Marvel's Echo: The Untold Truth Of Maya Lopez

Originally a member of Daredevil's supporting cast, Echo arrived on the scene in 1999 and has since gone on to become a major player in the Marvel Universe. A foil and love interest for the Man Without Fear, her real name is Maya Lopez, and she's raised by the Kingpin after the death of her father. Born without hearing, Maya thrives as an assassin and superhero thanks to her uncanny ability to mimic people's movements.

In a surprise move, though, Echo was introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2021. Played by Alaqua Cox, she came to Disney+ as a villain in the eight-part miniseries "Hawkeye" starring Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld. In early 2024, Echo is receiving her very own live-action series with Cox returning to the role. In the event series "Echo," the title character confronts her dark past in an effort to become something more than a villain.

But in spite of more than 20 years of stories in the comics, Echo remains largely unknown to many fans who aren't familiar with her history in sequential art. With "Echo" arriving on Disney+ in the near future, there's no better time to familiarize yourself with the antihero.

Most of the lead characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe are comic icons conceived of in the 1960s or '70s, from Spider-Man and The Avengers to Captain Marvel and Black Panther. Every once in a while, though, the MCU pulls from more recent stories. Echo first appeared as an antagonist in a 1999 storyline in "Daredevil" that came directly on the heels of writer Kevin Smith's controversial story arc, "Guardian Devil."

The brainchild of writer-artist David Mack, Echo was also created by Marvel's editor-in-chief at the time, Joe Quesada, who illustrated the story. Mack was hired based on his work on his indie title "Kabuki" and Quesada had long wanted to work with him. He felt that "Daredevil" was the perfect title for Mack to sink his creative teeth into.

Mack and Quesada ended up co-creating Echo, aka Maya Lopez, and Mack used the character to explore how powerful figures are often motivated by a troubled upbringing. "The fascinating thing with [Echo] is that she's also someone who feels a sense of detachment," Mack told Another Universe in 2000, comparing her to Daredevil. "And [regarding] what's missing, both in her life and in Daredevil's life, they're able to compensate for in their own ways."

David Mack has a history of finding inspiration in various traditional cultures. For "Kabuki," he delved into Japanese history, culture, and philosophy, and even traveled to the nation. When it came to creating Echo, though, his research was a lot closer to home. 

"My Cherokee uncle inspired much of Echo's story," he told Cultural Daily in 2014. "He would tell me Native stories when I was very little, and he would ask me to draw the stories and icons from the stories. It was a subject I was immersed in as a child, and I continued to be a part of it when I was older." Though the stories didn't necessarily include a deaf superhero vigilante, they did include elements he wove into later stories, such as the guide storyteller and artist shaman.  

But his uncle's stories were hardly the end of Mack's work ahead of creating Maya Lopez, particularly when it came to being a deaf character. "Some of the insight into deaf culture comes from biographies and autobiographies I have read of children who grew up deaf and I was fascinated by their unique view of the world." 

Maya Lopez doesn't have superpowers in the traditional sense, though she possesses a nearly superhuman ability to mimic body movements. Similar to the villain Taskmaster, she can observe and perfectly replicate the fighting styles of anyone she sees, and even copy physical mannerisms. But unlike her rival Daredevil and his radar-like sense, Echo doesn't possess any extrasensory abilities to compensate for her lack of hearing. Like many other hearing-impaired individuals, she uses sign language to communicate.

In addition to traditional American Sign Language, Maya is seen using a Native American sign system often called "Hand Talk" which was used centuries before ASL. It's one of the oldest languages in North America according to Open Culture and was used not only by deaf people, but by Native Americans generally in order to communicate between tribes who spoke different languages. Interviewed by The Guardian, David Mack said a lot of research went into portraying Maya's impairment.

"I read a book where a boy was told that the rain makes a noise and that lightning has an audible counterpart in thunder. So then he wondered what sound the sunshine made ... This kind of first-person perspective really let me think from a different point of view." As a result, Echo has been hailed as a differently abled character who breaks the mold, defying cliches, and is lauded for her representation of the deaf community.

Another MCU persona who hails from a more recent story is Ronin, the sword-wielding alter ego of Clint Barton following the events of "Avengers: Infinity War." In the comics, Ronin is first introduced in the pages of "New Avengers" #11 (2005) as a new and mysterious masked vigilante terrorizing the Japanese underworld. At the time of the comic's release, the unknown identity of the mysterious warrior was a major part of the story's appeal with fans all speculating who it might be.

