Given the lack of traction that the characters were able to gain in years of comics, why would Marvel think that Echo or Agatha could carry a television show?Its laughable when put like that, but these shows came out the same year that Sony released Madame Web and Lionsgate put out another take on The Crow, a character who has only appeared in a handful of miniseries over the decades. Furthermore, Marvel and DC/Warner Bros had huge hits with Guardians of the Galaxy and Suicide Squad, movies filled with very minor superheroes.At the height of the superhero boom, people would flock to anything about a character in a cape. And because movie and television studios will drive into the ground any successful trend, they gave the greenlight to even the thinnest idea (remember Pennyworth?). But if even comic book readers dont care enough about these characters to accept them as leads, then general audiences certainly wont either.The same expectations cant be applied to Superman or Fantastic Four, both foundational titles that have remained constants in various forms since their founding. These character have not only carried multiple books at once, but theyve launched spinoffs that have had more success than anything enjoyed by Agatha Harkness or Echo. Superhero fatigue may diminish interest in Echo or Agatha All Along, but the failures of those shows shouldnt lead people to think that Superman and Fantastic Four: First Steps, or the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again or season two of X-Men 97, will suffer the same fate. These are A-list characters.Of course, its worth pointing out that Daredevil and the X-Men werent always A-listers. Yes, both have starred in their own comics since their debuts in the early 1960s. But Uncanny X-Men simply reprinted earlier stories between 1970 and 1974, until Giant-Size X-Men #1 reimagined the team and paved the way for a 16-year-run by Chris Claremont. Daredevil was on the verge of cancelation in the late 1970s, which allowed penciller Frank Miller to make massive changes.Both of these examples show that any character can be an A-lister with the right creative team. Although incredibly talented creators have worked on Echo and Agatha comics, no one has yet found a way to make the characters compelling enough to drive stories. For that reason, it should surprise no one that their shows flopped.