It’s not just that it’s woke, the latest Marvel Comic Universe limited series features Echo and it’s just too derivative. And, it’s just a set-up or bridge for the next big releases. Let me be clear, I would watch Vincent D’Onofrio (Kingpin/Wilson Fisk) read the Manhattan phone book from cover to cover. Echo, the Disney limited series just doesn’t work for me.

Echo dropped on January 10, 2024 with all five episodes released at once. The episodes are just too darn dark. Not in blood or subject, but in lighting. Maybe the fight scenes are dark to keep you from noticing the Asian stuntman doing the Echo fight. Be honest, IRL a deaf, amputee actor doing a fight scene would be problematic. But, let’s ignore real life. Wait. I forgot to tell you. Echo or Maya Lopez is a deaf, Native-American, amputee. The actress who plays Echo, Alaqua Cox, is also. A triple threat. This is what Disney loves. It may kill the theme parks and the brand, but Social Justice Woke for ALL.

Here is the trailer which focuses on Echo’s relationship with Kingpin:

Vincent D’Onofrio IS Kingpin. I just don’t get Echo. Maybe because I am a hearing, two-legged, White girl. Let’s hear from Alaqua Cox (Echo):

Cox, 26, originally played Echo in the 2021 Marvel series Hawkeye, and as the Hindustan Times reports, she found out during filming that she would be getting her own miniseries.

“I was like, ‘No way. This is crazy. I can’t believe it,’ she said upon finding out the new, per the outlet, “and I didn’t believe it at first. Of course, I was overwhelmed at first because that was my first time on set and I’m learning all these new things that I did not know before, and then they threw this at me and I came from a supporting actor to going number one on a call sheet.”

Cox has said in numerous interviews that she never pictured herself a a superhero because all those she saw growing up were not disabled and not people of color.

“My hope is that with diverse communities like us, we can do anything,” she told PTI, per the Hindustan Times. “I’m a disabled, deaf and indigenous person, and I have all these attributes, but now I’m a superhero. It doesn’t matter how I am, what color I am, what disability I have, I can still achieve greatness.”

That’s the problem. Alaqua is not a superhero. I admire her spunk, but she is an actress with a script, directors and more than one stunt double. That’s the reality.

Here is a reality check for actors and actresses:

NEW: Vermont State Police trooper heroically saves an 8-year old girl from a freezing cold pond after she fell through the ice.

HERO!

Vermont State trooper Michelle Archer was seen on footage plunging into the freezing pond to rescue the child.

The girl’s 6-year old sibling… pic.twitter.com/SblTQiBrMd

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 13, 2024

Michelle Archer was on “routine patrol” when she got the call of a child in the pond. That’s a superhero. I wish actors and actresses would remember that they read someone else’s lines.

Here is more on Echo from Forbes:

The series’ star Alaqua Cox is great, as is the focus on the main language of the series being sign language, for the most part. It’s also a worthwhile exploration of her Native cultural roots.

However, the new powers she’s been given are somewhat nonsensical and manifest in strange ways over the course of the series. By the end it feels like she’s just barely learning to use them, but this is a miniseries and it’s unclear if we’ll ever see this character again outside of a cameo role.

The actual meat of the story just doesn’t make much sense. Echo seeks petty revenge on Kingpin’s remaining forces, but spends most of her time being pursued or kidnapped herself. I entered the show expecting some sort of rise to power in the underworld and this is absolutely not even close to that.

Echo is eventually faced with the strange question of “should I try to kill the guy I already thought I killed once,” and the entire Kingpin drama plays out like a retread of her Hawkeye arc. Perhaps there is some world where Kingpin’s return might have been shocking, but he was used heavily in the marketing campaign, as was Daredevil, who has a cameo that doesn’t last more than a couple minutes.

Since Stan Lee died this just all feels so derivative and a set up for the release in the Marvel Comic Universe.

Featured Image: greyloch/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons