It has been 15 years since Robert Downey debuted as Iron Man and no matter how beloved it remains, the appearance of Daredevil in 2016 was enough to make many question whether Marvel heroes would benefit from the MCU not shying away from showing extreme content. The answer in 2024 is “No!”
The Marvel Cinematic Universe had been on a strictly PG-13 rating for a while now, refraining from showing the violence and gore many of their storylines warranted and would have benefitted from as it would show, not tell, that the stakes were really dangerously high. Forgot not showing blood in situations where the lack of it challenged the foundation of logic, Marvel actively shied away from even showing slightly intimate scenes in order to maintain its PG-13 status (the likes of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Daredevil, etc were Netflix shows, not MCU canon at the time).
We all have been scarred by how the studio chose to rectify that last oversight — Eternals’ most awkward scene in the history of cinema is proof enough, and I am jealous of everyone who never watched the film, which is often called the film that kickstarted MCU’s streak of subpar creations. The superpower, super-cringey celestial sexual congress — which was just there because Marvel wanted to ditch the tag of PG-13 — almost had me gouging my eyes out. It is like the one time I baked a cake because my mother wanted me to, put it on a nice plate, but the first taste was enough to confirm that I didn’t do it right, and probably didn’t know how to.
So how is it going, the whole raising-the-stakes approach, and not shunning the needed depiction of violence and gore? Will Deadpool 3 (which already threatens 2025) — promised to be the MCU’s first R-rated film, and already having a solid history for its (mostly) strategically handled graphic content — confirm in 2024 that the studio not only dares to go dark, but also knows how to?
Um…
Now, many loyal Marvel-ians would say that there is just no winning for the studio, as someone will always find something to nitpick. I would have wholeheartedly agreed, if I hadn’t spent five precious hours binge-watching all the TV-MA-rated episodes of Marvel’s Echo, which scarily reminded me of how Marvel chose to butcher its foray into depicting intimate scenes with Eternals.
By now, you already know that the Daredevil-shared temptation offered in the trailer of Echo is only limited to 80-something seconds of the first episode. A stinging betrayal that is further deepened by the series relying on all the violence and gore to hide the fact that the story of Maya Lopez was half-heartedly concocted. The scenes are happening in every alternate frame, and often without a strong arc backing their unnecessary inclusion.
Yes, violence doesn’t always have a reason, but Maya, as Marvel’s newest superhero making her debut, shouldn’t be robotically doling out punches.
Maya exploding through the wall and crashing the skulls of goons, Maya crashing or being thrown through glass barriers, Maya killing strangers in cold blood for Kingpin, his thugs painting walls with blood left, right, and center… it doesn’t slow down. The “why” hangs in the background, impossible to resolve and unabashedly ignored by the plot that is happily turning a blind eye to its own glaring plotholes. Violence, poorly coordinated action scenes, and revenge is all Maya understands, up until the last few minutes of the final episode.
Remember how Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 including an F-bomb was talked about so much and hyped beyond belief? Now, the James Gunn swan song hid behind an altogether different excuse that shielded its shortcomings, but it did gain from the excitement generated from it being the first MCU film to include the f-word. Sadly, in the case of Echo, Marvel simply doubles down on being the first mainstream TV-MA MCU content on Disney Plus, sacrificing the need for a strong, cohesive, and connected storyline in the process.
Alaqua Cox is a good actor, but no one is amazing enough to erase the glaring shortcomings in a story (even Christian Bale couldn’t obscure Thor: Love and Thunder’s disappointments). As Maya, she is only there to establish the blood-splattered world of Kingpin, who is set to be Daredevil: Born Again’s prime antagonist.
She gets her origin story, but like every recent debuting Marvel superhero, it is both messy and doesn’t make sense. Need an example? How about Maya taking on all the thugs and the super-skilled Daredevil when she begins working for Wilson Fisk at the beginning of the series, but somehow needing her superpowers and two superpowered relatives to beat like four goons in the last episode? Make it make sense, while I gnaw my nails to death worrying about every creatively-deadly way Marvel can botch up Jessica Jones and Luke Cage now that they are MCU canon.