Marvel hints that the first X-Men hero is already secretly part of the MCU

The MCU is all about the X-Men these days. Animated series X-Men ’97 is coming to drown ’90s kids in nostalgia this spring and, even better, Deadpool 3 is set to reunite Ryan Reynolds’ Merc with the Mouth and Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine — not to mention various other Fox-verse faves – in July.

In fact, Kevin Feige is so obsessed with X-Men right now that even projects that don’t seem to be connected to mutant-kind secretly are — just look at Kelsey Grammer’s Beast showing up in The Marvels. Likewise, even a street-level series like Echo — which mostly exists as an exercise in Defenders Saga furniture-moving — slips in a subtle hint at the X-Men’s future in the MCU.

You know that first X-Men hero to hail from Earth-616 we’re all waiting to meet? What if they’re already here…

Echo could become the host of the Phoenix Force in the MCU

Echo effectively rebuilds the character of Maya Lopez from the ground up, changing her personal backstory, Indigenous origins — she’s Choctaw not Blackfeet, as in the comics — and even her powers. On the page, Maya has the ability to copy anyone’s fighting style, hence her superhero name. In her own TV show, however, her alter ego takes on a whole other meaning.

After experiencing visions of the distant past throughout the season, Maya learns in Echo episode 4 that the women in her family have inherited a great power descended from the first Choctaw woman, who may have been some kind of interdimensional being. Her grandmother, Chula, tells Maya that her ancestors are “echoing” back to her and that Maya “carries the fire” of her family within her. Maya is also visited by a mysterious bird that has watched over these women throughout time.

No explicit correlation is made, but this can’t help but bring to mind the biggest development to Echo’s character in recent comics: she has become the latest host of the Phoenix Force. In fact, she’s even managed to tame the destructive power of the cosmic entity so much that she’s served as a member of the Avengers, using the Phoenix’s apocalyptic abilities for good. Sorry, Jean Grey, Maya’s got you beat there.

The confluence of some kind of inherited cosmic powers and imagery of fire and birds certainly leaves the door open for Echo to become the MCU’s version of the Phoenix, rather than Jean — a character Marvel may wish to rest for a while, given how overused she was in Fox’s X-Men universe. With Echo season 2 unlikely, the character’s future in the franchise is unclear, but the studio certainly seems fond of actress Alaqua Cox and would no doubt want to keep her around in some form.

Fox tried twice to do Jean’s Phoenix storyline justice and failed both times, so maybe the MCU needs to shake things up and give the power to someone who knows how to use it. May the force be with you, Maya.