Marvel's first work of 2024 has been unveiled. This series follows the villain Maya Lopez from the Disney+ series 'Hawkeye' as she returns home to find her identity as an American Indian and rebuild her relationship with her family. It is also the first Marvel series produced by Disney+ to be rated R (rated 15+ in Korea).

The series begins by explaining why Maya left her hometown. Maya, who is from the Choctaw Nation, an American Indian tribe located in Thahama, Oklahoma, has a normal childhood. She lives with her cousin, Bonnie, like a real sister, and gets along well with her uncle and grandparents. The problem was her father. Those who harbored a grudge against Maya's father, who was active in a local gang, threatened her family, and Maya and her father fled to New York.

20 years later, Maya is on the run again. This is because she has become an enemy of Wilson Fisk (played by Vincent D'Onofrio), a powerful figure in the underworld, whom she has considered her 'uncle' and relied on since she fled to New York. Maya returned to her hometown but didn't look for her family. She didn't want to revisit the wounds she received when she first left her hometown. But Fisk's men are closing in, and she is in a situation where she has to rely on her family.**

The most unique aspect of this series is American Indian culture and sign language. The setting of 'Echo' is an Indian village in Thahama, Oklahoma, and it shows how the people of this area live. In fact, there is nothing special about the lives of the people in this area. Bonnie works as a firefighter, and Maya's grandmother, Chula (played by Tantoo Cardinal), is a mail carrier. Her grandfather runs a pawn shop and sells Native American crafts to tourists.

However, even these scenes give a very fresh feeling because they are rarely shown in American TV series or movies. This is because Western TV series usually show American Indians as villains in Western movies, or as people who have maintained a pre-modern lifestyle. Also, in this series, Echo learns about the mysterious power she has inspired by the Choctaw myth. This power becomes a device for Maya to overcome her crisis in the latter half of the drama and become 'Echo', which is also the title of the series.

In this series, sign language plays a big role, just as much as English and the Choctaw language. Maya's actress Alaqua Cox is deaf, and so is the character Echo in the play. Sign language is also used as a device to represent relationships with surrounding people. Maya's family still signs for her, even though they seem to be estranged from her. But while Fisk calls Maya his family, he never signs himself.** He uses interpreters or devices that can interpret sign language.

It is also a pleasure to see characters we have seen in other Marvel series again. Daredevil, played by Charlie Cox, makes a brief cameo appearance in the first episode. There were concerns among fans that they might never see Daredevil again, played by Charlie Cox, after the Daredevil series starring him was cancelled in season 4 in 2018. (Perhaps some people will watch this series just to see Daredevil.)

'Echo' tells Lopez's story beautifully, but it also has some shortcomings. The series was promoted as 'Netflix-style Marvel'. From 2014 to 2018, Netflix released Marvel TV series that featured high-level violence. 'Echo' was a work that received high expectations that it would inherit the tradition of that series. However, surprisingly, the action in this series is limited. Echo focuses more on the characters' emotions and stories than on action.** Viewers who expected the action to be a central element of storytelling, like 'Daredevil', may be disappointed.