Heroic moves: Marvel’s ‘Echo’ premieres deaf Indigenous superhero in style

In recent years, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become a massive blockbuster sensation. Fans of the superhero genre have long been divided into camps — DC versus Marvel, for instance — but those seeking any form of visual entertainment, from art to books to film and television, would be hard-pressed to find a medium that did not cater in some way to caped crusaders or leotard-clad superhumans.

That said, ever since The Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment in 2009 (for a whopping $4 billion), the company’s streamer, Disney+, has been one of the greatest proponents of the “super” genre. Newest to join the ranks is “Echo,” the “Hawkeye” spinoff series premiering Wednesday, Jan. 10, on the platform.

While hardly new to the Marvel Universe, Echo is best known to current Marvel fans in the form of budding actress Alaqua Cox, who was born and raised in the Menominee Indian Reservation in Keshena, Wisconsin, and is of the Menominee and Mohican nation. Starring alongside Jeremy Renner (“The Hurt Locker,” 2008) and Hailee Steinfeld (“Dickinson”) in the 2021 miniseries “Hawkeye,” Echo was introduced in a supporting role and garnered plenty of attention for her two-fold inclusivity and incredible fighting abilities. As is the case with nearly all superheroes and villains in the MCU, Echo’s backstory is somewhat complicated and varies significantly between sources, but at least three things remain consistent: her name, her background and her deafness. Born Maya Lopez, Echo is the highly gifted daughter of secret mob enforcer William Lopez (Zahn McClarnon, “Dark Winds”) — sometimes referred to as William Lincoln in other related source material — a proud Native American man of the Cheyenne Nation, and a Latina mother, known vaguely as “Ms. Lopez,” who abandoned the family when Maya was young. Upon his untimely death related to criminal activities, William urges hulking mobster Kingpin, a.k.a. Wilson Fisk (played in “Echo” by Vincent D’Onofrio of 1987’s “Full Metal Jacket”), to look after his young daughter at all costs. Nothing if not a man of his word, Fisk agrees — and so begins Lopez’s journey as Echo. Per the Marvel website, the Disney+ series is Echo’s origin story and “revisits Maya Lopez, whose ruthless behavior in New York City catches up with her in her hometown. She 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.”

By reconnecting with her hometown, her roots and her own morals and desires, Maya tries to let go of what no longer serves her and embrace the feelings that have been driving her down the same dangerous path as Kingpin and the father she lost during her childhood. Along the way, however, there is plenty of violence, bloodshed and “real consequences” (per Freeland) — hence the series’ TV-MA rating.

Behind the scenes, Navajo filmmaker Sydney Freeland (“Reservation Dogs”) and Australian/Gunaikurnai creative Catriona McKenzie (“Satellite Boy,” 2012) direct the series. Naturally, Freeland and McKenzie were excited to begin work on a project focused on the only deaf Indigenous superhero in entertainment media. Beyond that, the official trailer for “Echo” also prominently features the hero’s prosthetic leg, an addition to the original source material to provide added inclusivity and incorporate Alaqua’s own, real-life prosthetic into the storyline. “Representation was extremely important to myself and to everyone on the crew,” Freeland stated at an October 2023 news conference.

But neither Alaqua’s amputee status nor the character’s deafness was front and center while plotting the show’s details. Sure, the creators gave thought to her disabilities and incorporated them into the storyline, but her so-called “disabilities” — as “Hawkeye” fans have clearly already noticed — are hardly disabling. Instead, creators laid much of the focus on the toll anger, resentment and physical trauma can take on a human being as they interact with the oft-cruel world around them.

At the end of the day, Freeland noted, “Echo” is “an exploration of trauma — how we deal with it, how we cope with it, how it affects us, how we affect it, how it affects those around us.”