Anyone who has been tuned into popular culture this year can’t have missed the intensive media campaigns of two giants in their field, both fighting to come out on top in one of the fastest escalating competitions in recent memory.

Of course, I am talking about the struggle between Marvel and DC Comics.

Before you laugh at someone taking heroes in spandex too seriously, just hear me out. First, let’s look at the numbers. Ever since Hollywood realized they could make serious money off of people reliving their childhood comic books on the big screen, movies based off of Marvel and DC’s properties have become some of the highest rated, most attended flicks to hit theaters.

We’ll start in 2012, when “The Avengers” shattered the international box office record with over 78 million tickets sold. Coming in right behind Marvel’s crowning glory that year was “The Dark Knight Rises” and swinging into the number seven slot was “The Amazing Spider-Man.” 2013 “Iron Man 3” takes the number one spot with “Man of Steel” and “Thor: The Dark World” also making the top fifteen.

In 2014, “Guardians of the Galaxy” blew predictions out of the water when a movie including a foul-mouthed raccoon and a talking tree was the top-grosser of the year. Also in that lineup: “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” and even “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” 2015 was considered the weakest year so far, since a superhero film was finally ousted from the highest spot. But “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Ant-Man” still made the list, and really, who can blame them for losing the very top spot to “Star Wars?”

So just to condense all that for you, in just the past four years, every movie produced by Marvel or DC (bad reviews or not) has been one of the top grossers of the year, and this success has only fueled the fire. Marvel has just entered “phase 3” of its master plan for its cinematic universe. DC, panicking in the aftermath of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, couldn’t even wait a full five years before rebooting the character and shoving him into a fight to the death with its other biggest property, Superman.

And this is just the movies. Netflix just premiered the second season of the Emmy-nominated “Daredevil,” alongside the fairly recent release of “Jessica Jones” and the announcement of at least two other hero-based shows in the near future (eventually coming together to form a mini-Avengers called the Defenders). Also out on the small screen are episodes of “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and “Agent Carter,” so normal humans don’t feel left out. DC, not to be stood up, has been relentlessly throwing characters at audiences to see what sticks. “Arrow,” “The Flash,” “Supergirl,” “Gotham” and “Legends of Tomorrow” are all currently showing to mixed reviews.

Does that seem like a bit much? I’m not even even counting the merchandise, theme parks, press coverage and dedicated fans that emerge from each individual franchise.

At this point, the superhero industry might seem to be reaching the point of no return. It looks like “too big to fail” has become a reality and the extensive planning, casting and money that have been sunk into franchises up until 2020 has yet to come crashing down catastrophically.

Remember the slow year of 2015? Only two major movies released? (I refuse to include “Fantastic Four” on principle). Well, they are making up for it in 2016. Statistically, most of you reading this article have seen “Deadpool,” the first superhero movie of this year that has already surpassed all box office predictions (even as an R-rated film). And that is just the beginning. This year we will see six other huge productions hit the screens.

This weekend you can go see DC’s version of throwing all the cards on the table: “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.” If that’s not enough, you can venture out to see “Captain America: Civil War,” already predicted to be the top-grossing film of 2016, after your finals. And if you’re still bored, just wait around for “X-Men: Apocalypse,” “Suicide Squad,” “Gambit” or “Doctor Strange” to roll into theaters.

This is no longer just a niche genre that is getting out of hand. The budget for “Age of Ultron” was over twelve times that of this year’s Best Picture Winner, “Spotlight.” And speaking of the Oscars, there is at least one award winning actor or actress gracing almost every DC or Marvel production. Jennifer Lawrence, Sir Ben Kingsley, William Hurt, Robert Redford, Amy Adams, heck, even Ben Affleck have now graced both the Academy Award stage and donned a superhero persona. So now we have big money, big names and a media ocean backing every comic property that gets released. Overwhelming? Yes. But there is hope for fans that don’t want the genre to die a dramatic death.

As these entertainment giants continue to duke it out, we are benefiting by only getting the great products that come from their one-upmanship. But we’re reaching a tipping point. Soon, there will be a movie that audiences enter excited, and leave more than mildly disappointed.

And I think that movie is going to be “Batman v. Superman.” The early reviews are starting to roll out, and they are barely granting the movie a C+ grade. With both studios committed to such rigid schedules, production and writing are already underway for a sequel and two spinoffs.

But if DC’s big leap (or any of the others coming this year) hits the bottom hard, it will have to make changes. It will have to try something new and different if it wants to bring back audiences. So maybe, instead of twenty or so cookie cutter heroes with the same ending, we might get something weird, something exciting. Because yes, at some point, we got kind of bored of just seeing superpowers used to blow up a city block. Now we want character development, anti-heroes, complex villains and maybe a main character that stays dead for once. We want a feminist “Black Widow” movie or a non-heterosexual relationship thrown into “Justice League.” We could be just one train wreck of a film away from something that takes the genre to new limits.

So, take it from someone who has seen every movie and TV show in this article: get excited. We might currently groan when we see another pair of men in silly costumes glaring at each other (Captain America and Iron Man are even strikingly similar poses as Batman and Superman in a recent poster), but hopefully we’re about to come full circle. Just as the genre gained popularity by giving us entertainment unlike anything we had seen before, we’re reaching that necessity again.

And I’m fairly confident we are going to get something bigger and better, not something that has us avoiding the theaters. Because if we’ve proved anything in the last decade, it’s that we are ready and willing to watch superhero movies. We like the quirkiness, the action, the slightly insane characters and the witty banter. We all like to imagine ourselves with a star-spangled shield or a Batarang.

So keep your eyes open; DC and Marvel are taking over and it’s going to be phenomenal.