It’s a new year and possibly a new start for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With such a disappointing 2023 on many fronts, 2024 is leading to a quieter year for the studio and its dominance of the entertainment industry by adapting superhero comics, which it barely acknowledges anymore. This new year starts with the new miniseries Echo, starring Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez, the title character of the series. MCU viewers were first introduced in the 2021 series Hawkeye as one of the many antagonists Clint and Kate have to deal with. Cox made an immediate impact as one of the outstanding things in that show for many. I personally like that MCU show a lot because I like Hawkeye and the comic series it was pulled from. Echo, a character that first appeared around twenty-five years ago, doesn’t have a lot of backstory or overall lore to pull from compared to other characters they’ve turned into shows. Hence, the show makers have some freeway to go their own way in some regards to how this character is shaped in the bigger audience.
Echo begins with us seeing the backstory of Maya’s history with her family in Oklahoma. How she ended up in New York City, and scenes from the Hawkeye show that get the viewer up to date on where the character is when the show begins. The show has Maya reconnecting with where she came from and her family she hasn’t seen since childhood, and her now war with Wilson Fisk, aka The Kingpin, played by Vincent D’Onofrio, continues his role from the Daredevil series that was on Netflix some years ago. For the most part, in my TV-watching opinion, this show feels like a basic cable show in the early 2000s in tone and format. Our character has a micro problem and then a macro problem. The micro being the one close to them that is obstructing their main goal, and then the macro being the crux of the series. For the most part, it handles this structure ok, but it’s not what one would call “prestige” television, but it is decent. The show can drag at some parts of an episode’s runtime but the episodes are not that long that it feels like it’s forever before getting anywhere.
With the episodes I’ve seen, the more grounded nature of the show is hampered a bit by a part of the show that feels like it’s going to add a bit of a fantastical element to the character and connect to the codename the character has historically had. In the comics, the reason Maya was called Echo was because she could replicate any other characters’ physical moves – you know, like an Echo. It made for her being an interesting foe and later love interest for Matt Murdock. Her being hearing impaired and his blindness with his supernatural radar sense, she needed something to counter that a bit. Most comic book fans knew she had the same ability as Taskmaster, but honestly, different characters having the same “power set” isn’t a big deal. I feel, though, that the MCU people do not feel that way. In the MCU, Maya has yet to – look at Shang Chi and instantly be able to fight the same way. I feel they are going to actually make her “super” in this show. The MCU doesn’t do well by its street-level heroes continues.
Alaqua Cox is still very captivating, playing Maya to the point I feel is the whole reason this show exists is just to showcase her and her ability as an actress. Even though I feel there’s not a bunch there with the character for her to always do, she keeps the viewer interested. The other standout character in the series to me is Cody Lightning as Maya’s cousin Biscuits. It’s hard to not like a person called Biscuits cause biscuits are amazing, but Lightning brings the right amount of levity to scenes they are in. Lightning works well, bouncing off of Cox’s badass stoic performance. The fight scenes in this show are also very well done. You can see the John Wick influence and the Daredevil show influence on the fight scenes in this series. They are never boring and bring the right amount of excitement on the screen and in the viewer. Top-tier fades are given y’all. As of right now, I feel Echo is alright, but not a show to suddenly change the recent feelings about the MCU. Honestly, with them using the Marvel Spotlight banner on this, the title of a series from the 1970s feels like this might be something they can use to experiment, but we’ll see. With the release of all the episodes at once, we’ll see how the audience feels about this series and how quickly with its five-episode run.
Score: C
RIOTUS 