Cloak and Dagger (Tyrone "Ty" Johnson & Tandy Bowen) are a fictional comic book superhero duo in the Marvel Comics universe. They were created by writer Bill Mantlo and artist Ed Hannigan.
Cloak and Dagger first appeared in Spectacular Spider-Man #64 (March 1982). Since then, there have been a number of attempts to launch various ongoing Cloak and Dagger series, but none survived past 19 issues due to low sales. The pair did make numerous appearances as guest stars, appearing in a wide variety of titles, such as Runaways. The heroes were a prominent part of the Spider-Man Maximum Carnage story arc (Dagger was killed early in the battle, but reconstituted herself through Cloak). 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 Cloak was killed. Dagger also served as a member of Marvel Knights in a short running mini-series.
It has been announced at the '08 San Diego Comic Con that the team will be reappearing once again in their own 5 part mini-series by writer Valerie D'Orazio, pencils by Irene Flores and colors by Emily Warren.
Tyrone "Ty" Johnson (Cloak) and Tandy Bowen (Dagger) met in New York City as runaways. Tyrone was a teenage boy from South Boston, Massachusetts with a debilitating stutter. He ran away to New York City when his speech impediment prevents him from stopping a cop from the shooting and killing of his childhood friend. Tandy was a teenage girl from a privileged upbringing (born in Shaker Heights, Ohio) who ran away because she thought her multimillionaire supermodel mother was too busy for her daughter with her career and social life. Originally when they met, Tyrone was considering stealing Tandy's purse. Another thief managed to get to it first; instinctively Tyrone got her purse back and delivered it to her. Afterward they had dinner.
They were then seized and used as guinea-pigs for an experimental heroin-type drug given to them against their will by agents of Silvermane. In their case, the drug turned them into super-powered beings. It was later revealed that they were both actually mutants, and that the drug had simply awakened their latent abilities. Later it was revealed that during this time D'Spayre was the direct cause of all of these events. He manipulated things from behind the scenes the entire time.
Tyrone, as Cloak, gained the ability to access the "Darkforce Dimension" through his extra-dimensional cloak; those drawn into the cloak were stricken with fear and often rendered catatonic. At the same time a demon within the Cloak would drain the victims of life force, eventually leading to death if they were not released. The Cloak form also cured his stutter and (at the time) made his body intangible. Tandy, as Dagger, gained the ability to generate light, which could purge drugs from others' bodies and subdue the darkness that frequently threatened to overwhelm Cloak. In a more offensive role, she could generate daggers of light, which could stun, cause burns or heart attacks or even an intense desire to reform a criminal life. Together their abilities complemented each other. Her light quenched Cloaks hunger, and Cloaks hunger allowed Dagger to burn off excess light. Over time this "Excess Light" would eventually make her feel next to godliness.
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. 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. The Kingpin wanted Dagger to help heal his wife, but Dagger refused to help him. The pair next met Power Pack.
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 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. Cloak played a small part in the Infinity Gauntlet saga, and was among the heroes assembled by Adam Warlock to fight Thanos.
The two tend to live in churches, supported by friends and priests. They have fought many threats over the years, including Doctor Doom, the villain known as Mr. Jip, and Dagger's own father, who has similar powers to hers.
The pair became romantically involved, though their relationship has had its ups and downs. Cloak has run away many times, not understanding that Dagger is fully willing to use her light power to satisfy his darkness.
For much of their original series, the two followed a drug ring throughout Europe, trying to destroy it at its source.
Cloak and Dagger on the cover of New Mutants #23, January 1985. Art by Bill Sienkiewicz.
Dagger was 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 Black Widow. A powerless Cloak also appeared, after a brief time in which he had been feeding on the life forms of petty criminals, those who did nothing more than be extremely annoying. Black Widow let 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 defeated the robot. (It was revealed during the series that Tandy had absorbed Ty's Cloak powers, once Cloak was no longer able to control his hunger and was consuming any and every lawbreaker, no matter how minute the offense.)
For a time, they even 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.
Some time after the Knights series, the two, powered normally again, met the Runaways. This meeting did not go as well as planned as outside forces manipulated Tandy and Ty's actual memories of the group, thus they were not able to help the Runaways. Later the two figured out what was going on and led the Avengers to what they thought was a way to help the team. Cloak would later request their assistance in clearing his name, as he was framed for attacking Dagger. He appealed to the fact that they all shared bonds in being runaways. They agreed to help, and successfully helped him apprehend his impostor.
Cloak was part of the team that attacked Thanos in the Infinity Gauntlet storyline. During the battle, he manages to suck Thanos into the Darkforce Dimension, but is killed as Thanos releases energy from within him (all that is left are pieces of his cloak). His life is restored after most of the events are undone. Not all the heroes remember his involvement, not even Cloak himself, due to cosmic manipulation of time.
Incorrectly believing Dagger to have been murdered, Cloak joined in with a makeshift team of superheroes to battle her 'killers' in the Maximum Carnage crossover- consisting of Spider-Man, Firestar, Captain America, Iron Fist, Deathlok and Venom.
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.
Dagger was also a member of the New Warriors, during which time the dimension Cloak hooked into had malfunctioned, spewing its dangerous energies into the streets of New York. Those affected by the energies went mad and attacked anyone in sight.
After the House of M storyline, both are unaffected by M-Day.
Cloak and Dagger were revealed to be members of Captain America's faction of super heroes who oppose the Superhuman Registration Act during the Civil War story arc.
Cloak was 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 turned out to be a trap set by Iron Man, who was there waiting with the pro-registration faction. Dagger was hit with a lightning attack by a clone of Thor.
It is then revealed that the pair were captured off panel 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.
Later Captain America surrenders, thus ending the fighting but leaving many other unregistered heroes as fugitives.
In Secret Invasion #1, 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.
Cloak and Dagger were both latent mutants whose powers were activated when they were injected with an experimental illegal drug. They are however considered Mutates rather than Mutants as they required external stimuli to acquire their powers.
Cloak acquired D'Spayre's Dark Form, which gave him the ability to create an aperture into the dimension of darkness and to dispatch persons 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.
Dagger has 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.
Cloak and Dagger both have moderate experience at street-fighting, and Dagger's combat techniques utilize her light powers and ballet dance training.
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, Avengers, Hawkeye, Power Pack, Shang-Chi, and Black Panther.
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.
