Echo

Marvel Miniseries, Disney+, 2024, PG-16

SPOILER-FREE
When this miniseries as a Hawkeye show Spin-Off was announced, my reaction – just like before with Andor – was a rather-not-interested shrug. However, curiosity got to me and then I was indeed positively surprised (just like with Andor).

Marvel meets Martin Scorsese? Hard to believe it’s Marvel… gritty, a lot like Film Noir or Mafia flicks, indeed for mature audiences.

The story:
Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox), a former assassin serving the Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio), must face her past, reconnect with her Native American roots and embrace the meaning of family and community if she ever hopes to move forward. However, danger follows her to her old home Tamaha, Oklahoma …

A rather morally dubious and rough character you find yourself rooting for. What’s hard to believe is the fact that Maya actress Alaqua Cox’s only acting role before being cast in the Marvel Universe was a background part in a high school play…. Stellar performance, a power house, intense, convincing, mastering fierce action scenes and she stands her ground to movie veterans like D’Onofrio (here even more intimidating than in the Daredevil show) or Graham Greene (as always a pleasure to watch) and Tantoo Cardinal, playing Maya’s grandparents.

And well, Alaqua grew up on the Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin, is deaf and an amputee with a prosthetic lower leg in real life… She won me over as a fan and I hope to see her again as a canon part of the MCU and/or elsewhere more often on the small or big screen.

PS: The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma along with advisers from the organization IllumiNative were consulted on the representation of Choctaw culture, legends, and history portrayed in the series and they allowed to experience  and film a powwow first hand .

Directors
Sydney Freeland, Catriona McKenzie

Cast:
Alaqua Cox – Maya Lopez
Chaske Spencer – Henry Black Crow Lopez
Tantoo Cardinal – Chula
Graham Greene – Skully
Devery Jacobs – Bonnie
Cody Lightning – Biscuits
Morningstar Angeline – Lowak
Dannie McCallum – Tuklo
Braydee Cardinal – Ancestor
Vincent D’Onofrio – Kingpin / Wilson Fisk
etc