In 1971 Marvel Comics began publishing a run of books under the banner of Marvel Spotlight. The idea was to publish stories that were outside of the running series, introducing new characters in their own space. Marvel Spotlight introduced the first native American Hero, Red Wolf, to the Marvel Comics brand with its first issue, and would go on to debut a number of other beloved characters including the Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze and Spider-Woman. It’s also worth noting that Marvel Spotlight had the debut of Werewolf by Night, a series that would go on to introduce the character Moon Knight, who would get his first title comic under the Marvel Spotlight banner.
In November of 2023 it was announced that the TV show Echo (2024) would be released under the resurrected Marvel Spotlight banner. Like Red Wolf was to the comics, Echo would feature the first Native American hero for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The idea of bringing back the Marvel Spotlight banner was to showcase stories that were, once again, outside of the running series, that didn’t require knowledge of other parts of the MCU continuity to understand. There has been a lot of talk about superhero fatigue, which is its own discussion, but there’s no denying that after so many years of franchise-building Marvel has crafted an empire that’s not the friendliest to new viewers.
It made sense that the Marvel Spotlight banner was brought over to the MCU, though it didn’t make as much sense that it’s attached to this show. For one, Marvel had already released a TV show and a TV special based on two characters featured under the original Marvel Spotlight banner, both of which can be watched without regard to the outside Marvel continuity, that being Moon Knight (2022), and Werewolf by Night (2022). The second reason is that Echo is hardly a standalone show.
Last time we saw protagonist Maya Lopez she was seen on a path of vengeance (see Hawkeye (2021)). Her father had been killed by a masked anti-hero known as Ronin (see Avengers: Endgame). In the process of her attempts at revenge she found out that her father had been set up by the Kingpin (see Daredevil (2015-2018)). She shot the Kingpin in an empty alleyway with no witnesses, or anyone that might have expected her to be in the same place with him, and fled into the night.
If it turns out that you haven’t caught up on several seasons of television plus a franchise of movies, have no fear, Echo has your back. Out of the goodness of its own heart, it sacrificed almost the entire first episode in the name of building a foundation for the rest of the season’s story through montage, stretching much farther back in time than you might expect, beginning with an alternate take on the origin of the first Choctaw people emerging from beneath Nanih Waiya. We met Maya’s childhood friend (every story about someone coming back to their hometown must have a childhood friend that stayed behind), the car accident that killed her mother and led to her leaving her childhood home, and her eventual descent into crime.
This all happened within about twenty-six minutes, right before clips from Hawkeye were spliced into this standalone show, but also right after a fight scene involving an exceptionally inconsequential cameo that reeked of meaningless fan service. It was a quick montage at a rapid pace, but now all the key plot points every viewer will need to know to understand who Maya is, what she did, and why she’s doing it are on the table.
What followed was a story about a woman coming home, back to Tamaha, Oklahoma. She’s not specifically there to see her family and friends, though in a small town it’s hard to avoid them, especially if you’ve been shot (an event that isn’t shown, occurring sometime after the Hawkeye clips, but before the story returned to Maya). It turned out that since the ending of Hawkeye Maya’s been burning the candle at both ends: she’s been on the run with a bounty on her head for killing the Kingpin (in an empty alley with no witnesses), and she’s also out to dismantle every aspect of his operation that still existed and claim the throne for herself. It’s that that had led her home.
In Hawkeye there was more of a gray area to the characters, even to Hawkeye himself. Hawkeye was an Avenger, but at the same time he had taken the mantle of Ronin and killed people in between Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame. Hawkeye had killed Maya’s father, but her father was no Saint himself, being the commander of the Tracksuit Mafia. The Kingpin presented himself as Maya’s family, but he was the one who got her father killed.
The point is that things weren’t exactly black and white. Echo wasn’t concerned about shades of gray. The bad guys were bad, the good guys were good. Did Maya’s Uncle work for the Kingpin, and was his business being used to smuggle high tech weapons that were, for some reason, being shipped through a small town in Oklahoma? Maybe he did, but what’s more important was the struggle between Maya choosing herself or her family.
If there’s anything the show exceled at, it was in its authenticity. Like Echo’s comic book origins, both the lead actress Alocqua Cox and her character Maya Lopez are Native American women and deaf. The cast that played her family and friends back in Tamaha are Native American, and the small town of Tamaha is a real place within the Choctaw Nation. The story featured flashbacks to tales inspired by the Choctaw Nation, including the aforementioned origin, as well as a game of Stickball, and a silent film telling the story of the Lighthorsemen.
It’s unfortunate that a lot of the flashbacks often found themselves presenting story without much at stake, with conflicts introduced and immediately overcome. There’s still purpose to these flashbacks, even if it took until the end of the story, in a heavy hand, to reveal why they’re meaningful. They presented Maya’s ancestors in positions where they needed courage and strength to succeed and called upon their ancestors to do so, all leading up to the revelation of what the name Echo means. While this was a departure from her abilities in the comics, in which Maya was like an echo of the people she saw, it still worked in regard to emphasizing the connectivity of family.
What stood out the most was how the story developed her relationships with others based entirely on their knowledge of American Sign Language. Her best friend for life signed without pause, and as near silent when doing so. Her Grandfather’s motions were slow, he clearly needed to think about it, but he’s earnest. The Kingpin had always needed a translator. It’s a subplot that’s there, lingering in the background, and when it finally emerged it was an incredible moment.
It’s a smaller-scale story, which is good, especially for the MCU. There’s no evil monstrosity of the week, no sky beam out to destroy the world. It’s just a woman trying to figure out where she stood, reconnecting with her friends, her family, and her culture, while also fending off a group of hired goons from ruining her hometown. It’s a lesson that all of these superhero movies could learn, especially ones in a long-running franchise, because after a few of these things, it really becomes hard to believe that the villain is going to destroy the world this time around.
The trouble was that Echo didn’t have much depth to its story, character development, or action. There’s a bit of a cliché among superhero movies, specifically the origin stories, in that they tend to give a lot of attention to their protagonists, while everything else is underdeveloped. Most of the time is spent with the hero as they learn what their powers are, who they are, and why they’re fighting. This was all important to establish Maya Lopez as not only a character but a superhero, but this left the villains with little motivation besides being obstacles to her progress.
When it came to dealing with those obstacles, the show front-loaded its best action scene right in the first episode. It’s a fun fight filled with impactful choreography and a dynamic camera that’s fittingly chaotic for the moment without resorting to constant shaking. The second episode had a nice flashy set piece that wanted to give the appearance of danger without complications. The third episode had another solid fight scene, but that’s about it. The climax offered probably the second shortest fight of the show (the shortest belonging to a sparring match that was shot so cheaply that they filmed it from the shoulders up, where neither fists nor feet are seen).
Echo was a straightforward show, for better and worse. It’s too short to develop anything with depth, with too little action to be exciting, built on a messy montage of a first episode. It’s earnest, and it meant well, and its ending promises more stories told at street level, but it could have used a couple more episodes to give its assortment of characters time to do anything more interesting than being nearby.