Contributor Enrico Versace: Marvel Studios ECHO

Echo, Episode 1: Chafa
Intro

When I first heard that we were going to get a mature audience spin-off to the Hawkeye series, Echo, starring Alaqua Cox as yours truly and Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk (Kingpin), I was pretty excited. For me, Daredevil and the other originally Netflix Marvel shows were peak Marvel tv. Yes, shows like WandaVision, Loki, Legion, and Agents of Shield are up there as well, but the Defender shows were really the only ones that were trying to raise the stakes of superhero entertainment, didn’t focus on making the characters quip a lot, and showed that the genre that was once a joke didn’t just kill the box office but could be at the level of gritty HBO shows. The announcement of a show like Echo gave me hope that those kinds of shows were maybe coming back, along with their characters. I’ll admit, I didn’t like Hawkeye too much personally, but that was more so because it was a Christmas tie in series and after just seeing Avengers Endgame, Ronin, I personally wanted something a little more gritty.

With Echo, it seems like I’m finally getting my wish. The first episode, “Chafa,” had raw and dark fight scenes that were choreographed pretty well and similar to the Defender shows, very story driven, the characterization of Echo felt a lot like Matthew Murduck and Jessica Jones, tough but vulnerable, and it honestly felt like a modern day western, like it was trying to be in the same category as Westworld. However, I only watched the first season of that show so that comment may vary.

Still, one of my most favorite film franchises is Star Wars, which started out as in the Sifi-Western/Samurai genre, so it’s no question that I would enjoy a series like this. My opinion might change though, as I watch these five episodes, so there will be a separate review for each episode.

Echo, Episode 1: Chafa
Commentary

The only two things I could criticize in this first episode are how it’s the first Marvel show under the “Spotlight” brand and that were 29 minutes of flashback and recap, which left roughly 20 minutes of present day Maya scenes. It felt like enough for someone like me who’ve seen the Defenders shows, movies, and Hawkeye, but it had to cater to an audience that perhaps missed some movies or didn’t even see Hawkeye, so I get why recap is there. I also felt that seeing Maya’s accident or origin was necessary, though there’s not much modern day Maya before the credits and it makes me so glad that this show was dropped all at once on Disney+ instead of released weekly. Plus, about that Marvel Spotlight comment, this show is supposedly the first to be a non-required watch, will be made for mature audiences, and won’t affect the Marvel films. My little gripe with that is that distinction might make it less important for people and fans, yet it’s a show with representation on Indigenous American people, culture, and people with impairment or disability. Representation like this is important and Marvel knows that, so it being under the Spotlight banner is probably more just to keep fans comfortable if they aren’t up-to-date on the Marvel franchise or they’re young and mature content isn’t really something they should be watching.

With the negatives out of the way, I’ll share some more positives from “Chafa.” The first scene may seem a little peculiar for some people, but it adds a level of fantasy and mystery to the show. The representation of Indigenous American culture isn’t really hard or preachy here I personally think. It’s at the same level as what marvel did for Moonknight. Secondly, elements of D’Onofrio’s character from the Daredevil are present; the way the cops let him do what he wants and show that level of respect for him, his methods of manipulation feel very similar to what Fisk did to Benjamin Poindexter, or Bullseye in Daredevil season 3. Marvel originally deemed everything from the Defenders shows as not canon, that doesn’t seem so certain anymore and I’m sure hard-core fans like me appreciate that. Speaking of Daredevil, in that face-off scene between him and Maya, we get a taste of that gritty action and unique camera movements and perspectives. There weren’t many noticeable takes in that fight or either when fists started flying in that scene before. The camera spins around the whole room, and then when Maya is fighting Daredevil, the camera is shooting between the shelving and is in close quarters to both of them. It’s very reminiscent of Daredevil, but perhaps shot with better equipment. This is a perfect scene for a modern day western, because it’s similar to Cowboys walking into a saloon and shooting things up, with a sheriff or two trying to take control of the situation. This is exactly what the show needs to reach the levels of Daredevil and I’m itching for more of it. I have esteemed hopes for the next episode and series going forward. Let’s pray it continues to be at this quality of entertainment.

Echo, Episode 2: Lowak

So this was a slower episode, but it still felt significant. During the present day, Maya dispatches the first major blow to Fisk’s empire. Henry, Chaske Spencer is worried for her safety and the town’s safety in the war that is about to come. Everyone knows that Maya is back in town, including Bonnie. Also, Maya apparently has received powers.

