Echo Review: A Hard-Hitting MCU Blast

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Just over a week after the second season of What If…? concluded on Disney+, we have yet another installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe on the streamer. is the latest MCU miniseries on Disney+, proudly boasting a brand new Marvel Spotlight banner during the opening logos meant to symbolize how this is a more grounded, character-driven story that does not rely on preexisting knowledge of the larger MCU continuity. I don’t know how true that is since this show is a spin-off of Hawkeye with a villain famously introduced in Daredevil. However, Echo was a delightful watch that explored Maya Lopez and her Native American heritage despite having a few flaws that held it back from meeting its full potential.

There were green flags all over this project. Echo is the first Disney+ MCU show to go for a TV-MA rating, which signaled that this would be a more mature outing for the franchise that has largely thrived in PG-13/TV-14 territory. Having seen the show, I can’t say that it is fully committed to adult content there is little to no language, and the bloodiest moments are in the trailers. Regardless, this show explores a lot of uncharted territory for the MCU. Recent MCU projects have been unafraid to capture minority voices and put them in their popular franchise. The filmmakers behind Echo collaborated with members of the Choctaw Nation to represent them properly in this show.

Ultimately, it works well as the show follows Maya Lopez, portrayed by Alaqua Cox. The first episode shows her character’s emotional backstory, starting with her childhood, tragedies surrounding her parents, and ultimately being taken in by Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio). The show recaps a bit of what we saw from the two of them in Hawkeye