‘Echo’ series review: Marvel returns to its roots with this decent, low-stakes addition

Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez in Marvel Studios’ ‘Echo’
| Photo Credit: Chuck Zlotnick

When the miniseries Echo was announced, like many loyal followers of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I was taken aback. For starters, Echo is not one of the top characters one would ask for a standalone series, given the more meritorious names from the world of Marvel that have not even been name-dropped yet. Also considering that in the Hawkeye miniseries, in which Alaqua Cox was introduced as Maya Lopez/Echo, the character was not particularly showcased as a do-gooder, it felt like the studio giant was pushing it a little too much with the new series. But despite feeling like a pretentious entry to the MCU, Echo is a decent, standalone entry with some pleasant surprises up its sleeves.

It’s not an understatement to call the current phase of MCU its most complicated one. With the advent of the multiverse concept, the franchise has become a tough sell for fans wanting to recommend it to those who have been living under a rock and would like to sink their teeth into a new, expansive universe. After all, there aren’t many franchises out there with 33 films and 11 series. Thankfully, Marvel has come up with the Marvel Spotlight banner that promises to focus on “grounded, character-driven stories” that will not have much of an impact on the larger MCU narrative. Akin to what Marvel did with its comics, starting with Echo, there will be titles that the audience can enjoy without having to watch the rest of the MCU content.

While this might work out as a boon to many who have always wanted to give the MCU a shot, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows for those following it and the very first episode proves it. The 48-minute episode that largely overstays its welcome is just a recap of what transpired in the world of Maya Lopez, most of which we had already seen. Five months after the events of Hawkeye, Maya (Alaqua Cox) returns to Tamaha as she wants to take over the empire of Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) while not realising that her adoptive father survived her gunshot.

What works majorly in favour of Echo, apart from Alaqua Cox carrying off the swag and badassery of the titular character neatly, is how the series justifies the actions of our anti-hero and her transition from being a villain in the Hawkeye series to that of a protagonist. Her backstory comes in handy in this transition and after a fantastic What If…? S2 episode earlier this month that celebrated the culture of the Indigenous community through the Mohawk character Kahhori, MCU takes it up a notch with Echo. The miniseries establishes Maya as the descendent of the first Choctaw and how the women of the family have inherited special powers. Almost all the episodes start in a different year from the past showcasing the troubles faced by Maya’s ancestors who fought their way to the top with perseverance and the power from within. These subplots which culminate in the final episode make for some of the best scenes of Echo.

A still from ‘Echo’
| Photo Credit:
Chuck Zlotnick

The series also features a sweet little set of supporting characters and while they don’t add much to the narrative, they do make for active participants in some of the series’ most momentous scenes. Apart from the scene-stealing D’Onofrio, I particularly enjoyed the naive yet resourceful Biscuits (Cody Lightning), who reminded me of Korg. What comes as a pleasant surprise is how the series — from a franchise that used to be infamous for its portrayal of women and queerbaiting — showcases the story of an Indigenous, deaf amputee without making those aspects seem like checkboxes that have to be checked.

But decluttering an unnecessarily complex franchise is one thing and a watered-down plot is another, and Echo suffers at places because of the latter. Torn between two worlds and two “families” is Maya, and while one learns ASL to communicate with her, the other uses an augmented reality contact lens to converse and kills the now-unnecessary interpreter. Kingpin and Maya’s toxic father-daughter equation feels similar to that of Thanos and Gamora, and while such parallels are aplenty, Echo never builds upon them.

Cox does not exude a wide array of expressions and we might never know if that’s because the character demands so. However, the actor makes up for it in the action sequences which are among the best in the entire franchise. For what’s meant to be a family drama superhero show, the amount of bullets and blood that are spent feels rather too much but given how gratifying the action sequences are, we cannot complain. While Echo doesn’t particularly reinvent the superhero genre or is as well-rounded as WandaVision, Loki or Moon Knight, it takes the franchise, just like its titular character, back to its roots and delivers some entertaining moments without endangering multiple universes simultaneously. And that’s a welcoming change that fans of the franchise will echo with.

Echo is currently streaming on Disney+Hotstar