Marvel Comics characters
Cloak (Tyrone "Ty" Johnson) and Dagger (Tandy Bowen) are a superhero duo appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Bill Mantlo and artist Ed Hannigan, the characters first appeared in "Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man" #64 (March 1982).
Cloak and Dagger are teenagers who were injected with synthetic heroin that gave them the twin superpowers of light and darkforce control. Dagger can create daggers of light and use her power to heal, while Cloak can teleport and turn intangible through the darkforce. Both draw powers from the emotions of those they touch, Dagger through hope and Cloak through fear.
Marvel Television produced a two-season self-titled live-action television series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Aubrey Joseph as Ty Johnson and Olivia Holt as Tandy Bowen. Additionally, Joseph and Holt reprised their roles in the third season of "Runaways" following the former series' cancellation.
Concept and creation.
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 pencillers.
After issue #11, Marvel combined the bi-monthly titles "Cloak and Dagger" and "Doctor Strange" into a monthly revival of the double-feature series "Strange Tales". The title change was accompanied by Bret Blevins stepping in as both penciller and inker. Austin would briefly 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 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.
The series, "The Mutant Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger", was 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. With issue #14 Steve Gerber and Terry Kavanagh took over the writing, but sales began to falter and the series was canceled with issue #19.
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, one of which included a storyline where 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 five-part mini-series by writer Valerie D'Orazio, with pencils by Irene Flores and colors by Emily Warren. The series was never published.
They appeared in the Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men crossover "Utopia", in which writer Matt Fraction stated they would be presented with a chance "to have their reputations exonerated and their records sealed [if they join the Dark X-Men]." Fraction explained, "Osborn presents it to them as the ultimate public service, [in which] they can work off their past indiscretions—[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.
To tie in with the 2015 storyline "Secret Wars", ND Stevenson and Sanford Greene created a spin-off series based on "Runaways".
Fictional character biography.
Origin.
Tyrone "Ty" Johnson (Cloak) and Tandy Bowen (Dagger) meet in New York City as runaways. Tyrone is a 17-year-old boy from Boston, Massachusetts, with a stutter who ran away from his struggling parents to New York City when his speech impediment prevented him from stopping his friend from being shot by the police, who mistakenly believed he had just robbed a store. Tandy is a 16-year-old girl from a privileged upbringing (born in Shaker Heights, Ohio) who ran away because her multi-millionaire mother was too busy with a supermodel career and social life to spend time with her daughter. When they meet, Tyrone considers stealing Tandy's purse, but before he can, a thief steals it and Tyrone retrieves it for her. Afterwards, they have dinner and quickly become friends. When naïve Tandy accepts an offer of shelter from some strange men, wary Tyrone goes along to protect her. The two teens are soon forcibly delivered to Simon Marshall, a criminal chemist who's developing a new synthetic heroin for Silvermane and the Maggia with tests on runaway teens that have fatal results. Johnson and Bowen somehow survive injections of the drug and they flee. During their escape, the drug turns them into super-powered beings. Tyrone finds himself engulfed in darkness and seized by a strange hunger that eases in the presence of Tandy who now glows with a brilliant light. Tyrone tries to hide his shadowy appearance in a makeshift cloak by absorbing Marshall's thugs into his darkness while Tandy strikes them down with daggers of light. The two teens dub themselves "Cloak &amp; Dagger", declaring war on drug crime and helping runaway children. They are aided by local priest Father Delgado and Detective Brigid O'Reilly.
During Cloak and Dagger's travels around the world, Dagger is briefly reunited with her father, a type of guru in India who develops an ability to manipulate personal "light" like Tandy, but uses as a form of control over others to increase his own power, seemingly killing Ty when he interferes with personal plans. Cloak and Dagger oppose the Lord of Light who flings himself into Cloak's portal.
Later it is revealed that during this time, D'Spayre had been manipulating these events from behind the scenes.
War on Drugs and other heroes.
Cloak and Dagger became vigilantes which then hunt and kill Simon Marshall's drug-dealing crime-ring responsible for activating their powers. They first encountered Spider-Man during these events. They next murdered Silvermane's reanimated cyborg form in revenge. 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 Vanessa Fisk, but Dagger refused to help. Cloak and 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 drug's administration 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 Brigid O'Reilly who was transformed into Mayhem. 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 &amp; 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 Cletus Kasady aka Carnage. Dagger was supposedly killed by Shriek (Carnage's "wife") while saving Spider-Man, but was later revealed to be severely wounded and recuperating within Cloak's shroud, and was the key instrument in breaking up