New Delhi, Feb. 7 -- We are going to make the last movie on earth. because no one will have the balls to make another." This is a pronouncement of promise made by an esoteric fictional filmmaker, an auteur taking on a superhero movie with lofty, genre-transcending ambitions. It is also a joke, coming in a great episode of Marvel's new series Wonder Man, now streaming on JioHotstar. Ah, Marvel. Remember when they started making superhero movies, each setting a benchmark, each getting more interesting and more human, movies that promised and delivered us actual events. how long ago all that feels.

Today's Marvel productions have the absolute opposite mission: to make a movie that-far from being untoppable-can most swiftly be followed up wi...