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    Cloak and Dagger

    Team » Cloak and Dagger appears in 450 issues.

    A team of two misunderstood runaways who first became friends and, later, heroes.

    Short summary describing this team.

    Cloak and Dagger last edited by SlamAdams on 12/20/23 08:37PM View full history

    Creation

    Cloak and Dagger are runaways: two lonely teenagers who ran away to New York City to seek a better life. Fate, however, had other plans for them.

    They were created by Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan. They made their debut appearance in Spectacular Spider-Man #64: March, 1982.

    Origin

    Tandy Bowen: Dagger
    Tandy Bowen: Dagger

    Tandy Bowen grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, the daughter of a multimillionaire and his trophy supermodel wife. Her dad abandoned the family while Tandy was very young, and her mother was too busy with her career and social life to pay much attention to the girl. Even her boyfriend forgot about her as soon as he went to college. Feeling empty and alone, Tandy boarded a bus for New York City with dreams of becoming a dancer.

    Tyrone Johnson, or Ty, had a very different background. Ty was raised in the slums of South Boston, Massachusetts, and had been born with a speech impediment. When his best friend died because Ty was unable to say the words that might have saved him, the distraught teenager fled his hometown. He ended up in a bus station in Manhattan, hungry and ready to turn to stealing to eat.

    Tyrone Johnson: Cloak
    Tyrone Johnson: Cloak

    The two teenagers met up after Tyrone thought about stealing Tandy's purse, but was ashamed when she offered him money. A thief then stole her purse, and Ty recovered it for her. Afterward she bought him dinner, and the pair became fast friends.

    A Maggia chemist named Simon Marshall was luring homeless people to his lab with promises of food and shelter. Instead, he used them as test subjects for his new drug which had killed everyone injected with it.

    Tandy accepted his offer, not knowing what was in store for them. Tyrone went along with her, sensing that something was wrong. The pair were caught, knocked out, and injected with the drug D-Lite, a heroin substitute. They managed to survive, and somehow became empowered.

    They used their new found powers together to defeat their enemies. Cloak disorients them using his control of the dark dimension and Dagger finishes the job with her daggers of light.

    Despite having powers, they still had no place to go. They ended up moving into a church where Father Delgado resided.

    Major Story Arcs

    Against All Odds

    The Early Days
    The Early Days

    Tyrone and Tandy remained together for a long time and bonded to an extent that they could not be apart from one another. They both swore to fight crime and put an end to as many drug-related crimes as possible. Because of their mission, they came into contact with other super-powered people such as Spider-Man as well as local police chief Brigit O'Reilly. During their time spent together, Spider-Man and Tandy were attracted to one another, and Spider-Man thought that Cloak had a bad influence on Tandy. It also seemed that Tyrone had romantic feelings towards Tandy, but these were unanswered from her part. This caused Cloak to become very jealous of Tandy sometimes when she would flirt with Spider-Man or when she got herself a boyfriend. Cloak eventually accepted that Tandy did not love him in the same way he did her. Tandy did however help Cloak on a number of occasions since he sometimes felt consumed by his dark powers. It was Tandy that would blast him with her light powers. This eventually became an addiction to Cloak as he kept on feeding her light powers. Feeling betrayed, Dagger left Cloak for some time, during which time Cloak's Dark powers became more and more out of control. For some time, Cloak managed to get his "Light-fix" thanks to the mutant known as Dazzler, but her powers could not satisfy Cloak, causing his darkness to grow. The two eventually got back together again as friends after they shared a battle against the evil Mister Jip.

    Maximum Carnage

    After a number of months, Tyrone and Tandy appeared on the scene once more when they joined and helped a group of heroes, including Spider-Man, Iron Fist, Captain America, and Black Cat in defeating the deranged serial-killer known as Carnage. After Carnage had escaped his jail and his death-penalty, he went to New York City where he gathered a band of villains and started a rampage throughout the city. The ensuing chaos caused riots in the streets. The tide was turned when Cloak and his teammate Dagger joined the team with Tandy's powers being able to subdue Carnage for some time.

