Disney kicked off their 2024 slate with Marvel Studios’ Echo. This show and Deadpool 3 are the only MCU media coming out this year. It’s a relief, given Marvel’s string of bad releases and streaming premieres last year. Not to mention, the Jonathan Majors scandal is still ongoing. Maybe Kevin Feige and Co. need to use this year to get everything in shape to win back fans and critics. Now, on with the show involving a cool kick-ass, deaf Native American superheroine.
Episode One Chafa tells the origins of Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) with a tragedy. The tragedy involves her mother killed in a car crash after a family visit. Her father, William (Zahn McClaron), helps relocate her to New York, where he is working for Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio). Fast forward concurrently to the events of Hawkeye, Lopez witnesses Clint Barton (Jeremy Renner) kill her dad and a couple of other Tracksuit Mafia goons. After a brief scuffle, Barton tells Lopez that Kingpin planned for her dad to get killed on purpose. Leading Lopez to exact her vengeance against her mob boss uncle on Christmas Eve. Catching up in the present day, Lopez returns to her childhood town as she’s going after Fisk’s subsidiaries while Fisk is recovering in the hospital.
Marvel Studios’ Echo Episode One was a typical yet decent start for the 5-episode binge-watching series. So far, not much has happened yet. There is an element of mystery involving the prologue featuring powerful Choctaw Native Americans. Perhaps a link to Lopez’s lineage may have something to do with her soon-to-be powers? How is she going to react with Fisk, not in the body bag? All of these answers will come in due time as the series progresses.