Marvel kept the lid on Ronin's secret identity as long as it could before eventually revealing that Ronin was Maya Lopez. According to a later story, Echo had been disillusioned with her role as an assassin and decided to completely overhaul her vigilante persona and become more of a ninja warrior complete with swords, nunchaku, and a new name.

Since revealing her true identity, the title of Ronin has passed on to multiple other heroes at various times. This includes Clint Barton just like in "Avengers: Endgame," but also the likes of Red Guardian, Blade, and Bullseye. In the "Ultimate Comics" universe, Ronin is an alternate personality of Marc Spector, aka Moon Knight.

There's a good reason why many fans speculated that Ronin was really Matt Murdock, originally. For starters, the character wielded the same kind of batons carried by Daredevil on the cover of one of Ronin's first appearances. But more importantly, the story heavily implies that Murdock's controversial status as a vigilante — particularly at that time, shortly after a newspaper outs him as Daredevil — would require him to take on a new identity if he were to join the Avengers, a suggestion that Captain America himself makes to the Man Without Fear. 

Worse still, a reporter for USA Today strongly hinted that Ronin was Daredevil in an article covering the upcoming reveal. As a result, just about everyone was surprised when Ronin turned out to be Echo, leaving many fans to wonder if Marvel had switched Ronin's ultimate identity because it had been inadvertently spoiled. 

After years of denying that charge, writer Brian Michael Bendis finally talked about what happened in an introduction to a hardcover collection. Recalling the USA Today flub, Bendis explained that the original idea was for Ronin to be Daredevil in a new disguise, but the accidental reveal — combined with most fans having already guessed Ronin's identity, plus some continuity clashes with events occurring in the pages of "Daredevil" at the time — led to the decision to swap out Murdock for Maya.

In the Disney+ series "Hawkeye," Maya Lopez is introduced as a villain — a henchman for the Kingpin and leader of the Tracksuit Mafia. Believing that Ronin is the one who killed her father, Maya clashes with Clint Barton when his identity as the masked vigilante is discovered. In the comics, though, Maya and Barton have a very different relationship, and at one point they are even lovers. 

In fact, Clint Barton is the first person to take up the mantle of Ronin after Maya Lopez gives it up, though she only learns that he was under the mask after he's been using the moniker for some time. Now a member of the New Avengers as Echo alongside Barton as Ronin, the two became engulfed in the Skrull invasion of Earth in the crossover event "Secret Invasion." After finding herself on the receiving end of a brutal attack by a Skrull posing as Daredevil, Echo is overwhelmed, and it's Barton who provides the new member of the team with support. It's this mentor-like relationship that the MCU echoes in "Avengers: Age of Ultron" with Barton encouraging the newest member of the team in the film, Wanda Maximoff.

Of course, on the page, that relationship quickly escalates, with Barton and Echo becoming romantically involved for a brief period. 

Clint Barton and Matt Murdock aren't the only Marvel heroes who Maya Lopez has been romantically involved with. Following her dalliance with Hawkeye, Maya goes on an undercover mission that's crashed by fellow hero Marc Spector, aka Moon Knight. In addition to teaming up to defeat Count Nefaria, they also became an item. That connection to Moon Knight made his eventual Disney+ series a solid option for a place to introduce Echo.

As revealed by "Moon Knight" writer Jeremy Slater, in an interview with the "House of R" podcast, the initial idea was for Echo to show up for the first time in that series. There, Maya Lopez would have been introduced as a potential ally of Marc Spector. "At the time, Echo was going to be our love interest," Slater said. "Solely based on the fact that they knew Marvel liked the character of Echo and was trying to find a show to put her in... [but] she didn't work at all for the story we were telling."

Unable to fit her into "Moon Knight" in a meaningful way, Marvel put her in one of its other series — "Hawkeye." Ultimately Maya's connection to Kingpin made her the perfect choice for a story pitting Clint Barton against the vicious crime lord.

A lesser-known street-level antihero, Maya Lopez isn't the kind of character one might expect to be battling powerhouses in the Marvel Universe. But in one storyline titled "Contest of Champions," Maya is chosen to take part in a fight that decides the fate of the Phoenix Force alongside such behemoths as the Squadron Supreme, Doctor Doom, King Namor, and The Hulk, and others. 

