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 started out as two teenagers who both ran away from home and ended up meeting each other at a fateful bus stop in New York. After being kidnapped and experimented on, they found themselves both possessing the twin superpowers of Light and Darkness control. Cloak can teleport, manipulate Darkness, and alter his body's density from impenetrably solid to intangible, while Dagger can heal people with her light, manipulate light, create daggers of light and other light-based constructs that can either heal or harm people. They can also both draw power 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.Issue #7 credits Mantlo as writer, but was in fact wholly written by Dr. Strange writer Peter B. Gillis. Letters pages in later issues corrected this error. 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 Doctor 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 authentically depict the physical and psychological impacts of blindness and the coping techniques used by blind people."Dark Dispatches" letters page in The Mutant Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger #5. 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.Universe X #1 Dagger also served as a member of Marvel Knights in a short running mini-series.Marvel Knights #1-12
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 was a 17-year-old boy from Boston, Massachusetts, with a stutter who ran away from his home and his 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 was a 16-year-old girl from a privileged upbringing (born in Shaker Heights, Ohio) who ran away because her multi-millionaire mother neglected Tandy for her supermodel career and social life and left Tandy feeling alone and unloved because her mother didn't care to spend time with her daughter. When they meet both Ty and Tandy felt alone and scared in a place neither of them had ever been before this was until Tyrone leaped into action to pursue a thief that stole Tandy's purse, Tandy would offer to buy dinner and the two would become fast friends. When a naïve Tandy accepts an offer of shelter from some strange men, a wary Tyrone goes along to protect her. The two teens would end up being forcibly kidnapped delivered to Simon Marshall, a criminal chemist who's developing a new synthetic drug for Silvermane and the Maggia with tests on runaway teens that have fatal results. Johnson and Bowen would be the only two runaway teens to somehow survive the drug injections and experimentations and they fled. During their escape, the experiment turns them into super-powered beings.Cloak and Dagger #4 Tyrone finds himself engulfed in darkness and seized by a strange hunger that eases in the presence Tandy who now burned with a brilliant and scorching light, burning so bright that only the cool energies of Ty's Darkness could temper her light and bring her soul comfort. 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 & Dagger", and vowed to protect the innocent making sure that the tragedy that befell them wouldn't happen to another soul. Cloak and Dagger created an environment of symbiotic mutualism between themselves, operating and functioning as two halves of a whole that represent balance. Their powers changed their body's chemistry in a way that they became dependent on each other for living, Dagger's light burns too bright and needs the cool energies of Cloak's Darkforce to temper her while Cloak's darkness is an abyss of hunger that needs the energy of Lightforce/Lifeforce that only Dagger can provide to be satiated. Their codependence at first started as a means of survival, but over time their fondness for each other emerged and it transformed into romance and their form of release. They portray unity through dichotomy on various things like; race, powers, upbringings, world views, and more. They are aided by local priest Father Delgado and Detective Brigid O'Reilly.Cloak and Dagger vol. 2 #5
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.Strange Tales vol. 2 #1
Later it is revealed that during this time, D'Spayre had been manipulating these events from behind the scenes.Cloak and Dagger vol. 3 #19
War on Drugs and other heroes Cloak and Dagger became vigilantes who then hunt down and kill Simon Marshall's drug-dealing crime-ring responsible for activating their powers. They first encountered Spider-Man during these events.Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #64 They next murdered Silvermane's reanimated cyborg form in revenge.Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #69-70 They next teamed with Spider-Man to thwart the Punisher's murder attempt on the Kingpin.Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #81-82
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.Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #94-96 Cloak and Dagger befriended the superpowered preteens Power PackPower Pack #7-8 and twice aided the New Mutants, junior trainees of the X-Men.The New Mutants #23 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.