Again, the episode starts with following Chafa and the Indigenous people of Choctaw nation. The sport they’re playing looks to be some Indigenous version of lacrosse. I thought it was very detailed and well choreographed. There were a couple times where I noticed the background might’ve been fake, green screen or Volume maybe, but that just might be because of my knowledge of filmmaking. I appreciate the level of detail the show runners are putting into the Choctaw scenes. Plus, it pays off later when we see Maya display powers for the first time. Skully, or Graham Greene, states that Chafa and the first Choctaw would often watch out for family, giving us a hint that these powers are rooted in Maya’s ancestry and may be echoes of her past, pun intended. Being a video gamer, it feels like something out of Assassin’s Creed, where Desmond would develop the skills of his ancestors the more he used the Animus, assassin-like skills and a sixth sense called Eagle Vision. I can’t say if Maya’s new abilities will be fully released by the end of the show or what exactly they’ll be, but it’s interesting.

The scene where Maya aboards the train and plans the bomb is pretty good, although it was difficult to keep my suspension of disbelief near the end. After Maya escapes from the link holding the two train carts, the scene cuts to her being on the roof of a box car, but she was originally on a flat one, like how did she get up there after her prosthetic was broken? Regardless, she gets to the caboose, alerts Biscuits, and jumps off into the truck, somehow tumbling to the back of it and presumably hung on. I guess it’s possible, we’ve seen crazier things in movies like Fast and Furious, those parts of the scene didn’t rub me the right way.

However, it’s great to see the ramifications of Maya’s actions to bomb the building of the train’s destination. Henry was hoping Maya wouldn’t go through with her trying to become the queen of Fisk’s empire and now such an attack may cost him his job and look bad on the shipping company. It’s only a matter of time before Fisk’s goons track down Maya and her town, along with everyone she loves, is threatened. Henry tried to warn her of this, but she doesn’t care, she believes she’s in control and no one will actually get hurt. But Henry believes she sounds like Fisk, and that’s such a satisfying parallel for our protagonist. Often, We see this in fiction where the hero is a mirror of the villain, it’s just what they fight for or their beliefs that are different. I enjoy that kind of mirroring here, I don’t think the comparison isn’t worth making. She’s like a western outlaw, trying to take down the bad sheriff, but ancestry is Indigenous. I mean, maybe the end clip with the cowgirl-like ancestor was pretty on the nose, if she just shot the swingset or we saw a flashback of her with the shotgun during the Daredevil scene, maybe that would’ve been enough. I don’t know who this ancestor is, but it’s pretty obvious that she’d rather take the law into her own hands, than stand up for her people like the first Choctaw that won’t necessarily get them hurt. So perhaps The suspension of disbelief isn’t carried well in this episode and the themes are a little forced, but overall, I like this as a first strike in a long time towards Fisk. It’s just if the show continues to do that and hammer themes in, I may personally lose interest.

Echo, Episode 3: Tuklo

Watching this episode, I was reminded that this is definitely a show meant for binge-watching. With “Lowak,” the last thing we see while Maya is shooting the swing set, is rage in a western, young indigenous woman. This woman is Tuklo, we now know, a daughter of a Lighthorseman, trained by her father with a passion to be just like him, and join the Indigenous police. Her father states only men do that, but she quickly proves she can do just what he does, despite what is expected of her by their custom and society.

We’re obviously supposed to make the connection that Maya could be considered the Tuklo of her modern day, which is a neat correlation. Though, there’s nothing beyond that in which I can infer. Seeing many other comic book shows, I can’t help but compare these Indigenous flashbacks to what was done for Arrow, where the audience was constantly getting the past and present play out at the same time and by the end Oliver Queen learned or relearned something that could help him in a current predicament. It usually emphasized the theme for the story, but there’s no real theme here, or maybe the connection isn’t strong enough. One is a vigilante or antihero and the other is a young woman proving herself, the only connection is what’s obvious and on the surface. Seeing perhaps more from Tuklo, like her going after a criminal that was causing a real threat to her people or had similarities to even Fisk or, that would’ve been a little more enticing. Maya wants to take down Fisk’s empire and be the new “queen,” which is very different from Tuklo, and the episode could have played with that, saying that she should start fighting for the right reasons, though that’s perhaps a hero’s journey that we’ll see by the end of the series, it doesn’t necessarily need to be here.

Later, Maya is captured and held up in the local skating rink with Henry and soon Bonnie, which is very convenient to the plot. How Maya escaped and defeated Zane and his lackeys was very convenient too, I thought. She makes a mini crossbow, regardless of the fact that we never saw or knew of Maya’s crafting and engineering skills. I almost thought that we were gonna get this scene inner cut with a flashback of Skully passing on those skills to her, yet if anything, it may have just needed to be assumed that he did, they are family after all.

