Samuel L. Jackson Claps Back at Martin Scorsese’s Marvel Comments

In the odd chance you’ve escaped Twitter for the past week and have missed out, Oscar winner Martin Scorsese has been under fire for saying Marvel movies don’t capture the true essence of cinema. Following in the footsteps of Marvel filmmakers James Gunn and Joss Whedon, Nick Fury himself (Samuel L. Jackson) has broken silence on the matter.

On the red carpet for a gala celebrating the opening of Tyler Perry’s new studio in Atlanta, Jackson made sure to point out not everyone happens to be a fan of all things Scorsese either. “That’s kind of like saying Bugs Bunny ain’t funny,” Jackson tells Variety. “Films are films. You know, everybody doesn’t like his stuff either. I mean, we happen to, but everybody doesn’t. There are a lot of Italian-Americans that don’t think he should be making films about them like that. Everybody’s got an opinion, so it’s okay. It’s not going to stop anyone from making movies.”

To date, Scorsese has won one Oscar (Best Director) for his work on The Departed (2006) in addition to a dozen of other Oscar nominations — two of which happen to be Adapted Screenplays (Goodfellas and The Age of Innocence), the same category comic book films would fall under at the Academy Awards.

Scorsese’s original comments — from a recent Empire Magazine interview — appear in their entirety below.

“I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema. Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”

Filmmakers aren’t the only ones countering Scorsese’s comments — superstar comics writer Johnathan Hickman seemingly mocked the scenario in a tweet on Friday, suggesting he was tired of eating spicy chicken wings.

“I don’t eat them. I tried, you know. But that’s not actual dining. Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with chicken doing the best it can under the circumstances, are spicy hot wings. This isn’t fine dining, it’s just burning your fucking mouth because you love to see world’s mouths burn, and I won’t have it. I won’t have any fucking part of it.”

Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Film at Lincoln Center