, but they are very likely a tiny minority speaking only for themselves. I think they and the extreme stance they are taking will very likely be forgotten as the superhero trend fades away and another takes its place.