Cloak (Tyrone "Ty" Johnson) and Dagger (Tandy Bowen) are a fictional comic book superhero duo in Marvel Universe. They were created by writer William "Bill" Mantlo and artist Edward Hannigan.
Concept and creation
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The inspiration for Cloak and Dagger came to Bill Mantlo after a visit to Ellis Island. He recounted, "They came in the night, when all was silent and my mind was blank. They came completely conceived as to their powers and attributes, their origin and motivation. They embodied between them all that fear and misery, hunger and longing that had haunted me on Ellis Island."
Ed Hannigan, Mantlo's artist collaborator on Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, recalled that he and Mantlo jointly came up with the characters' visual design: "Bill had a short page or two synopsis of the story that he showed me, and we discussed what the characters would look like. He gave me a lot of leeway, but it was fairly obvious that Cloak would be black and have a big ‘animated’ black cloak and Dagger would be white with a skintight leotard-type thing. I am not sure, but I think I might have come up with her ballet angle. I put the same kind of amulet/clasp on both costumes and came up with the dagger-shaped cutout on her costume, which was quite daring at the time."
Publication history
Cloak and Dagger first appeared in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #64 (March 1982). After a number of additional Spider-Man guest appearances, they were given their own four-issue limited series, written by creator Bill Mantlo, penciled by Rick Leonardi, and inked by Terry Austin. It debuted in October 1983 and was a success, prompting Marvel Comics to launch an ongoing bi-monthly Cloak and Dagger series in 1985, with the same creative team. Costumed supervillains rarely appeared in the series, which focused on Cloak and Dagger's quest to end the drug trade completely and frequently explored the issue of vigilantism. Leonardi left after issue #6 and was replaced by a series of fill-in pencilers.
After issue #11, Marvel combined the bi-monthly titles Cloak and Dagger and Doctor Strange into a monthly double-feature series, Strange Tales. The title change was accompanied by Bret Blevins stepping in as both penciler and inker. Austin would shortly return, but as the series writer this time, Mantlo having ended his run with issue #6. Though still successful, Cloak and Dagger's sales had been declining for some time, and Marvel's editorial staff felt that a new writer was needed in order to revitalize the characters. Austin immediately introduced Cloak and Dagger's first nemesis, Mister Jip. In 1988, they starred in Marvel Graphic Novel #34: Cloak and Dagger: Predator and Prey, which was written by Mantlo before his departure from the series. Strange Tales ran 19 issues before Marvel decided to split Cloak and Dagger and Dr. Strange back into separate bi-monthly titles.
Cloak and Dagger, now retitled The Mutant Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger, were by this point being written by Austin and penciled by Mike Vosburg. Dagger was rendered blind in the first issue, and her struggles to deal with this new disability were a major theme of the series. Austin did extensive research at the American Foundation for the Blind so he could give an authentic depiction of the physical and psychological impacts of going blind and the coping techniques used by blind people. Both Austin and Vosburg were gone by issue #14. Subsequent issues were variously written by Steve Gerber and/or Terry Kavanagh, but sales began to falter and the series was canceled with issue #19 (essentially the 49th issue of the series, since publication did not pause for the relaunches as Strange Tales and The Mutant Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger).
The pair continued to make numerous appearances as guest stars in titles such as Runaways and the Spider-Man Maximum Carnage story arc, as well as starring in their own adventures in anthology titles like Marvel Comics Presents. Cloak made a solo appearance in issues of the miniseries House of M, as a member of an underground human resistance movement. It was uncertain if Dagger also existed in the altered reality of House of M as there were no mentions of her during that storyline.
They have appeared in various other Marvel Universes, in one of which Cloak was killed. Dagger also served as a member of Marvel Knights in a short running mini-series.
It was announced at the 2008 San Diego Comic Con that the team would be reappearing once again in their own 5-part mini-series by writer Valerie D'Orazio, with pencils by Irene Flores and colors by Emily Warren.
