James Gunn Defends Superhero Movies After Oscars & Indie Spirit Awards Swipes At Blockbusters

For an audience that scrutinizes, pores over, and is highly critical of every scrap of information regarding superhero movies (recent example: the first look at Aquaman), comic book fans can be remarkably sensitive, or in the case of this latest "controversy," miss the point completely.

This weekend, at both The Oscars and the Indie Spirit Awards, superhero and blockbuster films were taken to task. In a playful music number at the Oscars, Jack Black sang, "Opening with lots of zeroes, all we get are superheroes: Spider-Man, Superman, Batman, Jedi Man, Sequel Man, Prequel Man, formulaic scripts!" Dan Gilroy, accepting his award for "Nightcrawler" at the Indie Spirits, noted with a bit more gravity: “Independent film, the foundation and everybody here today, I think are holdouts against a tsunami of superhero movies that have swept over this industry. We have survived and we have thrived and I think that’s true spirit.”

Both comments rankled...