The tragic nature of the story and its disturbing themes make it the kind of comic book movie that is obvious about the ways in which it is not a comic book movie.
As far as stigma is concerned, the Avengers: Endgame director wasn’t necessarily referring to the ongoing debate about whether or not comic book movies can be considered cinema.
Of course, part of what the Academy seems to love about Joker is exactly what Joe Russo calls out about it.
But it’s hard not to read into his comments — especially since Joker hit theaters not long after Martin Scorsese first revealed his not-so-complimentary thoughts about Marvel movies.