They appeared in the Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men crossover, "Utopia". "They're here presented with a chance to have their reputations exonerated and their records sealed [if they join the Dark X-Men]," Matt Fraction explained in an interview with Marvel.com. "Osborn presents it to them as the ultimate public service, [where] they can work off their past indiscretionsâ€"[such as] Cloak's dealings with the Avengers during the [Skrull] invasion." Fraction claimed the more appealing part of Dark X-Men was to see how Cloak and Dagger react in a real superhero team scenario.
Fictional character biography
Origin
Tyrone "Ty" Johnson (Cloak) and Tandy Bowen (Dagger) met in New York City as runaways. Tyrone was a 17-year-old boy from Boston, Massachusetts with a debilitating stutter and ran away to New York City when his speech impediment prevented him from stopping his friend from stepping in front of a moving vehicle. Tandy was a 16-year-old girl from a privileged upbringing (born in Shaker Heights, Ohio) who ran away because her multi-millionaire supermodel mother was too busy with her career and social life to spend time with her daughter. When they met, Tyrone considered stealing Tandy's purse, only to be shamed when she kindly offered him money. A thief stole the purse and Tyrone retrieved it for her. Afterwards, they had dinner and became fast friends. When naïve Tandy accepted an offer of shelter from some strange men, wary Tyrone went along to protect her. The two teens were soon forcibly delivered to criminal chemist Simon Marshall developing a new synthetic heroin for Silvermane and the Maggia, testing it on runaway teens with fatal results. Johnson and Bowen somehow survived injections of the drug, and they fled. During their escape, the drug turned them into superpowered beings (this is later retconned that they were both actually mutants and that the drug had simply awakened their latent abilities). Tyrone found himself engulfed in darkness and seized by a strange hunger which eased in the presence of Tandy glowing with a brilliant light. Trying to hide his newly shadowy appearance in a makeshift cloak, Tyrone began absorbing Marshall's thugs into his darkness while Tandy struck them down with daggers of light. The two teens dubbed themselves "Cloak & Dagger" and declared war on drug crime in combating drug-dealers and helping runaway children.
Later it was revealed that during this time, D'Spayre had manipulated these events from behind the scenes.
War on Drugs and other heroes
Cloak and Dagger became vigilantes and hunted and killed Simon Marshall and his drug-dealing henchmen responsible for activating their powers. They first encountered Spider-Man during these events. They next murdered Silvermane in revenge, and battled his reanimated cyborg form. They next teamed with Spider-Man to thwart the Punisher's murder attempt on the Kingpin.
When their activities became too damaging for the illegal drug trade, some dealers kidnapped members of the New Mutants and tried to control them by injecting them with a drug similar to that which gave the duo their powers. For a time, they lost their powers to the heroes Sunspot and Wolfsbane but they cooperated in retrieving them when it was learned the others were not handling it well. Cloak and Dagger saved them with Spider-Man, but turned down an offer to join the X-Men's School for Gifted Youngsters. Cloak and Dagger battled Silvermane and the Answer. Kingpin wanted Dagger to help heal his wife, but Dagger refused to help him. Cloak & Dagger befriended the superpowered preteens Power Pack and twice aided the New Mutants, junior trainees of the X-Men. The duo eventually learned they were mutants themselves, which is also the reason why they were the only test subjects to survive the administration of the drug in the first place. Though they tend to target ordinary street criminals, they have faced such diverse foes as Doctor Doom, the Beyonder, Vermin, the Zapper, the Disciplinarian, the Warlord of Kampuchea, Mephisto, Thanos, The Assembly of Evil, Firebrand, and Lightmaster.
Cloak and Dagger encountered the Beyonder during Secret Wars II. They also encountered Mayhem, a police officer who had gained powers from illegal drugs similarly to what had been done to them. They next encountered Doctor Doom in Latveria. Alongside Doctor Strange, they battled Ecstasy. They were used in Nightmare's plot to defeat Doctor Strange. They battled Mister Jip, and Night and Day. They also encountered Power Pack again.
