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Echo, the latest entry into the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe, debuted its five episodes of Disney+ this week and I’m honestly not sure what to make of them. As a TV critic, I can see some value in the understated performances and thoughtful representation of Choctow culture, despite the show’s incredibly messy plotting and, frankly, bizarre dialogue. As a Marvel fan, though, I’m torn between feeling jazzed about Charlie Cox‘s latest Daredevil cameo and my increasingly crushing ennui for the messy MCU.
Even when in its strongest moments, Echo feels too slight a project to justify being in the already overcrowded MCU. Marvel even seems to recognize this, labeling the show a “Marvel Spotlight” series to distance its smaller storytelling style from the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe. However, let’s be real. Echo‘s likely only going to be remembered as a pit stop on the way to the next so-so chapter in the superhero saga: Daredevil: Born Again. It is Marvel’s modus operandi in 2024; they create lackluster content to hype future lackluster content. A few hits — like last year’s heart-wrenching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 — keep the system afloat, but it’s getting bleak. (And those rumors about Daredevil: Born Again‘s scripts having to be completely scrapped and rewritten aren’t helping!)
Marvel fans deserve better, but more importantly, compelling comic book characters like Echo‘s Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) deserve better. The groundbreaking Echo is basically just storytelling runway for Daredevil and Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) to take off. In turn, they’ll probably provide the same Easter egg-seeded set up for another hero’s season of TV. Echo is therefore a shining example of the MCU’s biggest problem. So long as every Marvel project needs to be connected, none of these titles can possibly stand alone.
It wasn’t always like this.
Almost 16 years ago, I went to a Boston-area movie theater with a group of friends and saw the first Marvel Studios film, Iron Man. The Jon Favreau-directed feature had a zippiness to its dialogue, a tautness to its straightforward script, and an instantly reborn star in leading man Robert Downey, Jr. It was a damn good film. And it came with a bonus treat for only the most loyal Marvel fans. The True Believers who sat through all of Iron Man‘s credits got to see a stinger in which the great Samuel L. Jackson swept into Tony Stark’s mansion outfitted as Nick Fury to tease something called “the Avengers Initiative.” It was catnip for comic book readers like me and my friends, but like catnip, uh, not something designed to make normal people freak out.
Today, if you watch Echo, Marvel is so certain that you know who Daredevil is, they don’t even bother to introduce him. Rather than explain who Wilson Fisk is within the context of Maya’s world, they use regurgitated clips from 2021’s Hawkeye. After all, Echo is a spin-off of Hawkeye, which is a spin-off of Avengers: Endgame, which was the culmination of a decade of films, starting all the way back with Iron Man. Echo is also the prelude to the Disney+ reboot of Netflix’s Daredevil, which was itself the foundation of a whole mini Marvel universe of Netflix shows. So far, only Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Jon Bernthal, aka The Punisher, have been salvaged from those series, despite Krysten Ritter fans’ prayer circles.
If you don’t understand the context Echo was made in, key moments — like Daredevil’s entrance — make little sense. Even if you do understand every bit of Marvel lore, though, key moments — like Maya MacGuyver-ing a gun out of skate tools — also make little sense. Echo is not only a show that assumes viewers know their Marvel lore, it also assumes that intense Marvel fandom will excuse any little bits of lazy storytelling. All of which is just so intensely frustrating!
I’m far from the only person out there who has pointed out that Marvel is sliding ever faster into its flop era, but Echo really feels like the tragic culmination of all of Marvel’s best-laid plans blowing up in their face. Alaqua Cox was a great discovery by the Marvel casting department who deserves a show worthy of her talents. Maya Lopez is a formidable superhero full of storytelling opportunity within the MCU. It wasn’t a bad idea to make an Echo show, but it was a bad idea to make an Echo show that just barely works as the connecting thread between Hawkeye and Daredevil: Born Again.
Marvel, can you please just go back to focusing on just one thing at a time? Forget multiverses and mashups. I just want one solid superhero story.
