While it feels like Maya Lopez has barely been in the MCU for a hot minute, that hasn’t stopped her from netting her very own series in the wake of her debut in Hawkeyen however, a quick scan of her comic book past shows that she’s more than worthy to fly solo on Disney+. First showing up in 1998 in Daredevil #9 as the latest in a long line of antagonist/love interests for ol’ hornhead (has quite a complicated history with women does our Daredevil), the character kept popping up here and there, most noticably taking over the Ronin mantle from Hawkeye, temporarily becoming a New Avenger and even once becoming the host for the Phoenix Force.
However, Echo getting a solo series isn’t just the latest attempt from Marvel to spread it’s ever lengthening tendrils into the further most reaches of its seemingly endless universe – its seemingly also an attempt to resurrect the Netflix era of Marvel and to inject some gratuitous blood, sweat and tears (but mostly blood) into the usually family friendly world of the MCU.
When we last saw Maya Lopez, she was giving her benefactor, Wilson Fisk’s Kingpin, a pistol powered ocular exam after it came to light that the ridiculously imposing crime boss was the once responsible for the death of her gangster father. However, rather than continue straight on after the finale of Hawkeye, we spend quite a lot of time getting back up to speed with Maya’s past.
As we fast forward through the formative moments of Lopez’s past as we find that the car crash that killed her mother and left her one leg short was the result of a cut brake line by a rival to her criminal father. Leaving their hometown and family behind to play with the big boys in a crime ridden New York, Maya picks up her aptitude for whupping ass thanks to the ability to use her perceived disabilities to her advantage and as she matures, the Kingpin of Crime sees her skills as prime real estate – especially after fending off an assault from the vigilante known as Daredevil.
However, the truth will out and all that and after the events of Hawkeye, Maya struck a seemingly fatal blow against her former benefactor and blew town and five months later, we find that she’s been working her way home after catching a mysterious bullet during her travels. With the Kingpin dead, Maya reasons that it’s time that she steps up to fill the void and she’s been targeting any place of business that has anything to do with the Fisk name. However, upon arriving back in Oklahoma for the first time since her mother died, Maya balks at reconnecting with her estranged cousin, choosing instead to tap into the resources of her uncle, Henry “Black Crow” Lopez who still has connections with the Fisk empire.
Speaking of Fisk; it seems like that bullet to the eye socket wasn’t enough to put down the lethal man mountain for good which will no doubt prove to be extraordinary shitty news for all involved…
Echo is being touted as something of a new direction for the TV arm of the MCU that goes far beyond representation of Native Americans, the deaf and anyone suffering a physical disability – although it certainly does all that in spades. The first of Marvel’s Spotlight series of shows that supposedly are supposed to be viewer friendly to those intimidated by sixteen years of tangled continuity, it also takes its cue from the Netflix era of Marvel that reintroduces a far more violent and mature glimpse of this world of vigilantes and crime bosses. Now, whether this means that the entire series of Netflix shows are now cannon to the MCU is unclear (footage from the original Daredevil show was present in the trailers), but if the advertising was anything to believe, Echo is nothing more than a thinly veiled stealth Matt Murdock/Kingpin show to set us up for the planned Daredevil revival.
However, after watching the first episode of Echo, this obviously proves not to be the point as while the two warring, polar opposites of the street level realms of Marvel are present and correct, this show really is mainly Echo’s deal. Now, how this makes you feel probably says more about you than the show itself, but I’d be lying if there wasn’t an immense thrill seeing Charlie Cox suddenly show up in a flashback and “thwack” one of his billy clubs off the skull of a hapless thug before engaging in one of those long “single shot” fight scenes the Netflix shows loved to indulge in. Similarly, spending any time with Vincent D’Onofrio is an intimidating joy and even though he too is relegated primarily to flashback duties, he still proves that his casting is still up to J.K. Simmons/J. Jonah Jameson levels of comic to screen perfection.
So, with those two heavy hitters slid subtly into the background, it’s Alaqua Cox who has to shoulder the burden and while she proves so far to be an interesting, if rather closed off lead, the first episode kind of thwarts her efforts a little by spending the lion’s share of its runtime by filling in some gaps. Now, while this wouldn’t usually be an issue, the whole point of the Marvel Spotlight tag is to assure new viewers that any wading through convoluted backstory will be minimal, and yet the first half an hour of the episode is spent bringing us up to speed with Lopez from the time of the accident that cost her her leg all the way up to her fateful final meeting with Fisk. While new footage is inserted inbetween the stuff we already saw in Hawkeye, it is neither detailed enough to give newbies the full rundown of everything, nor is it light enough for Marvel veterans not to feel like they’re painstakingly going over already covered ground and as a result, the tone and pacing of the first episode is fairly sketchy. However, once the story moves past Daredevil, Kingpin and general MCU lip service, Maya’s return to her home town is fairly interesting as she cherry picks which relatives she reconnects with, purely from the angle of becoming the next big thing in organized crime.
Despite a sturdy-ish start, the show obviously hasn’t gotten up enough speed yet to offer a “come for Daredevil, stay for the show” line of advice for fans who are rapidly tiring of Marvel’s exploits, but its short episode count (merely five installments) and rapid release schedule (all episodes dropped simultaneously), mean that Echo hopefully won’t be allowed to drag quite as much as Secret Invasion. But unless it brings its story into sharper focus in a fairly quick amount of time, Echo simply won’t be able to make enough noise to be heard.
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