Echo is a Deaf, indigenous superhero who’s key to Marvel Phase 4

Echo is right here, and with it: Echo (Alaqua Cox), staking it out on her personal, and discovering out what it means to be a hero.

She was first launched within the second episode of Disney Plus’ Hawkeye, initially an antagonist to Kate Bishop and Clint Barton. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than Cox’s superhero was introduced to have her personal present — which lastly premiered on Disney Plus and Hulu in January.

However is she a very good man? Whereas she spent most of her first action-packed episode chasing our heroes, Marvel Comics readers understand it’s a bit extra difficult than that.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for Hawkeye through episode 3.]

Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) sits in the back of a truck looking at something

Teased within the finale scene of Hawkeye’s second episode, this week’s “Echoes” offers the superheroine Echo her full debut. The episode opens by showcasing her backstory, through which she is performed by the younger actress Darnell Besaw. The daughter of a member of the Tracksuit Mafia, she misplaced her listening to as a toddler. With out the cash to enroll in a college for the Deaf, Maya was compelled to develop her skill to lipread as a way to work together with the listening to world that wouldn’t accommodate her.

And within the present, similar to in Marvel Comics, plainly Maya Lopez’s consideration to visible element has developed into one thing of a supernatural energy — studying and copying physique language.

Who’s Maya Lopez/Echo in Marvel Comics?

Maya Lopez/Echo catches an escrima stick with a FAP sound, as she casually juggles half a dozen shuriken with her other hand. “Hello, villain,” she says. “I have a performance for you,” in Daredevil (1999).

Echo first appeared within the pages of Daredevil, created by David Mack and Joe Quesada (Mack was writing the collection, and he and Quesada had been each offering artwork), as an antagonist. Within the comics, she was born deaf, and possessed a supernatural skill to completely copy the actions of anybody she noticed — just about like Taskmaster, the Avengers villain who debuted within the MCU in Black Widow.

Maya was orphaned when her father died whereas working as an enforcer for Wilson “The Kingpin” Fisk, who you may keep in mind from Netflix’s Daredevil collection or Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Fisk took her below his wing as a way to develop her skills, persuade her he was actually a pleasant man, and finally unleashed her towards the “villainous” Daredevil. Her most typical “superhero” image is a handprint on her face, a tribute to her father’s final moments, simply because it was in Hawkeye’s “Echoes.”

As a minor Marvel Comics character, Maya has been by means of a number of ups and downs. She’s dated Daredevil, grow to be buds with Wolverine, was the primary particular person to make use of the Ronin go well with/id in Marvel Comics, tangled with Elektra and the Hand, and hung round with Moon Knight. She’s been a member of the Avengers on a number of events, the place she was usually written with a “supernatural” skill to learn lips even when characters (like, say, Spider-Man) had been carrying full masks.

Maya has at all times been a Native American superhero, however lately in comics she was established as a member of the Cheyenne Nation particularly, rejoined the Avengers and — let me test right here — grew to become the host of the Phoenix Power. That half, at the very least, might be not going to come back up in Hawkeye. However Clint Barton’s present received’t be the final time we see Echo.

Maya Lopez is getting her personal Disney Plus spinoff present, and followers are crossing their fingers that the Echo collection will reintegrate the world of Netflix’s Daredevil with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. However they’ll be ready some time, as Echo doesn’t at the moment have a launch window.