    Runaways

    Cloak and Dagger are specially requested by an LAPD detective, Lieutenant Flores. He needed their help tracking a group of runaways who he was blaming for the disappearance of Molly Hayes. Unbeknownst to the duo, Flores was working for the criminal organization, The Pride, who were also the parents of these runaways. They were faking Molly’s kidnapping to bring all the kids back in after they witnessed their parents making a human sacrifice.

    After Cloak had dragged a few of them into his shadow form, he sensed no blood on their souls. After a brief confrontation, Cloak and Dagger agree to release their captors back to their friends and give them some pointers about living on as runaways. They also promise to return from New York with reinforcements to take on The Pride.

    Unfortunately, members of The Pride cut them off and wipe their memories, ensuring they wake back up in New York with no recollection of their days in LA.

    Civil War

    During the superhuman Civil War, Cloak and Dagger both join the Anti-Registration Movement. Both Cloak and Wiccan acted as teleporters for the Movement. Before the first major battle between the Pro and Anti-Registration in the Geffen-Meyer Chemical Plant, Iron Man knocks out both Cloak and Wiccan, preventing the two to teleport out of the chemical plant. After the death of Goliath, Cloak, with the telepathic assistance of Cable, was able to teleport the Secret Avengers out of the chemical plant. During the final battle, Cloak teleports both Pro and Anti-Registration Movements out of 42 and transport them to Manhattan.

    Dark X-Men

    Cloak and Dagger on the Dark X-Men
    Cloak and Dagger on the Dark X-Men

    Cloak and Dagger, after another drug-elimination sortie, were approached by Norman Osborn, who offered them a deal to have their criminal record cleared if they would join his special mutant peacekeeping force.

    The two accepted and became part of Osborn's personal team of X-Men. The normally reclusive Cloak thus became part of a greater team assigned to keep the peace in San Francisco after a series of pro and anti-mutant riots. Donning a new costume, and now keeping his face un-hooded, Cloak realized that he and Dagger could no longer hold themselves apart from the world at large. When Dagger expressed the idea of running again, Cloak stopped her, saying that if they ran away again they would be on the run forever.

    They kept true to their heroic ideals even when mixed with the more distasteful members of their team. Thus, when Emma Frost and Namor betrayed Osborn as part of Scott Summers' ploy, both Cloak and Dagger were invited to join the true X-Men in their exodus from San Francisco.

    Tandy and Ty accepted, and the two runaways became part of a different team, and among their own kind.

    After tests were taken, it was relieved that neither Tandy nor Ty were mutants and that the drug gave both superheroes their powers.

    Spider-Island

    Power Swap
    Power Swap

    Cloak and Dagger tried to move back into their old abandoned church hideout , however, the New York Department of Buildings has given them an order to vacate. While Dagger stresses about the lack of affordable housing, Cloak takes a loan from the Future Foundation to start advertising themselves as “heroes for hire.” Dagger was equally upset with his Times Square billboard as he was with Dagger’s repeated suggestion of calling in a favor to Captain America for a room in Avengers Tower.

    As the NY DOB finally get them out of their church, they are approached by members of the Avengers who are on their way to a situation. The Jackal had infested Manhattan with bedbugs that are virally spreading Spider-Man abilities to the populace. A riot among spider-people has broken out, and the Avengers wanted to use Cloak’s teleportation to get them there, but Dagger snuck away to attend the college classes she was secretly taking. It is at this school that she was attacked and kidnapped by the Inner Demons.

    She awoke in her costume, wrapped in dark energy chains, with an unconscious Cloak nearby. Mister Negative, who arranged for this, explained to Dagger that she was prophesied to kill him, and he wanted to ensure that his death was an honorable one by showing Dagger her true self. He overwhelmed her with his own shadow powers and caused her to lose control. In order to get her back under control, Cloak kisses her. This causes them to switch powers.