It’s a cool scene regardless, I love the camera shots inside the arcade crane and pinball machines. Using the environment to her advantage like a skee-ball was ingenious and makes Maya a real badass. You can tell that she picked up a lot of skills during her gangster or bounty hunter life, so I guess by now I shouldn’t have questioned her crafting skills. She’s more brutal than Daredevil and I like that.

She gets away with Henry and Bonnie, however only because Fisk could have been the only one that made the call and stop Zane and his men from finishing them off. Next, he showed up at her grandma’s house, because of course he has those kinds of connections to know exactly where she lives, I don’t doubt that. Looks like he’s going to pull a Thanos here.

So once again, the convenience of the plot reared its ugly head here and I just don’t buy it. Yes, she shot him point blank and he would want to kill her on his own terms. Nevertheless, this all just feels too soon to me and unnatural. I personally would’ve wanted an eight or more episode series where we gradually got to this staredown. I wanted Henry to maybe go up against Maya before he decided to help her. Also, does this mean barely any more scenes with lovable Biscuits? So, all and all, I enjoyed the episode, though now it’s well suited for a plausible end in two episodes, yet for me, things were just getting good and this show could have gone perhaps many good places until now. I mean, whatever I feel is missing from the story is just right around the corner, so I’m bummed out, but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt.

Echo, Episode 4: Taloa

Like every series or season finale, there’s that calm before the storm, and that’s what this episode is. An easy criticism for this episode is that it’s too short or pretty dull, but I would argue that it’s mostly essential setup for the next one.

I enjoy the contrast shown between Maya’s real, current family and her Uncle Fisk. The flashback we received in this episode displays Fisk as being very involved in her early life after her mother died. How many people get to say that my boss picks up my child from school? We can get a sense that he practically raised her alongside her father up until his death. From then on he took her under his wing as she became one of his most respected gangsters, perhaps even the daughter he never had. Meanwhile, we learn in this episode that just like Maya’s grandma, her Uncle Henry never reached out or tried to be there for her while she was in New York. Although Fisk wouldn’t allow him to.

This all paints such a pristine picture that Fisk is the only one that cares about her and has always been there for her, and Fisk was nearly fooling me. As he sat down with Maya, having a “Sunday family dinner,” like the old days, his actions and emotions seemed genuine. It put me on the edge of my seat, waiting for him to slip up or to trick her into a trap. The way he handed the knife back to her, how he got her favorite cookies, the disappointment on his face when he found out Maya poured the wine down the drain. The wool was pretty much over my eyes, as I waited to see wear this would go. There was no hesitation or if, and, or but, when he told her she could be a “Queenpin” and have the empire she wanted. Yes, He could’ve just been a lie, but what if he did want to step down and retire? There’s not much of a peek inside his mind so the possibility could’ve been there. Maybe it wouldn’t have been a full retirement, only seeming to be until she did something drastic; later, when he gave Maya the hammer he said, “Free yourself. Free me!” Some fans that remember Daredevil season one, might have been taken out of this moment simply because the hammer was different, while I’ve seen some say online they are assuming the hammer isn’t the same because of the events of Loki season 1, yet I would argue that’s not even the original murder weapon he used on his father; and doubt he would have let her go through with it, but we’ll never know.

Even if it is all a manipulation, Grandma Chula doesn’t do much to help Maya see that she has family here in Tamaha. She doesn’t care if “generations are echoing” to her and Chula, she wasn’t there for Maya when she needed her most. And this seems so relatable to anyone that has a family member or so that didn’t show enough affection or just abandoned them up until perhaps adulthood. This scene was great, I just felt like it was forced or we were rushed into it. It makes sense for the contrast to Fisk, but I kind of would have preferred if it was Maya’s decision to go to Chula. Fisk’s request could have given her the motivation.

Regardless, Maya didn’t go with Fisk. And that nearly stumped me until I watched the scene among the pier a second time. The last memory she sees is of her mother, so she probably figured her mother wouldn’t want her living the life of ruling a criminal empire. Maybe this is also exactly what she needs in order to stop her quest of revenge. However, I’m sure we’ll get a scene with either Bonnie or another one with Chula to solidify her status as the hero we know she can be. This episode is a great lull to the next one and I can’t wait to see where we go from here. I don’t perceive either Fisk or her dying, so I’m quite curious.

