00:00 (heavy breathing)
00:02 What a surprise.
00:05 - Welcome to WatchMojo,
00:10 and today we're diving into the origins of Echo.
00:14 Expect some major spoilers ahead.
00:16 - You and I
00:20 are the same.
00:23 - Becoming Echo.
00:28 Maya Lopez didn't start life off easy.
00:31 She was raised alone by her father,
00:32 Willie "Crazy Horse" Lincoln,
00:34 due to the absence of her mother,
00:35 only known as Miss Lopez.
00:37 Maya's father led a less than reputable life.
00:40 Frequently engaging in petty crimes,
00:42 he crossed paths with Wilson Fitts,
00:44 better known as Kingpin,
00:45 and worked for him as an enforcer.
00:47 Fitts would eventually murder Willie
00:49 when Maya was still a young child,
00:51 but before he did,
00:52 he promised to raise her as if she was his own daughter.
00:56 The last time Maya saw her dad,
00:58 he placed his bloody hand on her face,
01:00 leaving a handprint which she would later
01:02 incorporate in her visits.
01:03 Those around Maya initially believed
01:05 she had learning disabilities,
01:07 so after being taken in by Fitts,
01:09 she was sent to a special school.
01:11 It was there that she and her teachers
01:13 would discover that she was deaf,
01:14 and when she perfectly recreated a song on the piano
01:17 with little practice,
01:18 they also discovered she was gifted.
01:21 She then gets sent to another school,
01:23 this time specifically for prodigies.
01:25 As time went on, the now adult Maya
01:28 was tricked by Fitts into believing
01:29 that Daredevil killed her father.
01:31 Molded by her years of training and her lust for revenge,
01:34 she began operating as Echo.
01:36 Abilities.
01:39 Since Maya has both photographic reflexes
01:42 and photographic memory,
01:43 she can replicate anything she sees.
01:46 The specific ability to copy people and how they move
01:49 is also partially why she chose the name Echo.
01:52 It's even so great that she can arguably rival
01:54 the skills of someone like Taskmaster.
01:57 Maya has undergone intense mental and physical training.
02:00 She's skilled in acrobatics, martial arts, ballet,
02:04 and a multitude of other intense disciplines.
02:07 Besides her Olympic-level athletic prowess,
02:10 her intellect is also next level.
02:13 She knows American Sign Language
02:15 and can read, write, and speak in multiple other languages
02:18 with incredible fluency.
02:20 Maya is also capable of reading lips.
02:22 However, she does experience varying degrees of difficulty
02:26 when speaking to people whose mouths are obscured by masks
02:29 or helmets or other factors.
02:31 Ultimately, though, there's very little
02:33 that Maya's deafness restricts her from.
02:35 History with Daredevil.
02:38 Maya has had quite the love-hate relationship
02:41 with Daredevil.
02:42 After the man without fear lost Karen Page
02:44 due to her death in Guardian Devil,
02:46 Fitts capitalized on Matt Murdock's despair.
02:49 As the beginning of a scheme,
02:50 he sent Maya to talk to the Hell's Kitchen lawyer
02:53 and the two eventually developed a relationship.
02:55 All the while, Maya intended to hunt down
02:58 and kill Daredevil, not knowing he was actually Matt.
03:01 So once she discovered this during a climactic battle,
03:04 you could bet things got a little bit awkward.
03:07 While Matt was able to stop her and convince her
03:10 that Fisk was actually lying to her,
03:12 she didn't take this revelation well.
03:14 Let's just say that she and Fisk
03:16 didn't exactly see eye to eye after this.
03:19 Part of what makes the relationship between Echo
03:20 and Daredevil so interesting is their dichotomy.
03:23 Both characters experience the world
03:26 in their own unique way.
03:27 They're characters that are on the surface pretty different,
03:30 yet also surprisingly similar.
03:33 So it makes any interaction between them so much fun.
03:36 Maya and Matt have since mended fences,
03:39 but their days as a couple are pretty much
03:41 a thing of the past now.
03:42 Ronin.
03:45 While Maya is most well-known for being Echo,
03:47 she's had some stints as other characters as well.
