Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 259. Who is Maya Lopez, AKA Echo, in Marvel Comics?!

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Ep. 259. Who is Maya Lopez, AKA Echo, in Marvel Comics?! · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

• 0:10
  Hello, Marvel fans, comic geeks and nerds in between.
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  My name is Megan, and I'm here with another character
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  breakdown. And it is actually not a mutant,
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  but this idea to do a character breakdown for this character
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  came from a listener actually. So thank you so much for that.
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  And I can't believe I haven't talked about Maya Lopez before.
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  So obviously we're going to talk about Maya Lopez, AKA Echo.
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  Echo first appeared in Daredevil Volume to #9 in November of 1999
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  as Echo. Then she appeared in New
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  Avengers #11 in September 2005 as Ronan.
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  Then in Avengers Volume 8 #44 in April 2021 as The Phoenix.
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  So she has worn many, many hats. Maya Lopez really got handed the
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  most main character trauma package imaginable.
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  She was born deaf, but her lip reading skills were so insanely
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  good that no one even realized for years.
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  Like she was out there decoding conversations better than people
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  with perfect hearing while everyone else stayed clueless.
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  Her dad, William Lincoln, was a member of the Cheyenne Nation
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  and secretly worked as a mob enforcer for Wilson Fisk, AKA
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  Kingpin. You might have heard of him
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  because apparently having one stressful job was just not
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  enough. Fisk and William were close
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  until Fisk decided William had outlived his usefulness, which
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  is corporate speak for it's time to get shot.
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  As he was dying, William begged Fisk to look after Maya, and
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  when Maya found him, he left a bloody handprint on her face
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  that basically became the emotional equivalent of a
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  permanent Windows error message. So Fisk raises her afterwards,
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  which is already the worst adoption option ever.
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  He first puts her in school for kids with special needs, but
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  then Maya casually copies an entire piano performance after
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  hearing it once and Fisk was like oh OK, she's terrifyingly
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  talented and moves her into a gifted school.
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  Instead. Maya throws herself into art and
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  dance and basically becomes one of the people who are unfairly
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  good at everything. You know the type, the Zendaya's
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  of the world. Then Fisk decides to use her as
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  a weapon against Daredevil because this man truly wakes up
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  every morning asking how can I emotionally ruin Matt Murdock.
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  Today he arranges for Maya and Matt to meet while Matt is
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  grieving. Karen Page Ripi guess then lies
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  to Maya and tells her Daredevil murdered her father.
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  Naturally, Maya goes full revenge mode and has a valid
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  crash out against Daredevil. She studies footage of Daredevil
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  and Bullseye fighting like she's prepping for her own finals,
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  then absolutely wrecks Matt in combat.
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  Matt's over here confused because he recognizes her scent
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  and is trying not to hurt her. Meanwhile, Maya's fighting like
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  she's trying to speed run vengeance.
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  She eventually pins him down, pulls a gun, and explains why
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  she wants him dead. The only reason this didn't
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  become a murder scene is because random kids nearby thought the
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  whole thing was some weird live action superhero performance
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  art. After a few more fights, Matt
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  finally convinces her Fist lied to her and Maya responds in the
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  calmest, most reasonable way possible.
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  She shoots Kingpin in the face and blinds him, and it's fair.
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  After that, Maya leaves the country to find herself, which
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  mostly involves traveling the world, visiting art museums, and
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  trying to emotionally recover from having the most exhausting
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  childhood imaginable. She eventually returns to New
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  York, hoping to reconnect with Matt, only to discover that he's
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  already moved on, which is brutal.
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  So she heads back to her father's reservation, reconnects
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  with her roots, and goes on a vision quest in the woods.
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  Inspired by stories about her father, Maya eventually starts
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  performing in theater using sign language, dance and music.
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  Matt attends one of her performances, and when she
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  kisses him goodbye, he already knows.
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  It's the kind of kiss that says we are absolutely not
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  emotionally healthy enough for this relationship.
