Since their first appearance in a 1982 issue of Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man,
the mysterious heroes known as Cloak and Dagger have captivated Marvel's true believers.
Their unique and complementary powers, along with an intriguing backstory and a compelling
romantic angle, made them fan favorites long before they hit TV.
But while everybody knows about Spider-Man, fewer know the finer details of this relatively
obscure, co-dependent superhero duo.
If you're in the dark, we'll shine a light on the untold truth of Cloak and Dagger.
D.A.R.E. to be a hero
The origin stories for Cloak and Dagger are among the darker tales in Spider-Man's corner
of Marvel Comics.
The first Cloak and Dagger story saw teenage runaways Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen kidnapped
by a mob chemist and experimented on with synthetic heroin.
They weren't the first runaways to be subjected to the experiment, but they were the first
to survive, finding themselves after their escape to be blessed and cursed with bizarre
powers.
Cloak is able to banish people to the "Dark Dimension" through a portal within his cloak,
while Dagger produces shards of solid light which can be used as weapons.
Sealing their partnership, Dagger also uses her powers to provide Cloak with spiritual
sustenance, battling back a constant hunger for life energy that he feels as an embodiment
of darkness.
If not for her light, Cloak would need to sustain himself with other living beings — not
an ideal situation.
In their first 4-issue series in 1983, the duo worked together as a team sworn to end
the drug trade.
With their origin story steeped in dramatic drug abuse, plus Cloak's addictive need for
Dagger's light, it's easy to read the duo as a Reagan-era metaphor for drug abuse and
the war on narcotics.
Considering how much opiate use in America has increased since the time they were introduced,
it's not a plot that's aged well — to a modern reader, their original mission mostly
just looks quaint.
"So yes to your life, and when it comes to drugs and alcohol, Just say no."
Mantlo's Marvel
Writer Bill Mantlo is one of the quirkier storytellers in Marvel history, the creator
of Cloak, Dagger, and also Rocket Raccoon.
He worked on Marvel's toy tie-in titles like ROM: Spaceknight and Micronauts before being
assigned to write for more popular titles like The Incredible Hulk and Peter Parker,
the Spectacular Spider-Man.
He conceived Cloak and Dagger as supporting characters for the Peter Parker series, saying
that the duo's backstory and abilities came to him fully-formed during a trip to Ellis
Island.
According to Mantlo's personal essay on the characters, the pair embodied the feelings
that he felt there:
“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.”
The story Mantlo put together after his trip was his first submission for Spectacular Spider-Man,
and it was also, he felt, the best story he'd ever written.
Friendly neighbors of Spider-Man
After they escaped from death by overdose, Cloak and Dagger made it their mission to
seek deadly vengeance.
They were successful, despite the attempted interference of the Friendly Neighborhood
Wall-Crawler, who generally frowns on the use of deadly force.
While the duo were merciless and single-minded in this first appearance, yet also young and
naïve, qualities the sympathetic Spider-Man understood all too well, making their turn
as a pair of Spider-Man antagonists extremely brief.
"What I'm trying to say is, superhero team-up?
Thanks in part to Spidey's friendship, the wayward duo soon backed off from their ruthless
ways — a little tougher for Cloak, what with the need to consume living beings and
all.
With the duo's introductory arc being successful, Cloak and Dagger were soon spun off of the
pages of Spider-Man to headline a series of their own.
Strange bedfellows
Between 1987 and '88, Cloak and Dagger's stories were combined with Doctor Strange's in the
pages of one series, Strange Tales.
The combined title was made as an effort to boost sales for both series, but oddly, Strange
Tales didn't see the young heroes teaming up with the Sorcerer Supreme.
Instead, each issue featured a Cloak and Dagger story with its own writing and art staff,
followed by a Doctor Strange story from its own separate creative team.
Basically, it was two comics in one.
Previous Cloak and Dagger stories had been extremely light on supervillains, mainly using
run-of-the-mill drug dealers and street criminals for its antagonists.
But Strange Tales started to flesh out a more proper rogues' gallery for the pair, including
the demon Nightmare and the powerful magician Mister Jip.
The combo book served its purpose in keeping both Cloak and Dagger and Doctor Strange above
water in popular consciousness.
Cloak and Dagger split after issue 18 and started their own title, while Doctor Strange
got his own title after 19 issues, ending the series.
The new mutates
A new comic series called The Mutant Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger debuted in 1988, and its
title inadvertently contributed to a debate that would go on for years.
The question of whether Cloak and Dagger are mutants went back and forth among comic fans
for decades, and a proper answer was only recently offered.
The question of whether the experimental drug that gave the heroes their powers worked by
triggering latent mutant abilities was muddled for years.
Mutant Misadventures seemed to clear it up with its title alone, and it was mentioned
more than once in the first issue that it was indeed latent mutant genes that allowed
them to survive the experiment and gave them their powers.
But in a 2010 Cloak and Dagger one-shot, they submit to extensive DNA testing—and are
shocked to discover that neither of them carry mutant DNA, and that it was the experimental
drug and their own suffering that made them what they are.
No matter how you slice it, that's pretty potent stuff.
The teen angst Achilles heel
Cloak and Dagger are a formidable duo, but if they have one glaring weakness, it's how
vulnerable they are to having their heads screwed with.
As teenage runaways granted awesome powers, they're both pretty easily manipulated — but
Cloak in particular is kind of a pushover.
Powerful beings have a tendency to try to take control of his power for themselves,
with varying degrees of success ranging from "Dagger has to talk him down" to "super-team
should probably intervene."
"Dear Diary, My teen angst b------- has a body count"
Notably, the dream demon Nightmare has targeted Cloak twice, overwhelming him with darkness
and taking him under control.
The pair's emotional instability and codependency are their biggest weaknesses.
They may be tough to overpower in a fight, but exploiting their teen angst has been an
effective strategy for many foes.
Born from despair
As it turns out, this was no ordinary experimental drug.
It was created with the help of a demonic being named D'Spayre who feeds on human pain
and suffering through a the spread of an insidious, addictive drug called D-Lite.
At the end of their 19-issue 1990 series, the demon revealed to the duo that he helped
create them, imbuing Dagger and Cloak with the light and dark sides of his own power.
Bizarrely, that made them both weaker and also made them swap their powers.
He had intended to use them as sort of misery batteries, soaking up their pain to feed on
at his leisure.
His identity and motives are perfectly fitting for the characters, with their greatest nemesis
turning out to be the living embodiment of their own teenage angst.
Why he looks so much like Skeletor, though?
Your guess is as good as ours.
"haha"
Thanks for watching!
Click the Looper icon to subscribe to our YouTube channel.
Plus check out all this cool stuff we know you'll love, too!