The line between super-heroism and super-villainy is in the eye of the beholder. Not everyone would agree with the moral imperatives of a masked billionaire tackling street crime (Batman), a Holocaust survivor fighting for equal rights (Magneto) or an alien committed to “truth, justice and the American way” (Superman). So, while Echo (Alaqua Cox) was a villain in 2021’s Hawkeye, her transition from antagonist to protagonist is wholly persuasive, particularly since dead family member(s) are the core motive in these hero/villain origin stories.
Hawkeye, based around Jeremy Renner’s bow-wielding vigilante, surpassed (admittedly rock bottom) expectations with a fun, self-contained story that saw everyone’s least favourite Avenger battle Kingpin and make it home in time for Christmas. It was the fifth of the 12 Disney+ Marvel series, but it seemed born of a golden age when WandaVision and Loki debuted with some genuine sparks of ingenuity, and before the talents of Oscar Isaac, Olivia Colman and Tatiana Maslany had been publicly squandered. While Echo doesn’t quite cure the pandemic of Marvel fatigue currently raging across the globe, it shows there may be some life in the old gal.
The series follows Echo, AKA Maya Lopez, after the events of Hawkeye, where she battles her ruthless quasi-uncle Kingpin, AKA Wilson Fisk’s, army after shooting him point blank in the face. But to establish her as the piece’s hero and not Hawkeye’s villain, we start with an episode dedicated to her story. We meet seven-year-old Choctaw girl Maya growing up in Omaha when a tragedy befalls her family, leading her and her father to move to New York where, over the decades, he ascends the ranks of “the Tracksuit Mafia” (no, that name is not a joke and yes, they do all wear tracksuits), before Hawkeye kills him in events it transpires were set up by Kingpin himself. But before the truth comes out, the young, deaf amputee is manipulated by Kingpin into taking her father’s place and becomes his chief muscle, fuelled by vengeance and helped by her ability to “echo” the fighting skills of her opponents, making her a worthy adversary to all who cross her path.
Beyond being well-trained by her beloved father, Echo can tap into the strength of her Choctaw ancestors. As her grandfather Skully (Graham Greene) drops in with a convenient bit of exposition, she is a direct descendent of “the first Choctaw, who saved everyone from the cave. When they emerged, they turned into human beings.” This Choctaw origin story is shown in the show’s opening moments, but its relevance is only made explicit when the battles heat up and Maya taps into forces greater than herself. Skully explains that “Shafa and the ancestors would watch out for the family in times of need, but they are tricky. You never know when they might come calling.” Aside from the initial cave rescue, each of the three episodes provided for review commences with an act of heroism from Maya’s matrilineal line, paralleling the present day, where Maya must protect her fellow Choctaw from bullets, blades and awkward family reunions.
The show is significantly gnarlier than its Disney+ predecessors, with far bloodier violence than has graced the streamer before. Episode one contains one of the best action scenes across the entire multiverse, with a four-minute long single take of a deal gone wrong in a warehouse, resulting in a cacophony of exploding skulls and snapping necks. Even more impressive is the central performance from Cox, who shares being Native American (in her case Menominee and Mohican), deaf and an amputee with the character and can emote complex, conflicted emotions mid-upper-cut. The supporting cast has plenty of highlights, too. Zahn McClarnon is heartbreaking as a man crushed by grief but devoted to protecting his young daughter, Greene brings the deadpan comedy, growling at problematic white tourists who frequent his artisanal Native American store that they should go to Anthropologie, and Tantoo Cardinal is sensational as her stubborn estranged grandmother, poisoned by decades of resentment.
But the show isn’t immune to the broad malaise that infects the MCU, namely the need to continually build an interconnected universe. As much as the show wants to carve out its own identity, it still feels like there’s a PhD level of research expected of viewers to follow Echo’s story properly. In just the three years since the Disney+ Marvel TV series kicked off with WandaVision, the format has accumulated a stunning amount of baggage, and it’s hard to imagine any show being able to debut with the self-contained flights of fancy of its earliest outings. Echo may be far more impressive than anything to come out of the recent multiverse. Sadly, though, she is still forced to mirror the mistakes of her Marvel forebears.
• Echo is on Disney+ now
