Cloak and Dagger: Predator and Prey (1988)

Since Halloween is this month, I thought I'd take a look at a story dealing with monsters. After all, monsters can come in a variety of forms. That statement is especially true in the Marvel Universe. Monsters can be, well, actual monsters, but monsters can be all too human as well. One pair of heroes rather familiar with the human kind of monster is Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen, aka Cloak and Dagger. 

The 1980s were their heyday in a way. After their debut in Spectacular Spider-Man #64 (March 1982), which I looked at here, the two would get a four-issue miniseries in 1983, they would get a bi-monthly ongoing in 1985. After #11, they would end up sharing a book with Dr. Strange (whose book was also going bi-monthly at the time), in a revival of the Strange Tales series. Much of their stories at the time rarely dealt with supervillains, exploring the themes of vigilantism and other issues.

In 1988, Cloak and Dagger would get their first story as part of the Marvel Graphic Novel series, the comic we're looking at here: Predator and Prey. The 34th story in the original Marvel Graphic Novel series, they will encounter monsters, both supernatural and mundane.

"Predator and Prey"
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Penciler: Larry Stroman
Inker: Al Williamson
Colorist: John Wellington
Letterer: Ken Bruzenak
Editor: Carl Potts
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

The story begins in London, but not in the then-modern 1980s. We actually go back to the 1880s, the time of gaslights and the Victorian Era. A man is about to board a ship to America.

This man is not there for vacation or business. He's there to start again, to begin a new life. After all, the United States is the land where you can achieve your dreams. The man was a doctor, and he was also a murderer. In fact, this man was Jack the Ripper. Yes, Jack the Ripper is part of Marvel Universe canon. His history has been made rather complicated thanks to numerous stories and retcons, so I recommend going through the Marvel Appendix entry on him if you wish. Anyway, the Ripper started killing again, secretly burying the bodies of his victims in the construction site of the Holy Ghost Church, the future home of Cloak and Dagger. However, one night, a cave-in erupts, burying the Ripper and sealing his doom. So long, sucker!

A hundred years pass. New York City still exists, although it naturally has greatly changed. Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson, aka Cloak and Dagger are watching over Times Square. Things seem rather peaceful tonight, which makes Tandy want to go back to the church where they live and get some sleep. 

Just because Tyrone doesn't need it, doesn't mean that she doesn't, after all. However, things end up not being as peaceful as Dagger had hoped. A group of people seemingly go after a trio of people after one of the men puts a pearl necklace around the woman's neck. Time for our heroes to leap into action.

The three engage the pursuers of the trio. Cloak captures them in his namesake garment, and they're tormented by visions of them being tormented. Dagger looks over them, and realizes...they goofed up. 

Yup, the pursuers were undercover cops.

Cloak points out that the cops could have been corrupt, but Dagger isn't hearing it. Cloak vanishes, but she can't worry about it now. They struck without knowing the facts. She heals the officers with her living light. They'll recover, but she is tired out. She heads back to the Holy Ghost Church, looking for Cloak. After all, where else would he go, New Jersey?

In the church, Father Francis Xavier Delgado is looking over texts regarding exorcism. Yeah, at this time, he was growing obsessed with Tandy, starting to see Tyrone as some sort of demon who was manipulating and possessing Tandy for his own sinister purposes. He tries to convince Tandy to let Cloak to his own devices, but she can't. You see, Cloak and Dagger do need each other, but not in the way you think. 

Certainly! Their powers are symbiotically connected. Cloak has a hunger for the "light" inside of people, in the vein of a vampire hungering for blood. Dagger's body generates excessive amounts of this "light". If she doesn't regularly expel that light (often in the form of her "light daggers"), she will overload and burn out. Tandy can drain this excess "light" by feeding it to Cloak, which in turn helps keep his own "hunger" under control. Delgado is aware of this but refuses to acknowledge it.

Cloak arrives, wanting to apologize to Dagger. Delgado tells him to leave her alone, as it will give her salvation. Cloak is naturally not buying it. He's seen how Delgado looks at her, and she's not aware of Cloak's own feelings towards her. Delgado is enraged by the accusation and tosses some holy water at Cloak. 

Yeah, the holy water seems to harm Cloak, even though his powers came from science, not any sort of demonic influence. How odd...

Anyway, this seems to drive Cloak away. A sleepy Dagger wakes up, saying she thought she heard Tyrone, but Delgado lies to her about him being around. Elsewhere, Cloak shows just as much confusion as we do as to why the holy water hurt him like it did. He just can't be a demon. It's impossible. 