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  Then things somehow get even crazier because comics refuse to
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  let anyone rest. Maya joins the New Avengers
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  under the Ronan identity after Daredevil recommends her to
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  Captain America. She infiltrates the Hand and the
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  Yakuza in Japan discovers Hydra's involved too, because
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  apparently every evil organization has a group chat
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  together and spends a lot of time trying not to kill ninjas,
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  even though they keep making that extremely difficult.
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  She fights alongside The Avengers, uncovers rumors that
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  Elektra is actually leading the Hand, and decided to stay in
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  Japan to monitor things, which goes badly because of Lectra
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  eventually takes her out. Except not really, because Comic
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  book desk have the same reliability as a low battery
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  warning on a laptop, which is saying something 'cause my
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  laptop low battery means nothing to me.
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  Maya gets resurrected by the Hand using dark magic and
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  brainwashed with drugs, then rescued by the New Avengers.
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  For a little while she's running around under the evil influence
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  fighting her own teammates before Iron Fist and Doctor
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  Strange basically performed the magical equivalent of a detox
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  therapy. Maya snaps out of it, kills
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  Elektra, and then everyone discovers Elektra was secretly a
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  scroll the whole time. Because Marvel absolutely loves
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  saying surprise alien. Afterward, Maya sticks with the
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  New Avengers and lives at Doctor Strange Sanctum Sanctorium
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  alongside Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and their baby Clint
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  Barton. And probably an unsafe amount of
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  unresolved trauma. Clint becomes the new Ronan,
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  Maya gives him her old armor, and the two eventually start
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  dating after bonding over feeling out of place on the
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  team, which I don't think it's talked about enough.
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  How busy Hawkeye's libido is in Marvel's comics.
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  So I just wanted someone to know.
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  She later survives a squirrel invasion, goes undercover as a
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  stripper in Los Angeles, teams up with Moon Knight, and
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  seemingly dies again after getting blasted by Count
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  Nefaria. But years later, she pops back
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  up alive, because at this point, death for Maya is more of a
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  temporary inconvenience than an actual obstacle.
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  Then things go fully cosmic. Her life gets weirder.
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  That's just how it's going to go.
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  When the Phoenix Force comes back looking for a new host,
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  Maya enters the Battle Tournament against a bunch of
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  Marvel heavy hitters. Neymour beats her nearly to
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  death at the bottom of the ocean, because fighting the King
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  of Atlantis underwater is objectively unfair matchmaking.
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  But the Phoenix sees something in Maya.
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  Resilience, adaptability, and probably the fact that she
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  refuses to stay dead. She will not stay down.
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  So the Phoenix resurrects her and chooses her as its new host.
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  Meaning my Lopez, former dancer, assassin, avenger, theater
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  performer, professional survivor of emotional devastation,
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  literally becomes the Phoenix Force.
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  As the Phoenix, she helps save reality itself.
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  Fights alternate universe threats, joins The Avengers
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  officially, battles multiversal villains, travels through time
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  to meet prehistoric Avengers, and eventually burns through the
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  Phoenix power protecting the multiverse.
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  After losing the Phoenix, she leaves The Avengers and goes
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  searching for her missing cousin, only to discover her
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  cousin joined a Wellness cult run by the Purple Man who is
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  Jebediah Killgrave because apparently Maya can't even
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  investigate family drama without stumbling into supervillain
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  nonsense. Through everything she's been
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  through, whether it be betrayal, murder, resurrection, ninjas,
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  alien invasions, toxic relationships, cults, or
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  becoming a literal cosmic Fire God, Maya never stopped trying
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  to figure out who she really was.
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  What makes Echo so powerful is that no matter how high the
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  stakes are against her or how many times the world tries to
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  erase her because of who she is or what she was born without,
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  she always comes back fighting louder and harder than ever
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  before. She is a hero in every way,
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  especially with the unfair advantages life had to offer
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  her. So that is Maya Lopez.
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  I love her as a character. I wish we would see more of her.
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  We did get just get a one shot and that's it.
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  I want to see her back. I think she's great.
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  And again, thank you to the listener who asked me to make
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  this video. I really enjoyed making it
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  because I will always look for an opportunity to read up on my
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  Lopez. So with that being said, I hope
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  you enjoyed this episode. I hope you like and subscribe
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  and I hope you have a marvelous day.