ECHO season 1 REVIEW: A taste of that old Netflix Marvel

Amir Muhammad | April 25, 2024

Usually, I watch all Marvel shows, but there are some that I don’t even look twice at. As my series review comes to an end, I appreciate the fact that I decided to give Echo a chance.

Echo in its entirety has many flaws. However, most of them are easy to overlook to grasp the bigger picture. This show is not simply about revenge. With its focus on heritage, family dynamics and a backstory for Maya, it is clear that her journey is about much more than just getting payback for what Fisk did to her father. 

In the last episodes of the show, we are shown a different side of Fisk. We can finally see the reality of how much he cares for Maya. He sees that he is losing her. To gain some of that trust back, Fisk creates a contact lens for both him and Maya so they can understand each other without using an interpreter.

From the beginning of Maya and Fisk's partnership, Fisk has always seen her as a part of his family. Every time they had dinner together, he tried to get food she would enjoy. This partnership and family dynamic spanned years, and, during that time, Fisk didn’t know sign language. So, at every dinner, someone was speaking for him.

All of Maya’s true family taught themselves how to sign to make it easier on Maya—to show that they cared about her. Fisk finding a way around learning showed his true character and, most importantly, his ignorance.

He is ignorant because they are practically family. All of Maya’s real family took the time to do something to make her more comfortable. What Fisk did showed no hard work or care toward Maya at all. That’s why Maya found it hard to appreciate the lens and it made her angry. 

Over the last three episodes, more of Maya’s abilities come to light. It is not really until episode five that we get a better insight into the significance of her powers. Maya’s abilities derive from her ancestors who had the “Echo” before her. In the comics, she was gifted with the ability of photographic reflexes, but the show adds a new dimension to her character by adding the ability to call upon her maternal ancestors and gain their knowledge and skills. 

At the end of the season finale, Maya unlocks all of her powers. She is even able to pass some of the strength from her ancestors onto her family to fight back against Fisk and his men. Maya, with the help of her family, beat Fisk without killing him. Maya decided to go into his mind instead and take out the violence and aggression. So, we are left with a new and somewhat broken Fisk.

With only five episodes, it feels as if there is much more to be explored. I enjoyed the ending where Maya stopped running away from her family and met with them for a real family dinner. During those five episodes, a lot of character development happened for Maya as she moved further and further away from the manipulation of Fisk. 

This show was well made and reminded me of past Marvel series, like Punisher and Daredevil. If you missed those shows, this one can give you a small taste of what we had in the past. All-in-all, the series was good and left a promising future for us fans to look forward to. 

My final score for the whole season is 8.3/10. I feel that the problems mentioned in this review and my previous one can easily be fixed in season two if it gets the green light.