On the fifth and final chapter of Marvel and Disney+’s Echo, Maya turned back around to her hometown after discovering Wilson Fisk had kidnapped her grandmother Chula. There, at the annual Choctaw Powwow, the stage was set for a final reckoning with her uncle, as well as the heritage she’d been disconnected from for so long.
1. Cards on the Table
Before we discuss anything else, I want to be clear: I think Echo is an OK show, far from a disappointment like Iron Fist or Secret Invasion, but below the standard I’ve come to expect from Marvel Studios too. I think it’s simply too short to really have an impact, and I can understand why Marvel released it simultaneously, because it could’ve been reedited into a two-hour special. I’m glad it wasn’t produced as one, otherwise we wouldn’t have received the portrayals of Choctaw folklore and history, but it’s definitely a show whose parts are better than the whole.
In this episode’s case, we have strong moments like Maya attending the powwow in her family regalia, finally feeling like one with her people as she experiences their culture reverberating around her; summoning her ancestors’ abilities and sharing them with her fellow family members to fight Fisk’s men; and Biscuits running over Zane’s forces with a freaking monster truck! However, the debut of the Choctaw Nation’s superhero ultimately feels as low-key out-of-universe as it does in the MCU, probably because it is, but also as a result of how rushed and anticlimactic Fisk’s humiliation is, getting carted off with his tail tucked between his legs, and all of Maya’s tribe escaping unscathed.
2. What is Maya to Fisk, Really?
You may recall in my look at the first episode that I talked about how some white men see indigenous women as a prize they can effectively claim thanks to the conquest of North America, and the ensuing gaps between federal and indigenous jurisdiction. This is not a recent phenomena either: think about the slavery of indigenous peoples, or Pocahontas (the real one, not the woman created by Marvel’s parent company), who converted to Christianity and married a colonizer under duress. As Fisk demanded Maya choose between him and her family, I couldn’t help but think about this again: he might not see it this way, but for Fisk, Maya is not a niece, but a pet, a trophy of the Choctaw Nation, who he believes is his to do whatever he sees fit with. Fisk is one of the most complex and sympathetic Marvel antagonists, but this is certainly a reminder that he is still evil, and a very old, all-too-familiar one at that.
3. We Must Stop Meeting Like This
Pity poor Bonnie, who gets kidnapped again because Maya binned the AR contact lens, and Fisk killed his previous ASL translator. (Seriously, the people who survived the Snap were the really unlucky ones in the MCU.) It speaks to how short the show was, and how there weren’t enough opportunities to have Bonnie do anything interesting apart from being held hostage: her relationship with Maya really needed to be explored outside that context. Well, at least Devery Jacobs got paid, and she got to play Kahhori afterwards: hopefully this role won’t prevent her from reprising that one in live-action either.
4. A Family Affair
Maya surprising her family during Sunday lunch definitely had Fast and the Furious vibes, something She-Hulk: Attorney at Law‘s ending also tapped into, funnily enough. Speaking of similarities, it is curious Echo and Ms. Marvel both give the protagonists’ families greater involvement in their stories, to the point their costumes were created by them (in this case, Chula and Skully rather sweetly reconcile to create Maya’s outfit.) I suppose it’s a natural result on emphasizing the cultures these heroines come from, but it also speaks to some of the difficulty making these superhero stories unique, outside of being TV-PG or TV-MA. Still, at least Chula and Bonnie got to share Maya’s powers, whereas Kamala’s show closed off the possibility of her brother also having the X-gene.
5. Mid-Credits Tease Talk
OK, so the credits sequence shows Fisk being inspired to run for Mayor of New York City in Daredevil: Born Again. I expected this, given the rumors about that show, and because it made sense to tease his next appearance instead of another Echo-centric project we might never get. Regardless, I really hope we get to see Alaqua Cox continue Maya’s story in Born Again, and I’m not just saying that because Maya was introduced as an antagonistic love interest in the pages of “Daredevil:” her business with her uncle was clearly left unfinished so it could be picked up there. Moreover, it was really unconventional that we had no pay off to her fight with Daredevil here, so it would be great to have it come full circle on his show.
Continued belowI think — and to be clear, I’m not comparing the shows quality-wise — Echo is a lot like The Book of Boba Fett. That series was essentially a five-part spin-off (much like the various Clone Wars arcs) and three Mandalorian specials spliced together, giving the title character the spotlight (no pun intended) before placing him on the shelf until his next Mandoverse appearance (which could very well be the Dave Filoni movie that will conclude it.) Essentially, I hope we see Maya well before Spider-Man 4, which would presumably be the culmination of the Mayor Fisk storyline – it would be much better to continue telling her story in Born Again, than to cram the rest of it in there.
As I said before, Echo is a perfectly fine show, that simply needed to be more than a five-part homecoming trip – and that’s what Born Again would offer Cox’s awesome heroine.
Excelsior.
