'Echo' Takes Marvel Into New Territory In Its First TV-MA Series

The show has its messy moments but triumphs in its representation of Indigenous, deaf and disabled people.

Marvel Studios trades superhero excess for quiet grit in its decidedly dark new miniseries, “Echo,” out now on Disney+ and Hulu.

Picking up where 2021′s “Hawkeye” ended, “Echo” follows Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez, an Indigenous, deaf amputee who was once the leader of the brutal Tracksuit Mafia.

The five-part series unfolds as Maya retreats home to Oklahoma’s Choctaw Nation after shooting her surrogate uncle and New York crime boss, Wilson “Kingpin” Fisk (played by an imposing Vincent D’Onofrio).

Back home, Cox’s character must contend with her past trauma and face fraught relationships with her grandma and cousin, Chula (Tantoo Cardinal) and Bonnie (Devery Jacobs), respectively.

“Echo” is an edgy but imperfect outing for Marvel, which has been trying to find footing in its post-“Avengers” era. Last year, the studio had multiple box-office blunders; the November release of “The Marvels” ended up as its lowest-grossing movie of all time.