We’re less than 12 hours away from the long-awaited debut of Echo. Marvel’s first release of 2024 just might be the bold breath of fresh air that the franchise needs, based on early reviews.
Echo also marks the return of Devery Jacobs, who plays Echo’s cousin Bonnie in the series after previously loaning her voice to What If …? as Kahhori, a completely original character made for the MCU who all but stole the show whenever she was on screen.
Of course, having two Native American main characters show up in such quick succession—despite being a fantastic development in more ways than one—was always going to attract the worst people you know, and it wasn’t long before the pot-stirrers began suggesting that Echo, coming right after Kahhori’s showcase in What If …?, was repetitive.
Jacobs, of course, wasn’t having any of it. When asked by The Hollywood Reporter what she thought about the aforementioned online sentiment, the Reservation Dogs star gave the only answer needed:
Would somebody go up to a white guy and say, ‘This is the one perspective for a white story that is out there’? Would somebody go and say that? That’s egregious, that’s insane that anybody would say that.
Indeed, no one cried about repetition after Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier—all films starring white men as the main protagonists—came one after the other, and there’s no prizes for guessing why.
I’ll leave you with an experiment to try in the future: the next time you see someone ask anything along the lines of “Why did that character have to be a woman?” or “Why are they telling a story about this Native American character?” or “Why did they make this character gay?”—reply with, “As opposed to …?” and just see what happens.
(featured image: Disney+)
