Cloak and Dagger (characters)

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Cloak and Dagger are a Marvel Comics superhero duo, and their creator says they arrived in his mind already finished. Writer Bill Mantlo had just visited Ellis Island. Afterward, he recalled, "They came in the night, when all was silent and my mind was blank." He went on to describe what the pair meant to him: "They embodied between them all that fear and misery, hunger and longing that had haunted me on Ellis Island." Out of that visit came two teenagers, one wrapped in darkness and one blazing with light. Who were they before the powers? Why did each one need the other to survive? And why did writers spend decades arguing over whether the pair were mutants at all?

  352

• 2. Two Runaways

  ›

  Tyrone Johnson was 17, from Boston, Massachusetts, and he had a stutter. When police wrongly believed his friend had robbed a store, the stutter kept Tyrone from stopping what happened next. His friend was shot, and Tyrone ran away to New York City.

  Tandy Bowen was 16 and was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, into a wealthy family. Her mother was a multi-millionaire whose supermodel career and social life left little time for her daughter. Tandy felt alone and unloved, so she ran away too.

  At a bus stop in New York, both teenagers were frightened in a city neither had ever seen. Then a thief stole Tandy's purse, and Tyrone leaped into action to chase him. Tandy offered to buy dinner, and the two quickly became friends.

  Trouble came when Tandy accepted an offer of shelter from some strange men. Tyrone, wary, went along to protect her. Both were kidnapped and delivered to Simon Marshall, a criminal chemist. Marshall was developing a synthetic drug for Silvermane and the Maggia, and he tested it on runaway teens with fatal results.

  Tyrone and Tandy were the only two test subjects to survive the injections. They fled, and the experiment turned them into super-powered beings. Tyrone found himself engulfed in darkness and gripped by a strange hunger. Tandy burned with a scorching light that only the cool energies of his darkness could temper.

  Tyrone tried to hide his shadowy appearance in a makeshift cloak. He absorbed Marshall's thugs into his darkness while Tandy struck them down with daggers of light. The teens named themselves Cloak and Dagger. They vowed to protect the innocent so that no one else would suffer what they had.

  Their changed bodies left them dependent on each other. Dagger's light burns too bright without Cloak's darkness to cool it. Cloak's hunger can be eased only by the energy of light that Dagger provides. Survival came first. Fondness followed, and it grew into romance. They stand for unity through dichotomy, differing in race, powers, upbringings and world views.

  Two allies would help them find their footing in the city: a local priest named Father Delgado and a police officer, Detective Brigid O'Reilly.

  123464

• 3. Light and Darkness

  ›

  Cloak's body is a living portal into the Darkforce Dimension. He folds in on himself, steps through, moves a short distance inside, and emerges wherever he wishes. A span of miles on Earth can be crossed in only a few steps. He can carry other people and objects along, with no limit on how many fit inside his cloak. Most beings cannot safely travel through the Darkforce, so he usually reserves the trip for Dagger. He can also teleport using nearby shadows.

  People enveloped in his darkness feel a numbing cold and see terrifying visions of their own worst fears. Prolonged exposure can drive them insane. Cloak is usually intangible, though he can solidify by an act of will or by absorbing enough light to saturate his form. His hunger can also be fed by light taken from victims sent into the dimension of darkness. Over time he develops better control of it.

  Dagger's signature weapon is the six-inch light dagger, which she throws from her fingertips. Sometimes the daggers form on their own when another person is in danger. She steers them in flight, and they track a target best when she is searching for Cloak. Anyone struck has their lifeforce disrupted, and she could drain enough to kill. Usually she leaves them in shock, seeing a vision of how their life might be different. Most rethink their choices, though a hardened criminal or evil being is unlikely to change.

  During her time with the Savage Avengers, Dagger discovered she could build far more complex shapes from light. These included armor, mech-suits, chains, swords, a swing, a bow and arrows, and a scale model of a temple the team was about to assault. She now believes her only limit is her imagination. Her blasts can heal large groups of allies or take down huge groups of enemies. She once used them to blow out the walls of her college room and escape Mister Negative. If excess Lightforce builds up inside her, it can erupt as a Supernova blast strong enough to wipe out a city full of vampires.

  Both heroes also draw power from the emotions of those they touch. Dagger feeds on hope, and Cloak feeds on fear. Dagger's fighting style adds ballet training and a keen sense of spatial relations, which was sharpened when she was temporarily blinded.

  12683

• 4. Street Crusaders

  ›

  Simon Marshall's drug ring was the first target of their anger. Cloak and Dagger became vigilantes and hunted down and killed the criminals responsible for their powers. During these events they first met Spider-Man. Next they killed Silvermane's reanimated cyborg form in revenge. Then they joined Spider-Man to stop the Punisher's attempt to murder the Kingpin.

