‘Echo: Season 1’ Review (Disney+)

Stars: Alaqua Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, Chaske Spencer, Tantoo Cardinal, Graham Greene, Cody Lightning, Zahn McClarnon, Charlie Cox, Devery Jacobs | Created by Marion Dayre

Created by Marion Dayre and currently streaming on Disney+, Echo is the tenth television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It centres on Maya Lopez / Echo (Alaqua Cox), the deaf Native American assassin, who was created in 1999 and made her live-action MCU debut in the Hawkeye TV series in 2021.

The pilot episode quickly gets viewers up to speed on Maya’s background and her close connection to crimelord Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio). As the events of Hawkeye showed, Maya was once one of the Kingpin’s deadliest assassins, until she discovered that he was behind the death of her father, William Lopez (Zahn McClarnon), whereupon she shot the Kingpin in the face, leaving him for dead.

The show picks up five months later, with Maya on the run from assorted Kingpin goons. Seeking to send a warning by hitting the Kingpin’s illicit trade routes, she travels back to her home town in Oklahoma, where she reluctantly reconnects with her estranged Native American family, including her grandmother Chula (Killers of the Flower Moon‘s Tantoo Cardinal), her uncle Henry (Chaske Spencer) and her cousin Bonnie (Devery Jacobs). However, Maya’s actions reveal her whereabouts, and soon Fisk (who – surprise!- isn’t dead after all) arrives in Oklahoma to take her back, putting the lives of her family at risk in the process. Meanwhile, Maya begins experiencing strange visions hinting a strong connection to her powerful ancestors.

Cox, who was born deaf, makes a terrific lead – she has striking physicality and a compelling screen presence, pulling off both intense action sequences and touching emotional scenes with ease. She also sparks intriguing, markedly different chemistry with each of her co-stars, particularly D’Onofrio, Cardinal and Jacobs.

The supporting cast are equally good. D’Onofrio’s note-perfect casting as The Kingpin has already been remarked upon elsewhere, and he’s on predictably excellent form here, giving the character some surprising extra layers and somehow managing to be both sympathetic and terrifying. Similarly, Cardinal is superb as Maya’s estranged grandmother, while Cody Lightning has a nice line in comic relief as Maya’s well-meaning cousin Biscuits.

The action sequences are a cut above the usual network television standard for this sort of thing – they’re exciting and kinetic, and they’re frequently staged in single shots. More importantly, they are filmed in medium shot, so that you can actually tell who’s hitting who, and with what – a vast improvement over the choppy editing and blurry close-ups favoured by a multitude of other shows and movies.

On a related note, skilled stunt coordinator Mark Scizak was able to incorporate Cox’s prosthetic leg into her fights, which gives them a unique quality that makes the show stand out even more.

The script does an excellent job of balancing comic book plots (Maya’s relationship with the Kingpin, several elements of which are taken directly from the source material) and estranged family drama, enriched with spiritual connections to Choctaw history and legend (three of Maya’s ancestors effectively get their own short movies in prologue scenes). To that end, the script comes across as deeply respectful to the Choctaw people – the credits acknowledge their close collaboration – and the result is genuinely moving.

That’s not to say that the show is entirely devoid of Marvel cameos, but it is rather front-loaded in that regard, with a fun appearance from a certain Man Without Fear (Charlie Cox) in the pilot episode and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) popping up in a well-placed flashback scene. Just don’t expect the Avengers to show up in the finale.

**** 4/5

All five episodes of Echo are available to stream on Disney+ now.