    Dark Kingdom

    Working with the Inner Demons
    Working with the Inner Demons

    Working for Mr. Negative and dosing themselves with his loyalty drug, Shade, Cloak and Dagger mounted a raid on Parker Industries to kidnap Peter Parker. They needed his “cooperation” to dose a Chinese dignitary with Shade at a gala Peter’s company was hosting where said dignitary was receiving a humanitarian award. Luckily, Negative’s corrupting touch only works on a person once, and Peter was already corrupted as Spider-Man. Since they didn’t know he was Spider-Man, he used that to his advantage and played along.

    With the dose of Shade he was given, Parker Industries was able to synthesize an antidote. When it was clear that the dignitary was not drugged, Cloak teleported Dagger, Negative, and Inner Demons to the event. Spider-Man had weaponized the antidote and was able to dose both Cloak and Dagger, which also stabilized their abilities back to their original forms.

    Now, they were able to help Spider-Man take down the Inner Demons.

    Shades of Grey

    Cloak and Dagger have gone their separate ways. Their plan was to have scheduled meetups so that Dagger could use her power to stabilize Cloak’s. However, Dagger started missing these meetings, and Cloak’s psyche was starting to show side effects. In the meantime, Cloak got a job as a celebrity bodyguard, and Dagger got a job as a police consultant for superhuman cases.

    Cloak and Dagger separated
    Cloak and Dagger separated

    Dagger’s newest case is a series of dead bodies that looked drained of their life. It reminds her of a dead body she saw when she and Cloak were first living on the street. It was a fellow runaway named Grey. He was also subjected to the same drug experiments that Cloak and Dagger were subjected to. He got the power to produce a reality bending fog. One day, he took it too far, and Cloak killed him, overcome by the darkforce. Dagger thought it might have happened again due to her slacking on stabilizing his powers. She tried telling her police contact, Detective Brandon Ikeda, at the precinct where she was attacked by the real killer, Grey.

    It was up to Cloak to mount a rescue mission, but Grey got the best of them. Cloak had just enough power to teleport them to safety. While getting back to full strength, Cloak teleports them in and out of European hotels, however Grey forces their hand when he uses his fog on Cloak’s celebrity client and his concert goers. During the confrontation, Grey put Cloak into a trance, and Dagger had to drag him out of it by reminding him how strong their connection was. With Grey sent to the Darkforce Dimension, Cloak and Dagger were finally back on the same page. Dagger even offered Cloak the chance to be a police consultant with her, which he reluctantly offered despite his distrust of the police.

    Negative Exposure

    Mr. Negative is back
    Mr. Negative is back

    While working for the LAPD, Mr. Negative started surveilling Cloak and Dagger. After testing them against his Inner Demons, he sent his new creations, gremlin-like creatures from LA’s underground aqueduct system. Unfortunately for Dagger, Cloak has been distracted by a new adrenaline-junkie girlfriend, who is helping him explore the Darkforce Dimension. Dagger and her police-contact-turned-boyfriend, Brandon, were narrowly killed by Negative’s new goons before Cloak finally arrived. Knowing he couldn’t control Dagger anymore (but he could reverse her power to darkness), he secretly corrupted Brandon to use later before sneaking away.

    Mr Negative had been working with The Devourer, a cosmic being trapped in the Darkforce Dimension. Devourer wanted to pull Cloak and Dagger apart. The plan was to weaken Dagger but empower Cloak so that he could be used as a doorway for The Devourer to escape. For his help, The Devourer rips Mr. Negative from Martin Li and grants him the ability to survive without a human host. Once separated, Li informs Dagger about the deal Mr. Negative made. With Cloak’s girlfriend, they try to save him from the Devourer, but he had already been dragged into the dimension. They try to attack the gold orb the Devourer was using to communicate, but it was defended by Brandon, possessed by Negative. Exposing herself to his power turned Dagger’s powers from light to dark, allowing her to cut her way into the Darkforce Dimension and find Cloak.

    Unfortunately, the Devourer was already breaking through. Dagger tried to fight the cosmic being, but she wasn’t quite strong enough. So, she kissed Cloak in her dark form which swapped his darkness to light. It stopped the Devourer from using him as a doorway, closing on the being as it was halfway through. Free of the Devourer’s influence, Cloak and Dagger’s powers reverted. Almost losing each other made Dagger remember why they were a team.