Dagger was later possessed by Night, and battled X-Factor, and lost her sight temporarily. Cloak and Dagger battled Hydro-Man, the second Jester, the Hulk android, Rock, and Fenris alongside the Avengers. Dagger later regained her sight, and helped defeat Mister Jip. Cloak later unknowingly met his twin sister. Cloak and Dagger later battled D'Spayre, learning that he gave them their Dark Form and Light Form, which had been pieces of his soul, which interfered with their natural mutations.
Dagger was one of the 'seven brides' selected for the serpent god Set in the Atlantis Attacks crossover storyline, the other six being Jean Grey, the Invisible Woman, Andromeda, She-Hulk, Storm, and the Scarlet Witch.
Cloak and Dagger played a small part in the Infinity Gauntlet saga. When Thanos used the power of the Infinity Gauntlet to sacrifice half of the population of the universe to Death, Dagger was among the superheroes that vanished. Cloak answered the summons of Adam Warlock to join a task force of the remaining superheroes to fight Thanos. During the assault on Thanos by the assembled team, Cloak managed to pull Thanos into the Darkforce Dimension, but was killed when Thanos released a massive amount of energy from within him; all that was left were pieces of his cloak. His life was restored after most of the events were undone by Nebula after she seized the Infinity Gauntlet.
The two tended to live in churches, supported by friends and priests. Cloak has run away many times, not understanding that Dagger is fully willing to use her light power to satisfy his darkness. Cloak & Dagger are devoted to each other, but Dagger often wants more from life. While on an international case, Tandy performed with Eurocirque as Lady Light and shared a romance with a supposed stowaway on a drug boat. Eventually he was exposed as a criminal but ultimately sacrificed himself to save Dagger. Tandy found new friends in the New Warriors who teamed with Cloak, Dagger, and other heroes to defeat the shadow-lunatic Darkling. She also joined the team for a brief period, leading to further tension with Cloak.
"Maximum Carnage"
Cloak and Dagger teamed with Spider-Man, Captain America, Black Cat, Nightwatch, Iron Fist, Deathlok, Morbius, Venom, and Firestar to halt a murderous super villain rampage led by serial killer Carnage. Dagger was supposedly killed by Shriek (Carnage's "wife") while saving an injured Spider-Man, but was later revealed to be severely wounded and recuperating within Cloak's shroud, and was the key instrument in breaking up the Carnage 'family'.
Marvel Knights
After Tyrone leaves Tandy's side, he was no longer able to control his hunger and consumed any and every lawbreaker, no matter how small the offense. While searching for him in churches she meets the Black Widow who she teams up with to prevent a church from being robbed. Daredevil later appears and both assist him on a mission he received from the Punisher.
Dagger becomes a member of the now-defunct "Marvel Knights" team, partnering up with many different heroes, including Shang-Chi, Luke Cage, Moon Knight and Daredevil. During her time with the Knights, Dagger developed a deep friendship with the Black Widow (Natasha Romanova). Natasha brings Tandy to the guidance of Dr. Strange in the hopes of finding a crazed Tyrone. The Marvel Knights and Dr. Strange locate and battle an enhanced and deranged Cloak, during which most of the group are absorbed into his cape. Dr. Strange reveals that has become possessed by Nightmare. Tandy manages to overpower and absorb Ty's Cloak powers, freeing everyone from his cape.
For some time, the Black Widow lets Ty and Tandy live in her apartment, which was later attacked by a homicidal Life Model Decoy of Nick Fury. Though at this point he was a normal human, Ty managed to defeat the robot.
Runaways
Cloak and Dagger make their return in Runaways, in which Tyrone appears repowered and stable. At one stage, the LAPD recruited the team to locate the Runaways. During their initial encounter, Dagger quickly knocked out Nico Minoru with her light and Cloak easily absorbed Chase Stein, Karolina Dean, Alex Wilder, and Nico. Gertrude Yorkes was able to halt Dagger's light attacks with her dinosaur Old Lace, as Dagger's light had no effect on animals, and Molly Hayes managed to pull Cloak's cloak from his body, severing his connection to the Darkforce Dimension. This caused a ceasefire, during which time Gertrude and Molly explained to Cloak and Dagger that the LAPD were actually corrupt and under the control of the Runaways' supervillain parents, the Pride. Cloak managed to reconnect to his cloak and rescue the Runaways he had absorbed, and he and Dagger both promised to return to New York and bring back the Avengers to stop the Pride and rescue the Runaways. However, the traitor in the Runawaysâ€"Alexâ€"instead contacted the LAPD, which had the Pride erase Tandy's and Ty's actual memories of the group, thus preventing them from helping the Runaways.
