Origin
Maya was born deaf. Her father, Willie “Crazy Horse” Lincoln was working with the Kingpin of crime. When she was young, her father was killed by his boss, but ironically, Crazy Horse wanted Fisk to take care of his daughter. As he lay dying, he gave his daughter a bloody handprint over her face. Wilson took Maya to a boarding school for special children, because of her disability. There she discovered that she had the talent of instantly memorizing anything and copying the exact movements of anything she has seen (photographic reflexes, much like the Taskmaster). Wilson then transferred Maya into another school for prodigies, there she became a gifted woman.
Creation
Echo first appeared in Daredevil Vol. 2, #9 in December 1999 and was created by David Mack and Joe Quesada.
Major Story Arcs
Echo
One day, when Maya visited the grave of his father, she asked the Kingpin who murdered him and Fisk replied that Daredevil was the one responsible. Kingpin arranged for Maya to meet Matt Murdock to determine his weaknesses. As soon as they met, they fell in love with each other. Maya later developed the guise of Echo, based on her talent to copy movements and painted a handprint over her face in honor of her father. She hunted Daredevil down until the point that she found out that Matt and Daredevil are one person. She also found out that Matt couldn’t have murdered her father because he was still a little boy. Matt managed to correct the lies that Kingpin told to Echo and soon Maya was out for revenge for Fisk where she managed to blind him.
After that she fled and eventually returned but when she tried to reunite with Matt she realized that he had moved on and was now married to the blind Milla Donovan and lastly, the Kingpin was still alive. When Maya visited Fisk in prison, he told her that he doesn’t blame her for hating him and that for what it’s worth, Fisk loved her like the daughter he never had. She left again to search for herself, and in her travels she met Wolverine, who taught her about the Japanese culture and organized crime. In Japan, she finally found the peace of mind she never had.
Ronin and the Avengers
After being unable to join the Avengers for personal reasons, Daredevil recommended Maya to Captain America, in order to help capture the Silver Samurai in Japan. She made a suit that would conceal her identity as well as her gender, renaming herself ” Ronin”, which translates to “Masterless Samurai”. This name fits her because she has photographic reflexes, which allows her to be very adaptive.
After joining the Avengers, Maya returned to Japan to keep her eyes on Elektra Natchios, the deadly assassin leading the Hand. She also checked on the Silver Samurai from time to time. She was hoping to solve the conflict between The Hand and Clan Yashida.
As Ronin, Maya fought Elektra and was killed, but was immediately resurrected by the Hand. It was the same process that was used to resurrect Elektra. They took Maya captive with the intent of turning her into an assassin for The Hand. The New Avengers which is consisted of Luke Cage, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Doctor Strange, Spider-Woman, Iron Fist, and the new Ronin (Clint Barton) rescued her and escape. Elektra then sent The Hand after them.
Maya and the New Avengers encountered the Hand at the Silver Samurai’s ancestral home. Initially, Elektra is able to activate Echo’s programming, forcing her to fight the New Avengers and even badly injuring Doctor Strange. However, Doctor Strange was able to free her from the brainwashing, and in retaliation, Maya kills Elektra (who is then revealed to be a Skrull in disguise).
They return to New York, after Spider-Woman’s apparent betrayal of them when she steals the corpse of the Skrull Elektra. The Avengers hide in a hotel room, (Strange’s magic making it appear that Echo is the only person in the room) before returning to Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. Echo officially hands the Ronin identity over to Clint Barton after they arrive. After Strange confirms their identities by casting a spell that shows everyone their true nature, Echo appearing dressed in a female variation of Daredevil’s costume, the team heads to Stark Tower to stop The Hood’s attack on the building. There, they encounter the Mighty Avengers locked in battle with an army of invading symbiotes, in actuality they were humans turned into symbiotes via a virus. Even Echo becomes a symbiote before Iron Man manages to cure those infected.
World War Hulk
Echo attempts to defend Rick Jones from Hiroim and Elloe of the Hulk’s Warbound during their attack on the Sanctum Sanctorum to capture Doctor Strange. She, along with Iron Fist and Ronin, is defeated and captured.
Secret Invasion
Recently it was implied in the conversation between Echo and Wolverine that they had a brief romance in Japan. Maya had also had a run-in with a Skrull impersonating Daredevil and with the help of Logan, they were able to defeat the shape-shifting alien. After that, Clint and Maya began a relationship, even going so far as to have sex. When a skrull spaceship crash landed in the Savage Land, Maya along with the New Avengers investigate after they were tipped off by Spider-Woman. When they got there, they encounter several heroes coming out of the spaceship, some of them copies of some members of the two current Avengers. They all fought over who were the real heroes and who is the skrull imposter. When Maya encountered Spider-Woman, it is revealed that she is the skrull queen, Veranke, and she blasted her with her venom blast. After regaining consciousness and killing the remaining skrull imposters, both Avenger teams head back to New York to battle the invading Skrull empire. She is not seen with the New Avengers when they meet after the final battle. She is not dating Ronin (who has now started up a relationship with Mockingbird), and he does not know where she is.
