If you watched “Hawkeye” on Disney Plus and were introduced to the badass deaf martial arts fighter played by Native American actress Alaqua Cox, who’s known as Maya Lopez, you probably immediately fell in love with her, as I did. So when Marvel announced an “Echo” miniseries shortly after “Hawkeye” ended, I was thrilled! I wanted Maya’s backstory and was pleased they were giving us one almost immediately after introducing her to us on screen.
But does this series excite the inner geeky goddess in me, the way “Wandavision“, “Ms. Marvel” or even “Moon Knight” does? Well, I guess I’ll tell you that once I’ve seen all the episodes! But until then, here’s a quick review (and my thoughts) of episode 1 of the new Marvel series “Echo” now streaming on Disney+.
Echo Marvel Episode 1 Quick Review
When Disney Plus sent over screeners of “Echo” episodes 1, 2, and 3, my heart immediately filled with glee! But after watching episode 1 of Marvel’s new “Echo” series, I have to wonder — will this series live up to the high standards already set by its predecessors?
“Echo” episode 1 feels choppy, and like a chaotic crash course into Maya Lopez’s life. Which would have been fine had it not felt so rushed.
The episode starts us off in a whole new world, which confused the heck out of me and felt like a foreshadowing of something I couldn’t name, or put my finger on. It drove me absolutely insane! And while the “meat and bones” of this backstory is interesting, episode 1 has some pacing issues that make it hard to focus on just Alaqua!
Which kind of defeats the purpose of this backstory.
It’s almost as if they had to stuff every little detail of Maya’s childhood into one episode, due to this series being only 5 episodes long?
Which doesn’t make any f*cking sense considering we’ve been begging for the Marvel series’ to be longer. Why would they give us something we want, and then make it even shorter than the others? Who f*cking knows! Of course, all 5 episodes of the “Echo” series will be released on the same day, Jan 9, 2024. So this could make for a great binge-watch.
But not if they don’t get it TF together, and slow this sh*t down! ‘Cause right now it’s giving “they want this so give it to them, but make it snappy ’cause we ain’t got all day” vibes, and I don’t like it. We could have easily waited a few more months for them to flesh this out properly and give us a really good intro to Echo!
Especially if she’s going to be in more things moving forward? Sigh.
Plus, the fight scenes in episode 1 don’t feel too great either. I’m not sure if it’s just the sound effects that throw me off or if it’s also the choreography.
But it doesn’t feel like Marvel greatness! However, I do appreciate them cutting the sound every now and then so we can “hear” from Maya’s POV. And I did learn a few new things about Maya, that I think could be useful to her story. Of course, I won’t know if it’s useful or not until I watch a few more episodes. So I guess I have no choice but to keep watching.