If you haven't read the book, "Comic Wars: Marvel's Battle For Survival" by Dan Raviv then you should.
From Library Journal
Raviv, coauthor of Every Spy a Prince and a national correspondent for CBS news, recounts a Wall Street story of greed, pure and simple, in this "fly on the wall" view of the takeover and eventual bankruptcy of Marvel Entertainment. This book has all the makings of a great screenplay "Spiderman Meets Wall Street in Bankruptcy Court." The major story is of the battle for control waged by Ronald Perelman, who bought Marvel in the late 1980s, and Carl Icahn, who began buying Marvel bonds in an effort to take over the company. Ironically, neither Perelman nor Ichan was ever interested in comics (both bragged that they never looked at the product); rather, they were obsessed with profit and personal vendetta. A parallel story deals with Ike Perlmutter and Avi Arad, two entrepreneurs with Toy Biz who had a significant interest in Marvel, its characters, and further sustaining the enterprise over the long term. While the era and the situations differ, Comic Wars is in the vein of The White Sharks of Wall Street. This chilling tale of corporate infighting is recommended for business collections, although the subject matter may give the book wider appeal. Steven Silkunas, North Wales, PA
Book Description
From the coauthor of the New York Times bestseller Every Spy a Prince comes the colorful true story of the business superheroes who rescued Marvel Comics from bankruptcy. In the mid-1990s, Marvel Entertainment became embroiled in a crisis as strange as one of its comic book stories. Locked in a battle for control of the half-century-old company were two Goliath-style corporate raiders and two virtually unknown Davids: Israeli immigrants with a passion for the toy business. This was a test of wills that led to a unique Wall Street showdown. Combining hard-hitting journalism with entertaining storytelling, Comic Wars takes readers behind the scenes of America's most bitter bankruptcy and captures the high-stakes, often hilarious twists and turns of this financial fiasco.
"Dan Raviv is a wizard. Though Comic Wars is a factual account of the origins and aftermath of a corporate bankruptcy, he's managed to make it as suspenseful and exciting as the superhero thrillers over which most of the battle was fought. Even though I've lived through those harrowing days, thanks to Dan's book, I've gained a new understanding of the whole incredible event."
-Stan Lee