The storyline is titled "Enter the Phoenix," and sees the immensely powerful Phoenix Force that formerly possessed Jean Grey returning to planet Earth seeking a new corporeal host. Rather than simply attach itself to whoever is nearby, though, the Phoenix Force sets up a sports-like championship tournament with superheroes and villains from across the Marvel Universe to square off in a fight for control of the cosmic power. And Maya Lopez is forced to go up against the King of Atlantis, Namor the Submariner.

The battle takes place in "Avengers" #41 in 2021, and Maya is denied the power of the Phoenix force after being resoundingly defeated by Namor. Of course, the fact that the bout takes place on the Atlantean's home turf — underwater — gives him a decided advantage, as Namor is far more powerful beneath the waves. Worry not, though, because Echo gets the last laugh in the fight for the Phoenix.

Maya Lopez is first introduced with the vigilante alter ego of Echo in the pages of "Daredevil." Not long after, she's revealed to be fighting under the mantle of Ronin when she's reintroduced in "The New Avengers." But those aren't the only names that Maya uses in her life as an antihero, and it's during the battle for the Phoenix Force that she takes on the name of a notoriously underrated X-Man.

Left for dead at the hands of Namor, Echo's body remains in the depths of the ocean. But in comics, nobody stays dead forever, and Maya is quickly resurrected by the Phoenix Force itself. Rather than granting its power to the winner of the Contest of Champions, it chooses to possess Echo's body, making her the new wielder of the Phoenix. Maya decides to take a new name for the occasion, but it isn't "Phoenix" or even "Dark Phoenix" — instead, she chooses the name Thunderbird, the codename of John Proudstar, one of Marvel's earliest Native American heroes.

Now with the powers of a cosmic juggernaut, Maya travels to a parallel reality where she adventures with Blade, Thor, and Captain America. She later loses the power of the Phoenix while working with a team of multiversal Avengers. 

She made her debut nearly a quarter of a century ago, but surprisingly, Echo has only appeared outside of comics on a handful of occasions. While she's getting the spotlight for her very own series on Disney+ after showing up in "Hawkeye," she only ever made one appearance in animation prior, and it was a mere background cameo in "Ultimate Spider-Man." She has, however, turned up in a pair of Marvel video games.

The first and most notable is actually the video game tie-in for the 2003 "Daredevil" movie starring Ben Affleck released on Game Boy Advance. Echo was still a relatively new character in the comics in 2003, and still mostly a villain, so she plays the role of boss baddie in the game. Her level sees the player (as Daredevil) tasked with defeating Echo in a fight atop a moving subway car. Gamespot called out this level as a particular highlight, though it's fun to note how the reviewer was entirely unfamiliar with the character of Echo at the time.

Echo's first story in the pages of "Daredevil" was fresh off the heels of an explosive story that kills off Karen Page. This is a major loss for Matt Murdock, of course, but it also left a huge void in the comic that's quickly filled by Maya Lopez. As Echo, she was first introduced as a villain hunting Daredevil, but as Maya, she quickly becomes Matt Murdock's new love interest. But there's much more to their romance than met the eye.

In fact, Maya is set up to get close to Murdock by the Kingpin, her surrogate father, who knows Daredevil's secret identity at the time. He's keenly aware that Murdock has just lost Karen Page, and might be receptive to a new, kind woman in his life, and arranges for Echo to have an apparent random encounter with him. But Kingpin pulls the wool over Maya's eyes, too, making her believe that Daredevil killed her father, sending her on a quest for revenge, all while being romantically involved with the hero's alter ego.

During the "Secret Invasion" storyline, Skrulls come to Earth to take over the planet. During the course of events, it's revealed that a number of mainstay Marvel heroes are actually Skrulls in disguise, some of whom have been undercover on Earth for years. In one key moment that opens the series, Maya Lopez is operating in Japan under the guise of Ronin when she's captured by The Hand, who are led by Elektra at the time. There, Elektra is able to not just defeat, but murder Echo in the same manner that Bullseye killed Elektra years earlier — with a sai through the stomach.

Once again, this wasn't the end of Echo, as Elektra and the Hand used a twisted ancient magic to resurrect her, hoping she could join them as their newest member. Reborn and brainwashed, Maya needs the help of her fellow New Avengers who come to her rescue. Once she's able to battle through the brainwashing though, Maya gets revenge on Elektra in a climactic fight where she manages to kill the infamous assassin. In a moment that sent shockwaves across the Marvel Universe, Elektra is revealed to be a Skrull and reverts to her alien form after death, kicking off the "Secret Invasion" story.