‘Echo’ Should Have Ditched Its Magic

In the early days of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, critics questioned how characters like Iron Man and Thor could exist not just in the same universe but also in the same film. Iron Man is a hero of technology while Thor is a hero of fantasy. Obviously, this mix of genres isn’t an issue today, but the MCU continues to span many styles. It has gritty and grounded street-level stories as well as epic tales taking place in space. Echo tries to mash two of these different genres together with a gangster story involving the Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) and a magical story involving Maya Lopez’s (Alaqua Cox) ancestry. The two sides don’t mingle very well and the show would have been better off sticking to one or the other.

Maya (Alaqua Cox) first debuted in Hawkeye as an enforcer in Kingpin’s empire. She proved herself to be a worthy fighter and someone who uses her disabilities as advantages rather than handicaps. After learning the truth about Kingpin killing her father, she attempts to kill him and goes on the run. The show is more or less about Kingpin surviving and coming after Maya, but there’s another side to the show. During this time, she returns home to Oklahoma and reunites with family. She also experiences a strange connection to her ancestors, which grants her skills and abilities passed down to her through a seemingly magical lineage.

Since Cox had such a great performance in Hawkeye, that grounded approach fit well with both actor and character. The show rightly continues that storyline, and seeing Kingpin always helps. But it also has a strong urge to give Maya a more dramatic set super powers. She has some mimicry ability in the comics — which also appear to some extent during her time on Hawkeye — but that was more or less abandoned for this ancestral approach. On a character level, it was great seeing such a strong Native American story and having it echo through history, but it just didn’t work for the overall nature of the story. The abilities seemingly manifested out of nowhere and the attempt to connect their purpose to legacy fell flat. It was a valiant attempt to place the powers in the center of a battle between Maya returning to Kingpin and embracing her estranged family, but it was ultimately too fanciful for the more grounded approach on display.

Echo is now streaming on Disney+.