AVI ARAD THE COMIC BOOK SAVIOR

As the head of Marvel Studios, Avi Arad has overseen a renaissance of the comic–book–hero–as–movie genre and some of the most successful movies ever made, ranging from the first Blade to the X–Men and Spider–Man movies.

Arad is an anomaly in the comics industry—an intelligent, charismatic self–proclaimed “geek” who had the intelligence to recognize comic books’ cultural value.

Arad grew up in Israel where he read prodigiously. After completing his military service, he came to the U.S. and studied at Hofstra University. He then worked at virtually every major toy company, ultimately landing at Toy Biz and rising to the top.

Upon losing a lucrative licensing deal with the 1989 Batman movie to Hasbro, he designed and pitched Marvel on doing the X–Men as action figures, then produced the hugely popular 1992 X–Men cartoon. That led to an animated series and video games; six years ago, Toy Biz acquired a bankrupt Marvel Comics.

Arad rejuvenated Marvel with movie deals and with the Ultimate comic lines. He also shelled out $2 million to bury a terrible straight–to–video Fantastic Four movie by Roger Corman to do it right this year.

“I think the company used to be in the hands of people who were not geeks, who didn’t understand this literature, didn’t understand the value,” he says. “The first superhero comic, Superman, came out in 1938 and is still being published, still kicking. How many other things have survived that long?”

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