Cloak was later impersonated by Reginald Mantz who was using Mutant Growth Hormone to replicate Cloak's powers. Mantz, stalked and attacked Dagger, leaving her hospitalized. After a fight with the New Avengers, Cloak regained his memories and requested the Runaways' assistance in clearing his name, as he had been framed for attacking Dagger. Cloak appealed to the fact that they all shared bonds in being runaways and explains the reasons he and Dagger never helped them as planned. They agreed to help, and successfully helped Cloak apprehend his impostor, the delusional orderly, Reginald Mantz, who believed that he and Tandy were in a relationship.
"Civil War"
Cloak and Dagger are revealed to be members of Captain America's faction of super heroes who oppose the Superhuman Registration Act during the "Civil War" storyline.
Cloak is shot by S.H.I.E.L.D. tranquilizers while teleporting Captain America and the rebel faction to a chemical plant where they believed a catastrophic accident had taken place. It turns out to be a trap set by Iron Man waiting with the pro-registration faction. Dagger is hit with a lightning attack by a clone of Thor.
It is then revealed that the pair were captured during a mission in Queens and jailed in the Negative Zone prison. They are freed by the shapeshifter Hulkling, who was disguised as the pro-registration Hank Pym, which leads to the climactic battle between the two sides, both of which Cloak teleports to Times Square, New York.
"Secret Invasion"
Luke Cage calls Cloak, who drops the New Avengers at the top of Stark Tower to steal one of Tony Stark's quinjets. When Cage offers to take him with them to find the downed Skrull ship, Cloak refuses, and vanishes.
Dark X-Men and "Utopia"
Norman Osborn tracks down Tandy and Tyrone in Colombia, burning down drug fields and approaches them to join his new team of X-Men. Initially against it, as they know of Osborn's past and don't consider themselves mutants, Osborn tells them that they can take their war on drugs to a global scale as well as having no trouble with police anymore. Dagger agrees to the deal for them both, but Cloak remains hesitant.
Cloak and Dagger are later recruited into the Dark X-Men by Osborn. On their first mission, they take down Hellion, Sunspot, Match, Meld, Lorelei Travis, Adam X, and Avalanche, who are protesting against Osborn. After Emma Frost's and Namor's betrayal of the team, Emma offers them the opportunity to join the real X-Men and their exodus from the USA, to which both instantly agree. During their time with the X-Men, Cloak becomes involved with Wolverine's plan to kill Romulus along with Bruce Banner and Skaar. Dagger is kidnapped and Romulus orders her to be beaten. Wolverine and Cloak manage to save her, and Wolverine kills her kidnapper, much to her chagrin. However, she tells Tyrone to continue helping Wolverine, as he needs his help. Aiding Wolverine, Cloak uses his power to trap Romulus in the darkforce dimension. However, Romulus later escapes and fights with Wolverine and Cloak.
2010 Cloak and Dagger one-shot
After doing tests on Dagger, Dr. Nemesis confirms that they are not mutants, disappointing her as she enjoyed being on a team. It is revealed later that Tyrone was cheating on her with Tia, a girl from his old neighborhood. Eventually, Tia reveals that she knows his secret identity as Cloak and has him kidnapped, torturing him to keep him from using his powers. Dagger becomes worried after he doesn't return home after a few days and manages to track him down. With the help of X-Men Anole and Dr. Nemesis, she fights off his captors whereupon Tia reveals that she has powers as well and has been brainwashed to hate them. Tia manages to escape the fight and Tandy and Tyrone decide to leave Utopia and the X-Men and return to New York to work on rekindling their relationship.