  The damage to the drug trade provoked a response. Some dealers kidnapped members of the New Mutants and tried to control them with a drug similar to the one that had changed the duo. For a time, Cloak and Dagger lost their powers to the heroes Sunspot and Wolfsbane. The pair helped retrieve them when it became clear the others were struggling. With Spider-Man they rescued the young team, then turned down an offer to join the X-Men's School for Gifted Youngsters.

  Kingpin once asked Dagger to help heal Vanessa Fisk, and Dagger refused. The pair also befriended the superpowered preteens of Power Pack. They learned that they were mutants themselves, which explained why they alone survived the drug.

  Ordinary street criminals were their usual targets, yet their enemies include Doctor Doom, the Beyonder, Vermin, the Zapper, the Disciplinarian, the Warlord of Kampuchea, Mephisto, Thanos, the Assembly of Evil, Firebrand and Lightmaster. On their travels around the world, Dagger was briefly reunited with her father in India. He was a type of guru who could manipulate personal light as she could, but he used it to control others and increase his own power. He seemingly killed Ty when Ty interfered. They also opposed the Lord of Light. Later they learned that D'Spayre had been manipulating these events from behind the scenes.

  They later battled D'Spayre directly and discovered that he had given them their Dark Form and Light Form. These had been pieces of his own soul, and they interfered with the pair's natural mutations. Elsewhere, Night corrupted Dagger and altered her powers, and she fought X-Factor and temporarily lost her sight. Cloak, meanwhile, unknowingly met his twin sister.

  The Infinity Gauntlet saga gave them a small but dramatic part. When Thanos used the Gauntlet to sacrifice half the universe's population to Death, Dagger was among the heroes who vanished. Cloak answered Adam Warlock's summons and pulled Thanos into the Darkforce, but Thanos killed him. After Nebula claimed the Gauntlet and undid most of the damage, Cloak was resurrected.

  The two often lived in churches, supported by friends and priests. Cloak ran away many times, struggling to accept that Dagger was willing to use her light to help contain his darkness. Dagger sometimes yearned for more. During an international case she performed with Eurocirque as Lady Light, and she later joined the New Warriors for a brief period, which strained things further with Cloak.

  1341822

• 5. Page And Panel

  ›

  Artist Ed Hannigan worked with Mantlo on Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, and he remembered how the costumes took shape. He said, "Bill had a short page or two synopsis of the story that he showed me, and we discussed what the characters would look like." In his telling, it was fairly obvious that Cloak would be black with a big animated cloak, and Dagger would be white in a skintight leotard-type outfit. Hannigan thought he might have come up with her ballet angle. He gave both costumes the same amulet clasp and drew the dagger-shaped cutout on hers, which he called "quite daring at the time."

  The characters first appeared in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #64, dated March 1982. After a number of further Spider-Man guest spots, they received a four-issue limited series. Mantlo wrote it, Rick Leonardi penciled it and Terry Austin inked it. It debuted in October 1983 and was a success.

  That success led Marvel to launch an ongoing bi-monthly Cloak and Dagger series in 1985 with the same creative team. Costumed supervillains rarely showed up. The book focused on the pair's quest to end the drug trade completely, and it often explored vigilantism. Leonardi left after issue #6 and was replaced by a series of fill-in pencillers.

  After issue #11, Marvel merged the bi-monthly Cloak and Dagger and Doctor Strange titles into a monthly revival of the double-feature series Strange Tales. Bret Blevins stepped in as both penciller and inker. Austin returned, this time as writer. Sales had been declining for some time, and Marvel's editors wanted a new writer to revitalize the characters. Austin promptly introduced the duo's first nemesis, Mister Jip. In 1988 they starred in Marvel Graphic Novel #34, Cloak and Dagger: Predator and Prey, written by Mantlo before he left. Strange Tales ran 19 issues before the two titles split apart again.

  The next series was The Mutant Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger, written by Austin and penciled by Mike Vosburg. Dagger was blinded in the first issue, and her struggle with the new disability became a major theme. Austin did extensive research at the American Foundation for the Blind so he could depict the physical and psychological effects authentically, along with the coping techniques blind people use. With issue #14, Steve Gerber and Terry Kavanagh took over the writing. Sales faltered, and the series was canceled with issue #19.

  The pair kept turning up as guest stars in titles such as Runaways and in the Spider-Man story arc "Maximum Carnage." They also headlined adventures in anthology titles like Marvel Comics Presents. Cloak made a solo appearance in the miniseries House of M as part of an underground human resistance. Whether Dagger existed in that altered reality was never settled, since the storyline never mentioned her.

