Spider-Man's Guardian Angels

It's a long way from the Israeli desert to lush Beverly Hills, Calif. For Avi Arad, that journey has taken him from soldier to rent-a-car clerk to toy designer and, finally, to being one of the hottest producers in Hollywood, with a $25 million estate to prove it. Arad, born in Cyprus and raised in Israel, taught himself English as a boy by reading comic books. Today, as CEO of Marvel Enterprises' (MVL ) studio operations, he holds the keys to some of the biggest action franchises going, including Sony Pictures Entertainment's (SNE ) blockbuster Spider-Man and Fox's (NWS ) X-Men movies. His latest project: the much-anticipated Fantastic Four, also by Fox, which opens July 8. Universal Studios and Lion's Gate Entertainment (LGF ) have Marvel projects in the works, too.

Arad, who prefers an all-black wardrobe and sports a two-day stubble, is only half of the Marvel success story. In a classic good-cop, bad-cop pairing, the personable studio boss is teamed with Marvel Chief Executive Isaac "Ike" Perlmutter, every bit as private and litigious as Arad is public and schmoozy. (Perlmutter declined to be interviewed or photographed for this story.) Both were veterans of Israel's Six Day War in 1967 and came to the U.S. three decades ago with little but their big dreams. Some say the similarities end there. "They're an odd couple -- Ike is all elbows and Avi all charm," says Christian Brothers University professor Jeffrey A. Schultz, a onetime junk-bond trader who invested with Perlmutter in the mid-1980s.