Eternals was a movie of many firsts for Marvel as its numerous cast paved the way for an incredibly diverse superhero roster and yet, while having the first-mover advantage is often crucial in so many fields, Hawkeye is proving that getting it right is more important than getting there first.
With actors hailing from Mexico, Ireland, South Korea, Lebanon, India, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Eternals is a pioneer for modern cinema in that area, however, its other two milestones are perhaps of much more importance. In Phastos and Makkari, Eternals brought in the MCU’s first openly gay protagonist and its first superhero with a disability that was baked into the character, with deaf actor Lauren Ridloff doing the character justice, or at least as much as could be managed under the circumstances.
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A Mission Bigger Than Eternals
For all of Marvel Studios’ intent, Eternals turned out to be rare misfire from Disney with the film now expected to lose money and being bombarded with reviews by critics and viewers alike. In that context, Ridoff’s Makkari suffers pretty much the same fate as the rest of her co-stars, all of which fail to leave a lasting impression due to just how crowded Eternals is, thus rendering all these MCU firsts slightly less meaningful than they are, and that’s where Hawkeye comes in.
In episode three, “Echoes”, Marvel ushers in a new type of character, one whose disability means a lot more than just a colorful footnote for the movie and instead becomes quite integral to the character. In all honesty, a lot of this has to do with each Echo’s comic book origins because, contrary to Makkari, Maya Lopez was in fact conceived as a deaf superhero that happens to be part of Daredevil’s world.
Where The Echo Comes From
Echo is completely immune to accusations of wokeness as the term was not even part of modern vocabulary back in 1999 when she was created. Much like Bucky Barnes’ rebirth to become the Winter Soldier, Echo is simply a superhero who belongs to a newer era, after writers had spent decades forming the core Marvel roster that most people were already familiar with in the 90s.
So while crafting a script or scenes designed specifically to highlight Makkari’s disability would have required writers to get more creative, perhaps in ways some might have deemed unnecessary or intrusive, Echo demands that with plenty of source material to back it up. This all means that from the first moment when she’s introduced, the thumping bass sounds surrounding her make perfect sense because it’s what the writers chose to immerse the audience inside her head.
Even if Echo is supposed to be a villain in Hawkeye, at least up until this point in the series, the fact that she gets her own flashback intro already makes her stand out more than any of the Eternals, because this is the MCU’s way of committing to her. Add to that the fact that Echo is already getting her own Marvel series, and it becomes quite clear that there is a right way and a misguided one to introduce a character like her to Hawkeye’s story and the MCU as a whole.
Suffice to say, if Makkari wasn’t deaf in Eternals it wouldn’t alter the film’s plot in any way whatsoever, a statement that could also apply to Phastos. Although at least in the latter’s case it also served for Disney to take a rare stance against censorship to back up Chloé Zhao’s work.
Hawkeye’s Echo sees her disability play a big role from the moment she meets Clint Barton, who’s now struggling to cope with his own hearing impairment, a matter that’s enough to bring the two enemies closer to each for a brief moment when she’s holding the two heroes captive. Clint’s hearing loss is an element that’s been smartly used to illustrate the humanity of the least remarkable Avenger of them all, and Echo is the perfect mirror upon which to reflect that new side of Hawkeye.
Maya Lopez Has A Bright Future
More than halfway through the show, it’s still way too early to tell how Hawkeye will treat Echo, though the safest bet would be to assume she follows her comic book footsteps and eventually has some type of falling-out with her famous uncle, the Kingpin. All in all, now that Kevin Feige has confirmed Charlie Cox will be the MCU’s Daredevil in the future, the possibilities for these two characters’ storylines become quite interesting.
Echo as a spinoff has a lot of potential and, despite the scary thought of the Marvel branch that once housed The Punisher and Daredevil being watered down, being a Hawkeye alumni bodes well for Alaqua Cox’s character. This is by far the most “grounded” MCU production so far, so it would be fitting that character’s from this world retain that same vibe for the long run; conversely, Marvel’s cosmic characters like the Eternals have a far less defined scope, that doesn’t even guarantee them a sequel.
Thanks to Netflix’s Daredevil, the blueprint for a “superhero with a disability” is already there for anyone to work on top of. Hawkeye clearly tasks a few notes from that show, and the Echo series should build on this too so that the MCU starts to take note that inclusion for inclusion’s sake is nowhere nearly as good as the real thing.
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