NASA has delayed humanity’s highly-anticipated return to the Moon, its Artemis II mission, to September 2025 from an original target launch of November 2024, citing the need for extra time to analyze why the space capsule’s heat shield created hazardous, burning debris upon re-entry to Earth during the Artemis I mission.

Hellish heat of about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit engulfed NASA’s Artemis I Orion capsule on December 11, 2022, as it careened through Earth’s atmosphere at more than 24,000 miles per hour after visiting the Moon. But charred material unexpectedly flaked off Orion’s heat shield during a maneuver to slow the vehicle down. NASA officials say they didn’t expect the heat shield to burn and fall apart as much as it did.

Echo is the antidote to Marvel malaise. The series brings the franchise into a new future by calling back to a brutal, neck-snapping era of TV that makes Echo feel like it’s lifted straight from the early 2000s.

Echo strays from the go-to formula that has catapulted the MCU to where it is today, subverting what fans have come to expect, and deviating from the Marvel norm in increasingly satisfying ways. It’s not only the best Marvel series in years, but the first glimmer of hope that the MCU can shift direction from what looks to be a downward spiral.