Marvel’s Echo was certainly not the most hyped under-development project of MCU, however the promotional material regarding return of Kingpin and Daredevil sure excited fans a lot. Echo, under the banner of Marvel Spotlight, promised to be the stepping stone of the TV-MA street level universe that Marvel’s building up. And while it is certainly gritter and much fresher compared to other Disney+ MCU shows, it ends up being a lackluster show which certainly doesn’t put Marvel back on track. Read on to find out our in depth review however, beware that minor spoilers follow below, even though there’s nothing particularly spoiler-worthy in the show.
Echo Review – Another Addition to MCU’s Long List of Mediocrity
HOC Rating – ★★★★★
Marvel’s Echo is a classic case of losing track of what you’re supposed to do after a few days into production. While it begins strong, it ends in a way which could make one regret being hyped for this show at all in the first place. It’s not that its that bad but it is quite frustrating to watch something not live up to its potential. First of all, the decision to cut Echo down to just five 30 minutes episodes massively backfired as the show was full of underdeveloped character arcs, messy plot lines, abrupt shifts in tone, lack of action sequences, and severe pacing issues. As for its massively hyped, TV-MA rating, well, it was basically as mature as Secret Invasion, with slightly more blood. It certainly didn’t match the grittiness, gore, darkness, and intensity of the Defenders Universe.
The very rushed Echo largely has its focus on Maya, Kingpin, and Chula, who are the only 3 characters with an arc of some kind. Henry, Biscuits, and Skully stick around for the entirety of the show but leave little to no impact with nearly massively underdeveloped arcs. As for Bonnie, her character arc is almost non-existential and there’s no reason this character even exists in this overstuffed and directionless show. Maya, decently portrayed by Cox, undergoes a rather uneven character development which towards the end makes her a female Iron Fist of sorts but it isn’t clear what she gets out of all this. As for Kingpin, his looming presence and terrific portrayal by D’Onofrio in the first 4 episodes, is completely undone in the finale. Just like Hawkeye, MCU found a way to ruin him again for the fans of Netflix Defender-verse.
As for Daredevil, who was featured heavily in promotional materials, he appeared only for a couple of minutes in the pilot proving once again, that Marvel is just using him as a bait to lure fans into watching their mediocre content. But again, this is a show about Echo and not Daredevil, so cribbing about that would be a bit unfair. So, let us talk about her for a minute, as viewers never quite figure out what she’s trying to do in this series. Is she trying to build her own empire? Or is she just trying to piss-off Kingpin’s henchmen? In any case, why does she visit Oklahoma at all and put lives of her people and loved ones in danger? What the hell did she even achieve at the end? What is even the point of this show?
Echo simply exists to canonize Kingpin and Daredevil, and basically set up what’s to come. Its second purpose is to showcase native culture, which it does quite tastefully. Credit where credit is due, Echo nailed its cultural aspect right from costumes and make-up to score and lore. However, the lore surrounding the mysterious powers could have been handled a lot better. In fact, What If Season 2’s Episode 6 involving Kahhori did a much better job handling similar situation. So, aside from the Marvel Spotlight setup and inclusion, this show does itself no favours and even if we ignore the plot and characters arcs, the action also isn’t placed well enough to redeem its flaws. It features a total of 3 action sequences, including the poorly executed finale sequence. HAAA, so disappointing…
Anyways, let us wrap this up quickly after discussing that post credit scene. At the end, Maya lets Kingpin go or Kingpin lets Maya go, or whatever, but in the mid credits, we see Kingpin in his private jet ordering his assistant to assemble all the “remaining heads” so he can “stabilize the situation“. Next we see him watching a news story where anchors are arguing about how the people of New York want “a fighter” “bare-knuckle brawler” as their mayor and question “Is that candidate even out there?“. Well, it quite clear from this that Kingpin will now be motivated to run for the Mayor of NYC which will put him in a conflict against Daredevil in the upcoming “Daredevil: Born Again” series.
Final Verdict – For all the promises it made, and for all the little hype around it, Echo settles on being yet another mediocre MCU project which is just as good as Iron Fist was when it comes to mature Marvel content.
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