Ready, Set, Runaways!

Another Marvel comic has entered the fray with a film adaptation to start filming March 2011. The title? Runaways.

With none other than Marvel Studios to help guide its way -- as opposed to Marvel properties like Fantastic Four which are under other studios right now -- Runaways will film in Los Angeles and the search for the actors who will bring these super-teens to life on screen is already underway.

In fact, a recent casting notice for the film stirred up the controversy when fans of Runaways discovered that it did not specifically call for Asians to audition for the role of Nico, a Japanese-American. After several newstories and more than a few fans complaining about the potential for whitewashing taking place (or "racebending" as it was termed when director M. Night Shymalan cast mostly white actors for his Asian characters in The Last Airbender) Marvel Studios quickly promised fans and audience members that an actor of Asian descent would be sought out for the part, saying, "Thus, our goal is to cast an Asian American actress as depicted in the comic series and the casting notice will be adjusted accordingly."

Created in 2002 by Brian Vaughan and Adrian Alphona, Runaways was a manga-like comic series under the Marvel umbrella that followed a group of super-teens who run away after they discover that their parents form a network of dangerous supervillians.