What Evil Lurks In The Heart Of Ron?

Deep amid the glaring yellows, magentas, and cyans, there is a loathsome new villain in Comic Book Land, one as diabolical as Lex Luthor, as evil as Dr. Doom. His name is Ronald O. Perelman. And his weapon, enemies say, is more potent than kryptonite. It's an ax--the one he used on Jan. 4 to lay off 275 of 1,700 employees at Marvel Entertainment Group, the comics-industry leader, of which the billionaire investor owns 80%.

Perelman's fiendish strategy: boost profits by de-emphasizing cartoon publishing and focusing on the low-overhead licensing of popular characters such as Spider-Man and X-Men. He wants to open Marvel theme restaurants in New York, London, and Las Vegas--where he also hopes to run a casino. And he has bought half of a toy company to manufacture Marvel action figures. Perelman's executives have even signed deals to put Spider-Man on candy-bar and fast-food wrappers. From there (evil laugh), the world! Ultimately, the cigar-chomping dealmaker wants to become a major media player, and he is already moving into television production.