"Spider-Island"
They are featured in the "Spider-Man" storyline as being homeless as they had just lost their home in New York because it wasn't up to code. They then were confronted by the Avengers who informed them about the present spider problem at hand. It's also revealed that Dagger is attending college classes as an attempt to normalize her life. Cloak has contradicting views as he acknowledges them as "special". After Mister Negative hears of a prophecy that he destined to be killed by Dagger, he kidnaps her and corrupts her with his negative touch; her powers are changed, now working through the Dark Force. Similar to Cloak, she gets the "hunger" for light and starts dying from the lack of it. Cloak pleads with Mister Negative to give him the touch. He surprisingly agrees, altering Cloak's abilities to be powered by light. Cloak feeds Dagger his light, causing an explosion. In the aftermath it is revealed that Dagger now has Cloak's original powers, and Cloak has Dagger's. This change in powers recalls the reference to D'Spayre's influence on their life, as according to him in the final issue of their original run, these were the power sets they were always originally meant to have, but D'Spayre interfered, resulting in Cloak and Dagger having 'reversed' power sets, and considered weaker than what they would have been had D'Spayre not gotten involved in their lives.
Powers and abilities
Cloak
Tyrone acquired D'Spayre's Dark Form, which gave him the ability to create an aperture into the dimension of darkness and to dispatch people into the darkness dimension. He also gained the abilities of intangibility, and the teleportation of himself and others through the dimension of darkness. Cloak feels a constant "hunger" which can only be assuaged by "feeding" either on light projected by Dagger or on light consumed from victims dispatched to the dimension of darkness. He later develops better control of his "hunger".
Dagger
Tandy had the ability to create psionic "light daggers" which travel wherever she wills them, and which drain living beings of vitality when struck. Her "light daggers" also have the capacity to cure certain persons of drug addictions, and can alleviate Cloak's hunger for light (which simultaneously allows her to avoid becoming overcharged).
Cloak and Dagger both have moderate experience at street-fighting, and Dagger's combat techniques utilize her light powers and ballet dance training, as well as her sense of spatial relations, which had been heightened by her temporary blindness.
Spider Island
As noted above, Tyrone and Tandy swapped powers during Spider-Island.
Mutants or mutates
Cloak and Dagger were considered both latent mutants whose powers were activated when they were injected with an experimental illegal drug in earlier appearances. In later years, they are listed as mutates, as which they are listed in the Civil War: Battle Damage Report. However some mutants, such as Sunfire, Polaris, and Thunderbird, who have been in similar circumstances to Cloak and Dagger's have also required external stimuli to awaken their latent powers.
Uncanny X-Men writer Matt Fraction stated: "No, they don't [think of themselves as part of the mutant community], and that's the thing: in a time when there are so few mutants left, can they afford to not at least acknowledge the existence of this community, this family?" As such, in the Utopia crossover, when recruited by Norman Osborn as part of his "Dark X-Men", Cloak and Dagger comment how they aren't mutants. This is further confirmed by Doctor Nemesis, who ran a full range of genetics scans on Dagger, stating that her powers were derived solely from the drug that changed both her and Cloak.
Ultimate Cloak and Dagger
A character named Tandy Bowen makes a cameo appearance as a teenager running for and eventually succeeding in becoming school president. She then appears as an anti-mutant who calls an anti-mutant task force to arrest Kitty Pryde.
When Ronin stumbles into a police station to provide evidence against the Kingpin, two women dressed as Cloak and Dagger are both in handcuffs for an unknown offense.
The Ultimate Marvel versions of Cloak (Ty Johnson) and Dagger (Tandy Bowen) officially debut during a battle against Bombshell. A series of flashbacks reveal that the two were high school sweethearts that were critically injured in a car accident while on their way to their prom. Roxxon's Brain Trust had the two teens declared legally dead and used them as test subjects in an experiment involving dark matter, resulting in Tandy and Ty gaining superpowers. Eventually, Cloak & Dagger as well as Bombshell assist Spider-Man and Spider-Woman in fighting Roxxon's Brain Trust as well as confronting Philip R. Roxxon. The two were seemingly both killed by Scourge.