Echo, Episode 5: Maya

This conclusion gets me really excited for what’s to come. Not just for Maya, but Daredevil and perhaps for the rest of the Defenders as well. Before I get too far ahead of myself though, let me just say that I called it. Maya got her motivation to be a hero from her mother, just not in that scene on the pier. Apparently, Maya wasn’t running away because she found out what she needed to do to stop Fisk, she was just leaving. She figured if she was gone she couldn’t hurt anyone anymore. Even her motivation of being the “Queenpin” was gone, which is interesting to me. Maybe, as I’ll get into soon, that was out of respect for Fisk.

Still, that scene at the pier with the flashbacks and intense score just seems confusing to me now, that didn’t at all seem like she was thinking, “Oh, I don’t know who to choose,” or “I’m going to choose neither Tamaha or Fisk and just run away.” If anything, perhaps she was choosing Tamaha without choosing Tamaha, in order to keep everyone safe. I could just be looking too much into it though, for the binge-watcher out there, it probably wasn’t long before Maya came back and when she says she chose to leave everything behind they don’t second guess it.

Still, that scene with her mother was very heartwarming and enjoyable. I didn’t expect such a direct response from her ancestors, but without it Maya was probably going kill Fisk again and we wouldn’t have had that cool “Avatar state” scene at the final confrontation. I’m probably the only one that thought of this, but the scene with her mother reminded me a lot of that dream sequence in Spider-Man 2 (2004) with Peter and his Uncle. Of course both scenes take place in a car, but also Taloa is like her Uncle Ben, giving her the confidence she needs to be the hero she’s supposed to be. My guess is nearly every hero needs that person to solidify their motivation. And that doesn’t mean this scene was cliché. There were enough differences; if anything it was essential.

This scene also clarifies what Maya, or Echo’s powers are. Watching that last confrontation between her, Grandma, Bonnie, Fisk, and his thugs, Maya is a character that might seem pretty overpowered. Yet, I don’t think that criticism is too valid. Despite Maya pulling off an “All the Jedi,” move like Rey, her powers and different skills of her ancestors don’t make her a Mary Sue. The Force is, I believe, a nice way to think of it however. Whenever she needs them, or they need her, she can call upon them. Maya has to be open to listen maybe. The ancestors have a kind of foresight or full tapestry view on situations, while Maya only sees the back and the direction the string is going. It may be much like the “Avatar state,” where it costs a lot of energy and that connection isn’t always there or clear. Her powers aren’t limitless either, they just equate to these four things, strategy, cunning, ferocity, and love, which sounds a lot like a Black Widow or some aspects of Wolverine to me. So, I give the show props, instead of just claiming that Marvel has an “agenda” with this character and Echo is “woke.”

Maya even tried to save Fisk, which seemed pretty weird at first. I knew neither of them were going to die, but I didn’t think he meant so much to her. I thought it was clear that all of her relationship with Uncle Fisk was just smoke and mirrors. Nevertheless, she couldn’t decide between him and her blood family at the end of episode four, so she just rode away. Every villain thinks they’re in the right, so in some twisted way Fisk has always loved Maya like a niece or daughter. Maya must have known that and thought she could heal his trauma from youth, making his heart whole and pure. I’m not sure if she just failed to do so or she did something else to him, maybe made it so he feared her and couldn’t hurt her anymore, like a spell or hypnotic lock on any thoughts could go against her like such? Even so, he is driven away scared, but it seems that even when this man loses and one door is closed there’s always another door open.

If Fisk becomes mayor of New York City that could elevate his villain status as a threat to any neighborhood superheroes, including Spider-Man. If Daredevil Born Again leads to spin-offs like another series starring Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, an Iron Fist, and/or Punisher, we could be getting some really street level stuff. And I hope there will be room for Echo on that team, but I guess only time will tell. All and all, I really enjoyed this episode and the series as a whole. It may have had a few hiccups and subplots that didn’t help its case, but I don’t think they hindered anything either. The main focus was on Maya and Fisk, and that’s where it should have been.

Thanks for joining me each week on Tinsel & Tine. I’ll be back soon!

See other Contributions from Enrico Versace –
THE FLASH | THE FUTURE OF SPIDER-MAN | MORBIUS | BLACK ADAM | THE ETERNALS

My name is Enrico Versace. I graduated from Rowan University with a bachelor’s degree in Writing Arts. I have a personal blog where I’ve written more analyses like this about movies, art, horror, and Star Wars. I wasn’t always a writer though fun fact. I used to be into architecture and built with Legos from when I was a kid to after high school. You can find my blog posts at wrtversacee4.wordpress.com. And my social torusbrusk1138 on Instagram.