  At the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel announced a five-part miniseries by writer Valerie D'Orazio, with pencils by Irene Flores and colors by Emily Warren. It was never published.

  356811

• 6. Team-Ups And Crossovers

  ›

  The 1993 event "Maximum Carnage" put Cloak and Dagger beside Spider-Man, Captain America, Black Cat, Nightwatch, Iron Fist, Deathlok, Morbius, Venom and Firestar. Their job was to halt Carnage and his allies' murderous rampage across New York City. Shriek apparently killed Dagger while she was saving Spider-Man. She was later revealed to be badly wounded and recuperating inside Cloak's shroud, and she proved instrumental in defeating Carnage.

  The Marvel Knights era began when Tyrone left Tandy's side. Without her, he lost control of his hunger and consumed any lawbreaker, no matter how small the offense. Searching churches for him, Tandy met the Black Widow, and they stopped a church robbery together. Daredevil later joined them on a mission he had received from the Punisher.

  Dagger became a member of the Marvel Knights, partnering with heroes such as Shang-Chi, Luke Cage, Moon Knight and Daredevil. She developed a deep friendship with the Black Widow, Natasha Romanova. Natasha brought her to Doctor Strange in the hope of finding Tyrone. The team located and fought Cloak, and he absorbed most of them into his cape. Strange revealed that Nightmare had possessed him. Tandy overpowered Cloak and absorbed his powers, freeing everyone. For a time the Black Widow let the pair live in her apartment. A homicidal Life Model Decoy of Nick Fury attacked it, and Ty, then a normal human, defeated the robot.

  In Runaways, the LAPD recruited Cloak and Dagger to find the teenage team. Dagger quickly knocked out Nico Minoru with her light, and Cloak absorbed Chase Stein, Karolina Dean, Alex Wilder and Nico. Gertrude Yorkes halted Dagger's attacks with her dinosaur Old Lace, since Dagger's light has no effect on animals. Molly Hayes then pulled the cloak from Cloak's body and severed his connection to the Darkforce. A ceasefire followed, and the Runaways explained that the LAPD was corrupt and controlled by their supervillain parents, the Pride.

  Cloak reconnected to his cloak and freed the Runaways, and both heroes promised to return with the Avengers. But Alex, the traitor among the Runaways, contacted the LAPD instead. The Pride then erased Tandy's and Ty's memories of the group.

  Later, Reginald Mantz used Mutant Growth Hormone to copy Cloak's powers. He stalked and attacked Dagger and left her hospitalized. After a blow to the head in a fight with the New Avengers, Cloak regained his memories. He asked the Runaways to help clear his name, since he had been framed for the attack, and they captured the delusional orderly, who believed he and Tandy were in a relationship.

  In the 2006 "Civil War" storyline, the pair sided with Captain America against the Superhuman Registration Act. S.H.I.E.L.D. tranquilizers hit Cloak as he teleported Captain America's faction to a chemical plant, which was a trap set by Iron Man. A clone of Thor struck Dagger with lightning. The two were jailed in the Negative Zone prison and freed by Hulkling, who was disguised as Hank Pym. In the climactic battle, Cloak teleported both sides to Times Square.

  3937386766

• 7. Mutants And Reversals

  ›

  Norman Osborn tracked Tandy and Tyrone to Colombia during the "Dark Reign" storyline, where they were burning drug fields. He asked them to join his new team of X-Men. They resisted at first, since they knew Osborn's past and did not consider themselves mutants. Osborn promised they could take their war on drugs global and never worry about the police again. Dagger accepted for them both, while Cloak stayed hesitant.

  Writer Matt Fraction said the offer would let them "have their reputations exonerated and their records sealed." He added that the more appealing part of the Dark X-Men was watching how the two reacted in a real superhero team scenario. After Emma Frost and Namor betrayed the team, Emma invited the pair to join the real X-Men in their exodus from the United States, and both agreed at once.

  In that storyline, Cloak became involved in Wolverine's plan to kill Romulus, alongside Bruce Banner and Skaar. Romulus had Dagger kidnapped and ordered her beaten. Wolverine and Cloak saved her, and Wolverine killed her kidnapper, much to her chagrin. Cloak later trapped Romulus in the Darkforce, though Romulus escaped.