Kingpin of LA
Echo made her way to LA where she was working undercover in a strip club run by Snapdragon. When Moon Knight busted in looking for the Kingpin of LA, she broke her cover to rescue him when he was overwhelmed. They agreed to partner up, despite Moon Knight’s delusion that he was partnered with Captain America, Spider-Man, and Wolverine, eventually revealing the new Kingpin to be Count Nefaria.
Together, they confront him, but Echo gets shot in the chest by Nefaria’s eye blasts, killing her.
She later mysteriously returned and helped Daredevil fight Klaw.
Phoenix Force
Echo later showed up as one of many warriors chosen by the Phoenix Force to fight in a tournament to become the newest host. The tournament had to do with a stone age team resembling the Avengers and the machinations of Mephisto. Ultimately, she lost during the tournament, but ironically, the Phoenix was looking for a warrior that could lose honorably and with dignity. Thus, she was chosen as the new host.
When the world was reimagined by Agent Coulson with the Squadron Supreme of America as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Echo was still the host, however, she was locked in a mental institution. There, she was approached by Blade, who remembered the old world, and a recently defrosted Captain America to join a new version of the Avengers.
They regrouped in Wakanda where the Squadron and Coulson tracked them down. Echo was able to combine the Phoenix Force with the Brandy‘s Star Brand to damage the artifact Coulson used to change the world returning it to the way it was.
She would stay with the Avengers to train in her new power.
Phoenix Song
Struggling with the immense power that has come into her possession and her growing aggressiveness, Echo seeks help at The Rez, a town for all tribes. She had been mentored here before, but that man had passed away. Instead, she met his grandson, Riverwalker. He explained he had the ability to see a person’s ancestral line and that Echo’s was in trouble. The Adversary was targeting her ancestors to erase Echo thus negating The Phoenix Force in the present.
When he attacks, Echo’s Phoenix Force is able to manipulate Riverwalker’s postcognition to allow them to actually time travel. They end up at the first meeting of Echo’s parents, but the Adversary was able to follow them. After killing her parents, Echo disappeared from Riverwalker’s family tree diagram. With no present to return to, they continue travelling into the past until they can figure out how to stop the Adversary.
Powers and Abilities
Maya Lopez is an Olympic-level athlete possessing “photographic reflexes”. Just by watching other people, she has become a concert-level pianist, a strong martial artist, a highly skilled acrobat, and a gifted ballerina (and on one occasion even piloted a Quinjet for a few minutes). In addition, she has also gained Bullseye’s uncanny aim and Daredevil’s acrobatic abilities after watching tapes of their fights.
Although she has great potential, deafness gives Maya Lopez great drawbacks. Her absolute reliance on visual cues renders her helpless in the dark, and her ability to communicate by reading lips prevents her from taking oral commands and communicating with people who are wearing masks or are not in direct visual contact. However, she has been incorrectly depicted as being able to hear and respond to voices despite not seeing the person’s mouth due to standing away from them or the person talking right behind her.
Canceled Appearance in Dark Reign
In a Cup O’ Joe interview on comicbookresources.com, it was revealed Echo would be popping up in the Spider-Woman series by Bendis and Maleev, but this never panned out as the series finished after only 7 issues.
Other Media
Television
Hawkeye
Echo appears in the 2021 Disney+ series Hawkeye. She will be portrayed by Alaqua Cox. She is leading the Tracksuit Mafia and wants vengeance for the death of her father at the hands of Ronin.
Echo
After the series Hawkeye, Alaqua Cox will reprise her role as Echo in a spin-off series about the title character.
Ultimate Spider-Man
Echo appears in the third season as one of the teenage superheroes who were inspired to fight crime after Spider-Man joined the Avengers.
Video Games
Daredevil
Echo is a boss character in the video game adaptation of the live-action Daredevil movie.
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Echo is a playable character in the PSP version of the game, with the Ronin identity as one of her alternate costumes.
Marvel: War of Heroes
Echo appears in several cards in the mobile card game Marvel: War of Heroes. Her cards are:
- [Undaunted] Echo
Lego Marvel´s Avengers
Maya Lopez appears as both Echo and Ronin, voiced by Tonantzin Carmelo.