Is Echo a Villain Or a Hero? Explained

Marvel’s first Spotlight TV show ‘Echo’ has been released, and it was a character-driven action packed story following Maya Lopez. She is a little-known character in the comics, but now that she has been included in the MCU to such an extent, her popularity is bound to rise. What fans are mostly interested in, however, is whether Echo is a villain or a hero. We’ve seen her hurting some people who are traditionally considered good, but we’ve also seen her rising up against Kingpin. As always, the answer is complicated. Let’s see.

Echo was introduced as a villain

Echo’s first appearance in the MCU was one of a villain. She was manipulated to attack Ronin because she believed that he was the one who killed her father while, in fact, Kingpin was the person who ordered her father’s murder, and once Echo learned that, she turned against Kingpin as well.

But this doesn’t automatically make her a hero all of a sudden. If anything, it further cemented her villainous status. Echo was selfish and violent; she was willing to let crime go rampant as long as it suited her. She was involved with the criminal underworld for as long as she could remember, and she was fine with it. She killed countless people; she was vengeful.

Yes, you can argue that what happened with her father was the deciding point that marked her villainous personality. The hurt that she felt turned her into a monster under the tutelage of Kingpin. But it’s more than that. Even when Echo seemingly killed Kingpin and avenged her father, she wasn’t willing to stop.

She wanted to become the Queenpin and was willing to kill countless people to get what she wanted, as well as bring her entire family in danger. She warned multiple times that she shouldn’t bring war to their doorsteps, and yet she went after Kingpin’s men, bringing more death and destruction into the fold.

So her previous MCU appearances, as well as the good half of the ‘Echo’ show, clearly state that she is a villain. Not an irredeemable one, however.

Echo was never imagined to be a superhero

Even before the show got released, Freeland, the show’s director, stated that Echo was never supposed to turn into Captain America; she was never going to be a clear-cut superhero. The best we can settle with is an anti-hero.

Over the course of the show, Echo realizes that her actions have consequences for the people she presumably cares about. She was doing the same thing that both her mother and her father got killed for, and she was continuing the cycle of destruction. When Echo learned that the primary reason why her family didn’t contact her all that much was because of Kingpin and herself, she seemed to realize that she still had something good to fight for.

Echo didn’t turn into a goody-two-shoes by the end of the show, but she does have the makings of a good anti-hero. She is still dangerous and is willing to kill and hurt people, but she is doing it for a somewhat righteous show. Now that Kingpin has plans to run for NY mayor, we’re likely going to see Maya up against him soon.

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