  The mutant question got a firm answer in a 2010 one-shot. Doctor Nemesis ran tests on Dagger and confirmed that the two were not mutants. Her powers came solely from the drug that changed her and Cloak. Dagger was disappointed, because she had enjoyed being on a team. Earlier appearances called the pair latent mutants. Later they were listed as mutates, whose powers come from an external mutagenic source, a label used in Civil War: Battle Damage Report. Sunfire, Polaris and Thunderbird also needed an outside stimulus to awaken their powers. Fraction asked whether the pair could afford to ignore the mutant community when so few mutants were left.

  The same one-shot revealed a rift. Tyrone had been cheating on Tandy with Tia, a girl from his old neighborhood. Tia learned his secret identity and had him kidnapped and tortured to stop him from using his powers. She turned out to have powers of her own and had been brainwashed to hate the pair. Tandy tracked him down, with help from the X-Men's Anole and Doctor Nemesis. Afterward she and Tyrone left Utopia and the X-Men to work on rekindling their relationship in New York.

  In "Spider-Island," authorities declared the pair's home to be in violation of building codes, leaving them homeless. Dagger was attending college classes in an attempt to normalize her life, while Cloak insisted they were special. Mister Negative heard a prophecy that Dagger would kill him, so he kidnapped her and corrupted her with his negative touch. Her powers now worked through the Darkforce, and she developed a hunger for light like Cloak's. Cloak begged Negative for the same touch, and Negative agreed, switching Cloak's powers to light. Cloak fed Dagger his light, causing an explosion, and afterward each had the other's original powers. D'Spayre had claimed in the final issue of their original run that these were the sets they were always meant to have.

  In the All-New, All-Different Marvel era, Negative's corruption still held them. Shade patches dosed them with a drug that kept their criminal personas loyal to him, and they broke him out of a prison ship. Peter Parker put a Spider-Tracer on Cloak and followed them to Hong Kong, then injected Cloak with a cure that he later used on Dagger. Their original powers apparently returned, and they stayed in Hong Kong to guard it. During the "Blood Hunt" storyline, Cloak was among the Darkforce users who lost control of their powers. That blocked out the sun and let a vampire invasion begin, leaving Dagger to fight the vampires alone.

  4546675359

• 8. Other Worlds, Other Screens

  ›

  Earth-295, the world of Age of Apocalypse, has versions of Cloak and Dagger who were brainwashed into joining the Sinister Six. On Earth-58163, the House of M world, Cloak is a member of Luke Cage's resistance and regards Cage as a father figure. In Robert Kirkman's Marvel Team-Up, Dagger joined a group dubbed the League of Losers. They traveled to the future to stop the villain Chronok from stealing Reed Richards' time machine.

  On Earth-1610 in Ultimate Marvel, Cloak and Dagger are high school sweethearts who were critically injured in a car accident on the way to senior prom. Roxxon had them declared legally dead, and Phillip Roxxon used them in experiments with dark matter that gave them powers. On Earth-8311, funny animal versions called Croak and Badger appear in Spider-Ham. In the 2000 miniseries Universe X, Ty Johnson is dead but his cloak is still carried by Dagger, who gives it to Mar-Vell as a gateway to the Realm of the Dead.

  Secret Wars in 2015 scattered versions across Battleworld. In the domain of Arachnia, they are siblings with opposite powers and students at the Victor von Doom Institute for Gifted Youths. In the Kingdom of Manhattan, they are members of the Young Ultimates. In the Warzone, Cloak dies when Prison 42 self-destructs after he fails to close a portal to the Negative Zone.

  In television, a self-titled live-action series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe ran for two seasons. Aubrey Joseph played Ty Johnson and Olivia Holt played Tandy Bowen, with Maceo Smedley and Rachel Ryals as the children. The show relocated the pair to a post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, where they developed powers after exposure to mysterious energy released when the Roxxon Gulf Platform collapsed. After its cancellation, Joseph and Holt reprised the roles in the third season of Runaways, helping the Runaways rescue Alex Wilder. Phil LaMarr and Ashley Eckstein voiced them in Ultimate Spider-Man, and they also appear in the X-Men '97 episode "Tolerance is Extinction - Part 3."

  A film was once planned. In May 2001, Dimension Films signed a deal for a live-action Cloak and Dagger movie written by David Tischman. Avi Arad and Rick Alexander were to produce it, with Kevin Feige as executive producer. In 2006 the characters were among the properties in Marvel's film deal with Paramount Pictures.

  They have also appeared in many video games, including Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, Marvel Heroes, Marvel Puzzle Quest, Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 and Marvel Snap. In 1997, Toy Biz released a Cloak and Dagger five-inch figure box set with a collector tin, and Hasbro followed with Marvel Legends figures in 2018. The most recent game appearance in the source is Marvel Rivals, where they are hybrid playable characters voiced by Hakeem Ysaguirre and Xanthe Huynh.

  6174757887