Cloak and Dagger (comics)

Cloak and Dagger
Cloak and Dagger #1 (October, 1983). Art by Rick Leonardi.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #64 (March 1982)
Created by	Bill Mantlo (writer) Ed Hannigan (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	Cloak: Tyrone "Ty" Johnson Dagger: Tandy Bowen
Species	Human Mutates
Team affiliations	X-Men Dark X-Men Secret Avengers (Civil War) Runaways New Warriors (Dagger) Secret Defenders Marvel Knights (Dagger) Brides of Set (Dagger)
Abilities	Cloak: Teleportation Intangibility Ability to link to the "Darkforce Dimension" Dagger: Ability to create "daggers" of light Ability to purge addictions from people Ability to heal with her light daggers

Cloak:

Dagger:

Cloak (Tyrone "Ty" Johnson) and Dagger (Tandy Bowen) are a fictional comic book superhero duo appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They were created by writer Bill Mantlo and artist Ed Hannigan. In April 2016, Marvel Television announced that the duo would appear in their own television show, with Aubrey Joseph and Olivia Holt portraying Johnson and Bowen, respectively.

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."

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 pencilers.