India, July 15 -- "Welcome to the MCU. You're joining at a bit of a low point," Ryan Reynolds' quipaholic mercenary greets Hugh Jackman's rageaholic mutant in Deadpool & Wolverine, a corporate alliance bulletin in the guise of a superhero team-up romp. Fox's Marvel properties are welcomed into Disney's fold not with the red carpet rolled out, but with a snarky dig. If you thought the franchise had hit rock bottom already, there are phases yet to come in its business cycle, by the end of which you may forget if there ever were any peaks to begin with.

For a movie about IP integration amid company-wide restructuring, the villain is a fitting one: a corporate bureaucrat by the name of Mr Paradox (Matthew MacFadyen) who has been tasked with ...