'Echo' is a welcome return for 'Daredevil' fans to gritty, street-level action

It's not surprising that 'Echo' is garnering comparisons to the more street-level heroics from early reviews.

In watching the five-part miniseries, the pacing is tighter and more focused than the likes of the so-so 'Secret Invasion'. Compared to 'Hawkeye' or 'Falcon and the Winter Soldier', the violence is sharp and explicit in a way that Marvel hasn't been in quite some time. Netflix's 'Daredevil' and 'The Punisher' had a lot of this going for them, yet the problem in both of these was a problem inherent in a lot of Netflix offerings. Namely, the so-called 'Netflix Bloat' where it had two or three episodes too many.

In 'Echo', it's a hewn, stripped-back affair. The first episode catches up anyone who may have missed 'Hawkeye' - a pretty good TV show, yet was mostly overlooked by wider audiences - with some scenes plucked from that woven into a montage that introduces Maya Lopez, also known as Echo, played by Alaqua Cox. She's a deaf assassin who was previously in the employ of Wilson Fisk, played by Vincent D'Onofrio, who she shot through the eye when she discovered that Fisk had a hand in her father's death. Now on the run, she returns to her hometown in Oklahoma, reconnects with her Choctaw roots, and finds a way to embrace her troubled past and her community while preparing herself for the fight to come with Fisk.

Though the budget is decidedly limited and there's some ropey CGI in the first episode involving a train-top chase, 'Echo' has plenty going on elsewhere. The inclusion of a deaf actor in the lead role means that the subject is treated sensitively and from a perspective we don't normally experience - either in comic-book adjacent media or anything else. Alaqua Cox is both an amputee and deaf, and these are folded into the character in interesting ways. Fight sequences are sometimes taken from her perspective, where it's solely action without sound and makes us focus in on the physicality of it all. Moreover, the supporting cast - also made up of Native American actors - means that the cultural experience is just as powerful. The third episode opens with an interesting flourish of having a black-and-white history lesson of the Lighthorsemen, the Choctaw Nation's very own police force.

Despite all of this, the issue with 'Echo', however, is that while it has all of these unique elements to it, and they're handled and utilised well, you can't help but recognise that the series itself is somewhat generic in its execution. Compared to something like the out-there, psychedelic leanings of 'Legion' or even the chummy, action-comedy vibes of 'Hawkeye', much of 'Echo' is done in a fairly conventional manner with little stylistic choices or flourishes. 'Echo' is released under the Marvel Spotlight banner, which is essentially a marketing concept by the studio juggernaut that means you can watch this show without having seen any of the other TV shows or movies.

It's a fine idea, but it sort of underlines the wider problems with Marvel itself. By admitting that these shows and movies are becoming so commonplace as to be interchangeable and interconnected that you need a map and a guide to follow them, a show like 'Echo' would be seen as a way of cutting away from them and starting afresh with some creative licence. While those who loved 'Daredevil' are in for familiar treat, 'Echo' doesn't carve out a new path as it follows one already there. There are some unique elements going on in 'Echo', and Alaqua Cox is a compelling lead who has a career in front of her, but there has to be more style and less formula if it's going to shake things up.