check and hid out from the police. Kirby's art, meanwhile, was so kinetic and surreal that Superman, over at rival DC Comics, instantly seemed like a caped Pat Boone, stiff and slow to understand the new rhythm.

For decades, none of Marvel's New York-based success story really mattered to Hollywood. Then in the late 1990s a new Marvel boss, Avi Arad, made it his crusade to get his company's classic heroes on the silver screen. The breakthrough came in the 2000 Fox film "X-Men," which was deeply loyal to the comic book and starred Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. Its success started a cinematic windfall for all those old Lee, Kirby and Ditko characters, who were belatedly ideal for a moviegoing public in love withconfidence'

THE Beverly Hills office of Marvel Studios has been quite the scene in recent months. One afternoon you might see Robert Downey Jr., the star of "Iron Man," another time it might be Edward Norton, who gets green this June in "The Incredible Hulk." Edge of U2 has dropped by too, working on the music for Tony-winner Julie Taymor's planned Broadway musical of "Spider-Man."

The bright and tidy office has a gleaming statue of the Silver Surfer in its lobby, and in a rear room, behind a locked door, there's a giant "life-size" image of the new Hulk, who will make his first major appearance this week at ShoWest, the Las Vegas gathering of movie exhibitors. Another wall at the Marvel office is covered with storyboards for the film,