03:50 The most notable of her other aliases happened to be Ronin.
03:54 In fact, she was the very first vigilante
03:56 to call herself that.
03:58 Interestingly, Ronin's identity was initially kept a secret
04:01 from her teammates and even fans.
04:03 Readers actually thought Ronin
04:05 was secretly Daredevil at first.
04:06 New Avengers writer, Brian Michael Bendis,
04:08 even later revealed that this was the intention.
04:11 But regardless, Maya would be revealed
04:13 to be the one underneath the mask in the end.
04:16 She developed a persona after embarking on a vision quest.
04:19 With this new alias, she would go on to fight
04:22 the shadowy organization known as The Hand.
04:24 As Ronin, her Avengers entangled her with the New Avengers
04:28 as she eventually joined the roster.
04:30 Ronin was an interesting chapter of Maya's life.
04:32 However, this rebranding wouldn't be a permanent one.
04:35 She'd relinquish the Ronin mantle during Dark Reign
04:38 and appoint Clint Barton as her successor,
04:41 thus Echo Return.
04:42 Representation.
04:45 Maya is an incredibly diverse character
04:47 in more ways than one.
04:49 She's half Cheyenne and half Hispanic.
04:51 Her co-creator, David Mack, made sure
04:53 that Maya's Cheyenne heritage
04:55 would be especially reflected in the comics.
04:57 Maya has frequently worn feathers in her hair
05:00 as a Cheyenne custom.
05:01 Vision quests like the one Maya performed
05:03 prior to becoming Ronin are also important experiences
05:07 that are prevalent in many indigenous cultures.
05:09 Maya has also broken molds and pushed back
05:12 against stereotypes as one of Marvel's
05:14 premier deaf superheroes.
05:16 She's strong, capable, and heroic,
05:19 and that depiction makes her an inspiration
05:21 for many in the deaf community.
05:23 The Native American who plays Echo in the MCU,
05:26 Aleca Cox, is also deaf herself.
05:28 (upbeat music)
05:31 MCU appearances.
05:36 Speaking of the MCU, Echo made her live action debut
05:40 in 2021's Hawkeye.
05:42 In the series, Maya acted as a secondary antagonist.
05:46 (dramatic music)
05:49 And much of her lore from the comics
05:52 surrounding the death of her father
05:53 and being raised by Kingpin remained intact.
05:57 The Hawkeye finale even recreated the scene
05:59 from the comics where Maya shot Fix
06:01 after learning the truth.
06:03 - Sometimes family doesn't see eye to eye.
06:07 (gunshot)
06:09 - Beyond Hawkeye, Maya will be the star
06:11 of her own show appropriately titled Echo.
06:14 It's not just Maya's unique perspective
06:16 that the show will explore.
06:17 It also looks to be taking the MCU
06:20 into some very not so family friendly places.
06:22 (explosion)
06:25 Echo will be Marvel's first show
06:29 under the Marvel Spotlight banner.
06:31 While still firmly a part of the MCU continuity,
06:34 it's meant to focus more on grounded plots
06:36 and character driven stories,
06:37 which is something fans have been clamoring for.
06:41 The show will bring back Vincent D'Onofrio's
06:43 Wilskin Fisk and even Charlie Cox's Daredevil
06:46 in some capacity.
06:47 The Echo show begs the question,
06:49 can the MCU actually tell truly dark and compelling stories
06:53 in the same vein of the Netflix Marvel shows?
06:56 We'll have to wait and see.
06:57 But what we can say for certain
06:59 is that we're excited to watch Maya Lopez's story
07:02 in the MCU unfold.
07:04 - Who's the monster?
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07:20 - Conclusion.
07:23 It should go without saying,
07:24 but Echo has had quite the journey.
07:27 She's been a fierce rival of Daredevil
07:29 to one of his greatest allies
07:30 and has found a home on teams like the New Avengers.
07:33 She might not check all of the boxes
07:35 of a traditional Marvel hero,
07:37 but if anything, that just makes her more iconic.
07:41 - Did you enjoy this video?
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07:50 (upbeat music)
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