    They quit the LAPD and went their own way again.

    Lost in Time With the Savage Avengers

    Savage Avengers
    Savage Avengers

    Conan was hunting a cult that got their hands on a madbomb when he was confronted by a Deathlok, who was hunting Conan for breaking time travel laws. With Conan preoccupied with the Deathlok, a fatally wounded cultist was able to activate the madbomb. In addition to causing rage in the surrounding area, it attracted the attention of most "savage" heroes in the general vicinity, including Cloak and Dagger. Unfortunately, Deathlok's time circuits were broken in the fight and caused them all to time travel to the Hyborian Age. To get home, they worked together to trap Deathlok so they could use his time circuits. Elektra comes up with a plan for them to combine their powers at an old Hand temple. There, she would attempt to use Hand magic to revitalize and enslave the corpse that Deathlok was made from (a variant of Miles Morales). With Deathlok now on their side, they are able to defeat Thulsa Doom, who was trying to stop them.

    With Conan staying behind in his own time, Miles used his time circuits to bring the Savage Avengers home but overshot their target year. Miles ended up depositing himself and the Savage Avengers in the year 2099, where they were targeted by Ultron. This variant of an Ultron-enslaved 2099 was due to a piece of Miles' tech that was broken off in his first fight with the Savage Avengers. They attempted to save a 2099 variant of Doctor Doom to get home. However, Ultron and his forces had set a trap for them. Ultron easily defeated all of these Avengers by turning them into Deathloks, but Miles was able to reach them through cyberspace, helping them purge the nanotech.

    After Elektra recruited a number of "savage avengers" from the year 2099, the team made one last attempt on Ultron. He had Doom's time-gauntlet, and, as they showed up, his time portal was open to the exact moment these Savage Avengers first left their home time. Miles was able to shoot webs through the time portal and retrieve the tech he left behind that led to this version of Ultron. When he destroyed that tech, time fixed itself returning returning 2099 to its normal state and returning the Savage Avengers to the moment they were lost in time.

    Fall of X

    When Orchis made their move on the mutant nation of Krakoa and started a campaign to discredit and hunt them across the globe, Cloak and Dagger were swept up in their search. Despite not having X-genes, they were immediately taken prisoner by Orchis and given to Vulture. Vulture made them part of his "Hounds of Hell," mutant trackers upgraded with Warlock DNA that made them obedient and immortal.

    Although they hunted many different mutants, they took a keen interest in Nightcrawler, who was hiding his identity with a spare Spider-Man suit and patrolling Central Park. After Nightcrawler conspired to sabotage Orchis with Mystique and Silver Sable, Nightcrawler was able to free Warlock, who overloaded and then took back his tech from the Hounds. This causes the Hounds, including Cloak and Dagger, to pass out, but Warlock ensures they will make a full recovery.

    Gang War

    As a grassroots campaign begins to develop to end the the Anti-Vigilante Law enacted by Mayor Fisk, Hammerhead stokes the fires of a gang war to give the Maggia an opening to take back New York City for themselves. As street level heroes, Cloak and Dagger are recruited by Luke Cage as an illegal vigilante task force, along with Jessica Jones and Danny Rand.

    Together, they shut down Alistair Smythe's new lab where he was manufacturing state-of-the-art Spider-Slayer androids. They were attacking cops across the city, and the cops were severely outgunned. After blowing up his lab, Smythe, who had discerned Luke's real identity, sent his sentinel sized Spider-Slayers to city hall.

    Alternate Realities

    Earth - 1610: In this reality Cloak is a woman whom is friends with a female Dagger. These two were shown inside of a police station, who they really are is unknown.

    Cloak and Dagger of the Ultimate Universe have appeared in Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man Vol.2, they first appear as a team in the story arc "Spider-Man No-More!" battling against Bombshell, looking for answers about Roxxon, the company who experimented on them and turned them into what they are.

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