Marvel Studios ‘Echo’ Is Chaotic, Unexpected, and Gritty
The first title under Marvel Studios’ new Marvel Spotlight banner is chaotic, unexpected, and gritty.
This review covers the first three episodes of Echo and is spoiler free.
After the events of Hakweye, Maya Lopez returns to her hometown in Oklahoma. There she must come to terms with her past, reconnect with her Native American roots, and embrace her family and community all while being pursued by Wilson Fisk’s criminal empire.
The first episode gives us a more elaborate origin story for Maya Lopez, something that was missing from Hawkeye. The show has some emotional beats, especially from Maya’s father William Lopez, who is wonderfully portrayed by Zahn McClarnon.
Kingpin’s role looms large over the series, and he has a prominent role in the first episode. It’s captivating to watch D’Onofrio’s Kingpin as Marvel Studios continues to build him up as the “street-level Thanos.” The series shines a light on Kingpin’s relationship with Maya, although I suspect we will get even more of this relationship in the final two episodes.
As expected by the heavily promoted “TV-MA” ads, the series gets violent. I would say the series uses violence in stretches, it’s not a blood bath the entire time. The action is gritty, brutal, and at times gnarly. The action seen in Echo definitely feels like Marvel Studios setting the stage for more violent titles like Deadpool 3 and Daredevil: Born Again.
The first episode includes some expected-but-lovely surprises. It’s a blast of an episode, however it is a bit choppy. There are a lot of ideas and a lot of things happening in this introduction. Plus the opening episode provides highlights from Hawkeye to remind the audience of Echo’s overall role in the MCU story. Despite the choppiness and chaos, you’ll likely want to watch another episode immediately afterward. Alaqua Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio are captivating, and some of the MCU newcomers mesh well. Devery Jacobs plays Maya’s cousin Bonnie, and she does a splendid job. Jacobs also is the voice of Kahhori, a new Mohawk Marvel hero, that debuted in What If…?.
The series also straddles between its new hometown-based story and its MCU connective tissue established in Hawkeye. Although those two stories start to blend quite nicely. However, there is another sequence of scenes, that haven’t connected to the main plot yet that so far take you out of the action. These scenes may come into play towards the finale but still, they feel out of place in this show — despite how pretty they look.
The second episode includes a quick and minor MCU reference but I thought it was a great, subtle way to remind fans that this story is still very much connected to the larger MCU. The second episode also features a lot of character-driven relationships and the fear of Fisk looms large — even in a small town in Oklahoma.
Maya Lopez (Echo) is deaf and Native American, so her show features ASL (American Sign Language) and major representation of the Choctaw Nation. Both of those traits build Maya’s character throughout the first three episodes. The latter wasn’t as prevalent in Hawkeye due to time I would assume.
Overall, Echo is a series that has unexpected style, gritty and gnarly action scenes, and at times is super chaotic. It’s an attempt at doing something different in the MCU, while still being connected to the larger story.
The show stars Alaqua Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, Chaske Spencer, Graham Greene, Tantoo Cardinal, Devery Jacobs, Zahn McClarnon, and Cody Lightning.
Episodes of the series are directed by Sydney Freeland and Catriona McKenzie. Executive producers are Kevin Feige, Stephen Broussard, Louis D’Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, Victoria Alonso, Richie Palmer, Jason Gavin, Marion Dayre, and Sydney Freeland. Co-executive producers are Jennifer L. Booth and Amy Rardin.
All five episodes of Echo are now streaming on Disney+.
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Zach Perilstein is the Editor-in-Chief of the Boardwalk Times
