A cartoon character based on the Korean myth about a nine-tailed fox will be joining Spiderman, Ironman and other superheroes in Marvel’s “Avengers” comic book series, the U.S. firm’s executive said Tuesday.

The character, White Fox, is a heroin appearing in “Avengers Electric Rain,” a Web-based cartoon series published on the Korean web portal Daum. “Avengers Electric Rain” is the first localized series of the U.S. comic series Avengers and is being written and drawn by Korean cartoon artist Koh Young-hun.

“The character has proven to be so popular that we’ve decided to take it from Korea. She’ll be joining the Avengers characters in the U.S. comic series,” C.B. Cebulski, a senior vice president of Marvel Entertainment, told a press conference in a forum in Seoul. He is to deliver a keynote speech Wednesday, the second day of the two-day forum organized by the Korea Creative Content Agency. 

“My hope is to bring (‘Avengers Electric Rain’) from the Korean language into English and use it as the launch of a webtoon model in the U.S.,” the executive said.

“We’ve already started discussions about taking it to other countries starting here in Asia, such as Taiwan and China.”

Launched six weeks ago, “Avengers Electric Rain” is a pilot project of Marvel as the U.S. firm studies the new possibilities in the webtoon model, he added.

“What the Western world has to adopt is the smartphone-based models,” he said.

Webtoons have become a popular pastime for many smartphone users in Korea.

The print edition of “Misaeng (Incomplete Life),” a hit webtoon, sold more than 1 million copies, while its TV series adaptation, currently airing on cable channel tvN, has become another sensation.

While tablet PCs and most other digital devices opt for a side-to-side scroll in storytelling, just like real comic books, webtoons have readers scroll down to read.

“People who use Twitter and Instagram are very much familiar with (scrolling down). What you will be seeing is more companies adopting that model in storytelling,” he said.

By Lee Sun-young (milaya@heraldcorp.com)