On Tuesday, Disney released all five episodes of Echo under its new “Marvel Spotlight” banner, which is meant to tell standalone stories that do not require previous viewing to understand.
The problem was immediately apparent when the first episode of Echo was littered with what was essentially a “previously on Hawkeye” scattering of scenes, poorly edited into some rough approximation of her first appearance in that show. Things do not get much better from there.
The show does start strong on the action front, with an excellent, John Wick-esque fight as Echo rises through the ranks of Kingpin’s forces. This is also when the promised Daredevil appearance happens, and albeit at just 90 seconds long, it’s a really solid fight. The horned hero does not appear anywhere else in the show, despite how much the trailers leaned on his appearance.
It seemed like the premise for Echo would be her attempting to take over Kingpin’s empire after killing him, albeit we all know she didn’t kill him already, which takes some of the air out of the concept, being one step ahead of her for half the show. Instead, Echo sabotages one arms shipment and then spends the rest of her time just protecting herself and friends from retaliation. The first few episodes of the show are mainly her old friends and family members back home being confused or angry about her reappearance after 20 years.
Without question, the one shining part of the show is Alaqua Cox herself, who expertly conveys emotion and her trademark aggression through her facial expressions and sign language, the dominant form of communication throughout the series. But Cox is not supported by a good script or storyline, and unfortunately that means the show does not work as a whole.
The show has changed Echo’s powers, previously photographic memory in the comics. That meant she could say, fight Daredevil and permanently learn all his moves on the spot. Or fight Bullseye and start hitting every target. But here, her powers are mystical in nature, connected through a long line of her Native ancestors all the way back to the first Choctaw. This aspect is fine, but the powers are strange and nebulous, channeling things like “ferocity” or “cunning.” Most of this simply…makes her a better fighter, but in the end she inherits literal life-giving healing powers from her mother, and a final fight with Kingpin is negated in favor of her “healing” his brain, which really just makes him scared and uncomfortable so he leaves. But given the Daredevil show that’s coming, we know she hasn’t “fixed” him.
To rewind, the Kingpin aspect of all this is bizarre. Almost his entire first episode appearance is in the Hawkeye flashbacks, but then he’s gone for two more full episodes until Echo discovers he’s alive at the end of episode 3.
But the conflict is just…a total retread of their Hawkeye storyline. Echo must debate if she still wants to kill the guy that she already very much thought she killed once, because he had her father murdered. Those facts haven’t changed, and guess what? In the end, she still wants to kill him, so he gets mad and executes a plan that involves shooting an RPG at a powwow in her town(?) and attempting a mass shooting (all of which fails, and there are zero causalities). He also kidnaps her grandmother and cousin, with her cousin being played by Reservation Dogs’ Devery Jacobs, who is totally wasted in this role as a character that is held hostage twice, and does not do much else.
The action, when there is action, is good. But there are only two real fights in the entire series, the one that is half goons, half Daredevil in the pilot. Then one at a roller rink that is pretty good. But that’s it, and again, the final big showdown fight doesn’t happen at all. A few guys are tossed around but Kingpin never gets his hands dirty the way we’ve seen him brutalize Daredevil in the past. His fight with Echo is nonexistent as again, she just goes and tries to…heal his mind by taking him into his past trauma. It’s very strange.
Echo’s representation is great between its focus on Native American culture, its frequent use of sign language and even a focus on Echo’s missing limb, which becomes a part of her identity. It’s not “pandering” as some will no doubt claim, they are all key parts of her character, which has been true since thee comics.
But the actual meat of the show is unsatisfying. It feels like a retread of Hawkeye half the time, and the other half is often extremely dull. If Marvel is attempting to craft a “street-level” MCU out of its Spotlight stories like this, Echo is a poor start and is going to do nothing to turn around the narrative that Marvel’s quality has been dipping noticeably as of late. While there are still occasional wins in the MCU, in this case, going from Loki’s season 2 finale to this is a poor comparison point. It’s not Secret Invasion, but it just doesn’t work despite Cox giving it her best.
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