Friday, February 23, 2007

Cloak


Cloak of the team Cloak and Dagger is really Ty Johnson. They were created by Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan in 1982 and first appeared in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #64. The team have had adventures together and separate but usually together. They have been members of super groups like the Runaways, New Warriors and the Secret Defenders. Ty is a black teenage boy from Massachusetts. Dagger, whose real name is Tandy Bowen is a white girl from Ohio. Both were runaways to New York City. They met when Ty returned Tandy’s purse that someone had stole from her. Agents of Silvermane gave the two kids an experimental drug against their will. The drug awakened their latent mutant abilities. Ty was able to access the Darkforce Domension. He could envelope people in his cloak to bring them into the Darkforce and they would be struck with fear and would become catatonic. Dagger had the power to generate a light that could heal and purge drugs from a persons body. She could throw daggers of light that would stun and burn its victims. Dagger also had a calming effect on Cloak when the Darkforce tried to overwhelm him.
In the 1980’s they gained a following that allowed them to have a four issue mini-series. The positive sales of that led to their own series but it only lasted 11 issues. They have been the stars of Strange Tales and other books but never found a break out series or storyline to give them mainstream success. That may change one day as Paramount Pictures is said to have optioned some of Marvel’s characters for movies. Cloak and Dagger were part of that deal.
You can go to Ed Hannigan's site if you click on the title above. Thanks to my MySpace.com pal Jim Salicrup for showing this site to us.

No comments: