The Marvel supervillain Taskmaster is one mercenary most superheroes wouldn’t want to fight. Thanks to his photographic reflexes, Taskmaster can replicate any fighting style perfectly – from Captain America’s shield throwing skills to Hawkeye’s perfect marksmanship – making him nearly unbeatable in a fight. However, all of these skills would mean next to nothing if Taskmaster ever fought one superhero – Daredevil’s ex-girlfriend Echo.
Introduced in Daredevil #9, Maya Lopez (aka “Echo”) is a deaf woman who also possesses the unique gift of photographic reflexes. Her skills make her a formidable opponent in any physical challenge – but if she ever went up against Taskmaster she might become unstoppable. Let’s take a closer look at this remarkable woman and determine how her unique skill set makes her a potential threat to Marvel’s best fighter.
Who is Echo?
The Native American daughter of one of the Kingpin’s men, Maya Lopez was thought to be mentally challenged at a young age, largely due to prejudice towards her deafness. Even worse, her father was killed by the Kingpin, although not before he made Wilson Fisk vow to take care of his daughter. Thanks to his personal code of honor, Fisk kept his promise – placing Maya in an expensive school for the mentally handicapped.
One day, however, a concert pianist gave a performance at Maya’s school. Attracted to the piano’s deep vibrations, Maya watched the pianist’s hand movements intently – and then replicated his performance perfectly. Once the adults realized she was not mentally handicapped, Maya was placed in another expensive school – for prodigies. Years later, Maya became a wealthy professional concert pianist, dancer, and performance artist thanks to her photographic reflexes. She also kept herself in excellent shape by boxing – although she did this more for exercise and fun than any vigilante desires.
This all changed when the Kingpin, deciding he could use Maya as a dangerous pawn, convinced Maya that Daredevil had killed her father. Knowing that Daredevil was Matt Murdock, Fisk manipulated events so Maya would meet Murdock in his civilian life. Immediately attracted to each other, Matt and Maya began dating – leading to a hilarious date where they described the sights and sounds of a Kevin Smith movie to each other, infuriating the packed theatre’s audience.
Secretly, however, Maya was training to take down Daredevil – watching Bruce Lee and other kung fu films to absorb multiple martial arts skills. She also studied news footage of Bullseye and Daredevil himself, becoming a very dangerous woman in a short span of time. Now going by her performance artist name “Echo,” Maya nearly killed Daredevil in their first encounter. When she discovered Daredevil was Matt (and too young to have killed her father when he died), Maya realized she had been manipulated. She shot Kingpin, temporarily blinding him, and left New York to find her place in the world.
After going on a vision quest (where she gained advice from Wolverine), Maya was recommended by Daredevil to join Captain America’s new team of Avengers. This led her to Japan where she became the masked vigilante Ronin. Hiding both her identity and gender behind an armored suit, Echo fought and battled the Japanese underworld. She assisted the Avengers on many missions, eventually turning over the Ronin identity to Hawkeye. While Echo was killed (multiple times), she has since been resurrected and is back on active duty.
Echo vs. Taskmaster: Who Would Win?
At first, it might seem that Taskmaster has the edge in a fight against Echo, despite their similar powers. Taskmaster has a much wider range of fighting styles, after all, and has considerably more experience in superhuman combat.
However, when fighting an opponent like Echo, experience doesn’t necessarily matter. Maya has shown she’s capable of absorbing and adapting fighting styles in mid-battle, as Daredevil discovered when she perfectly mimicked all of his moves after seeing him perform them during their first fight. This enabled her to get the drop on Daredevil and point a gun point-blank against his head despite Matt Murdock’s greater experience, superior training, and superhuman senses.
Moreover, Taskmaster’s multitude of fighting styles would only make Echo more dangerous, as she’d just absorb all of his moves the longer they fought. It wouldn’t matter if Echo didn’t have a background in whatever martial art Taskmaster used against her – as long as she saw those moves coming, she could instantly replicate them and counter with the same style or one of her own.
It’s also worth noting that Maya Lopez considers herself more of a performance artist than a brawler. This means she’s assimilated many talents – including concert level pianist playing skills and multiple dance styles – that Taskmaster may not have expertise in. While this might not seem that useful in a battle, Echo could use her non-combat movements to confuse Taskmaster while she assimilates his skills. Moreover, her refined and creative approach to movement could mean she could not only replicate his moves but merge them with her own talents, creating entirely new fighting styles on the fly that Taskmaster couldn’t immediately counter due to Echo’s unpredictability.
Taskmaster might be able to get the drop on Maya if he discovers and exploits her main weakness – her deafness. Just as Daredevil was once able to subdue Echo by trapping her in a dark room, leaving her blind and deaf, Taskmaster could employ a similar strategy against Maya. However, Echo has had considerable experience fighting as the superhero Ronin since her initial battles with Daredevil, and it’s likely that she’s managed to develop ways of compensating for such situations (she may, for instance, have trained herself to be more sensitive to vibrations, wind, and temperature changes that could alert her to an opponent).
Much like Daredevil’s blindness, Echo’s deafness can also be an asset – her hearing loss makes her hyper-observant and capable of quickly finding an opponent’s weakness. She once easily deduced Daredevil’s super senses and maneuvered him into a loud environment where he’d be at a disadvantage. She could work out Taskmaster’s own weaknesses – such as his tendency to lose memories as he gains new skills – and use this against him. Notably, Maya’s own photographic weaknesses do not suffer from Taskmaster’s handicap, giving her a further edge.
While Echo has not fought Taskmaster yet, it’s worth noting that – on paper at least – Maya has several advantages that could give her the edge in a fight. Other Marvel superheroes may worry about facing off against Taskmaster, but in Echo’s case, it might be Taskmaster who should be worried.
Next: Marvel’s TASKMASTER Getting His Own Marvel Comic
