Marvel Entertainment, after barely surviving a bankruptcy battle from 1996 to 1998, transformed itself from a damaged comic book publisher to an intellectual property success story and then into a movie-making powerhouse, thanks to a gutsy decision in September 2005.

Avi Arad, one of the two ex-Israelis who defeated Ronald Perelman and Carl Icahn in bankruptcy court to win control of Marvel, managed to win a fateful, often fiery, argument against corporate board members who were totally allergic to risk in all its forms. With his COO, David Maisel, Arad was able to arrange a $525 million credit line for Marvel to make its...