Other versions
- In the "Age of Apocalypse" storyline, Cloak and Dagger are members of Sinister's Six, who were brainwashed into fighting the X-Men. They were apparently killed in battle though this has yet to be confirmed.
- In the "House of M" storyline, Cloak appears as a member of the Underground Human Resistance led by Luke Cage, regarding Cage as a father figure. No mention of Dagger's whereabouts are made.
- Dagger features in an arc of Robert Kirkman's Marvel Team-Up vol. 3, featuring a group of C-list heroes dubbed "The League of Losers". A group of heroes including Darkhawk, Dagger, Araña, Gravity, X-23, Sleepwalker, and Terror (although Araña dies along the way) go to the future to prevent the villain Chronok from stealing Reed Richards' time machine, Chronok having come to the present and already having killed all of Marvel's major heroes.
- In Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness Cloak and Dagger, both zombified, are seen in a narrow alley devouring a hapless victim. In Ultimate Fantastic Four #23, Cloak is seen as one of the dozens of zombified heroes who have gathered together to hunt down and eat the last four known unaffected people.
- In the parody series Spider-Ham, the duo are parodied as Croak and Badger, a frog and a badger.
- In the 2000 miniseries Universe X, Ty Johnson is dead, but his cloak is still carried by Dagger. Mar-Vell is given the cloak by Dagger and uses it as a teleportation device and a gateway to the Realm of the Dead.
In other media
Television
- Joseph Loeb of Marvel Television reported at Comic-Con 2011 that Cloak and Dagger are in development as a television series for ABC Family. The duo will be relocated to a post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.
- Cloak and Dagger appear in the third season of the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon series, with Cloak voiced by Phil LaMarr and Dagger voiced by Ashley Eckstein. Cloak was possessed by Dormammu as part of a plot to capture Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, and White Tiger in a plot to power the Siege Perilous and invade Earth. With help from Dagger, Spider-Man was able to free Cloak from Dormammu's possession. Cloak and Dagger then help Spider-Man free Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, and White Tiger and defeat Dormammu. They were supposed to be two of Spider-Man's recruits for his new team of superhero "warriors". They originally turned down the offer, having been recruited by Taskmaster who claimed to Cloak and Dagger that no one can be trusted. In the episode "New Warriors", Cloak and Dagger appear as members of Taskmaster's Thunderbolts alongside Vulture where they end up freeing Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus, Beetle, and Scorpion from the Tri-Carrier's brig. Taskmaster had Cloak "thin the herd" by transporting Power Man, Iron Fist, White Tiger, and Nova to a deserted island. Cloak and Dagger switched sides after Spider-Man saved Cloak from the Tri-Carrier's engines after Taskmaster refuses and the two of them found out Taskmaster can not be trusted and joined Spider-Man's team by the end of the episode.
Film
- Cloak and Dagger were chosen as one of the many properties in Marvel's new film deal with Paramount Pictures, along with Captain America, Nick Fury, Doctor Strange, Hawkeye, Power Pack, Shang-Chi and Black Panther.
Video games
- Cloak and Dagger both appear in the 1994 Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage video game, where they can be "summoned" by the player to harm all enemies on the screen.
- Cloak and Dagger appear in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, with Cloak voiced by Ahmed Best and Dagger voiced by America Young. Cloak is a non-player character and exclusive boss for the PlayStation 2, PSP and Wii versions, while Dagger is a boss for the Pro-Registration Act that attacks the heroes alongside Colossus.
- Cloak and Dagger appear as non-player characters in Marvel Heroes, with Cloak voiced by Rick D. Wasserman and Dagger voiced by Tara Strong.
References
External links
- Cloak at the Marvel Universe wiki
- Dagger at the Marvel Universe wiki
- Profiles of Cloak and Dagger at Spiderfan.org