This gets Tyrone into a bit of depression. If he is a demon, how can he judge what is right and wrong? Good and evil? And also, how can he be worthy of Tandy Bowen's heart? But what if his love for Dagger was really just lust for her "light"? This gets the metahuman very confused. And deep inside the void that is his body, a being inside grows concerned. After all, if Cloak won't provide light for it to feed on...

The Predator will have to act. This big demon first became a part of Cloak after he and Dagger got their powers. Thanks to Dagger's light powers, the Predator was kept satiated, and didn't need to act any further. This leaves the Predator with two options: Either get the two reunited...or push Cloak further into madness. Tyrone is a living portal to his world, and as such, can control whether Dagger's light reaches his world or not. If he loses control, the Predator can feed as much as he wants. So he decides to go for the latter.

The Predator has a bunch of wicked souls at his command to use, but which one to use?

Tyrone sees a man attacking a woman with a knife.

Confused, he flees. However, as he does, his body expels a green mist that coalesces into a humanoid form. The green being kills the man, and the woman decides the best thing to do here is to make like a banana and split.

The green being takes the man's clothes...as well as his knife. This was the same man we saw at the beginning prologue. Jack the Ripper lives once more. 

Jack doesn't mind killing for the Predator, but he wants to do it his way, not Cloak's. And if there is "living light" to feed on, why should he gather it for the Predator when he can feed on it himself? The next day, Tandy sees Father Delgado reading a newspaper, the headline about the man Jack killed. The way the article describes the body convinces the obsessed priest that it's Cloak's handiwork. He admits to Tandy that he was there last night, and he tried to exorcise the young man. An enraged Tandy calls him out, and goes to look for him herself. She notes that she's starting to burn up. Remember how I said that she and Tyrone's powers are symbiotically connected. Yeah, without Cloak to help drain her excess light, she's burining up.

Elsewhere, Cloak has his own problems.

The youth seems to have been transported a hundred years into the past. However, in reality, it's a very high-quality illusion. Jack did this to give himself a sense of familiarity. This was his time, his era. The Predator is well-aware of Jack's plans to betray the demon. He warns him it will fail, because without the Predator's power, the long-dead serial killer can't stay long in the living plane. Jack thinks that if he can learn to feed on the "living light" the Predator needs, that won't be much of an issue. Jack emits a fog that spreads the powerful illusion, allowing him to attack people and take their light. As he moves, the fog comes with him, dispelling the illusion...but leaving the bodies.

The cops see the bodies and think Cloak and Dagger are behind the murders. Speaking of Dagger, she's wandering the city, trying to find Tyrone. She sees a newspaper article on the murders, then sees the green fog. Inside the fog, a confused Tyrone wanders around. He spots another newspaper (newspapers did exist in 1880s New York) talking about the victims of the Ripper. He recognizes the victims, and fears that not only he may have gone insane but killed those people unaware. He flees, unaware Jackie is not far behind.

Dagger is also in the foggy area and finds another body. The Predator screams at Cloak to feed him, but the youth refuses. Jack finds this whole thing amusing, as he takes another victim. He spots Dagger nearby and hides as she notices the body. Tandy vows to take down her partner, even if it means she'll be doomed as well. The Predator demands that Jack feed the demon the light he's taken from his victims, but Jack's like "Nah, I'd rather feed myself." 

A pair of cops find Tyrone, and he begs them to end his misery. They shoot at him, but it has no effect. Tandy hears the gunshots. Jack kills the cops, in a way that lets Cloak think he did the deed. Tyrone reunites with Tandy, begging her to kill him. Tandy refuses, saying that they can't change what they are. They were both victims of evil men, and they need each other. She erupts with a massive blast of light, pouring it into the void that is Cloak's body. She pours in so much, the Predator literally cannot handle it.

It seems to cure Tyrone, making him human. Jack approaches Tandy, much to Tyrone's horror. The Predator cheers Jack on, as with no Dagger to keep Cloak fed, he'll be able to get a hold on the shadowy youth, and then get his own revenge on the Ripper for his betrayal. Jack runs his mouth as Dagger attacks him, allowing Cloak to realize that the holy water wasn't reacting to him. He is connected to a demon, and it resides in the darkness his body is the doorway to. Not to mention his hunger doesn't come from him, it comes from the Predator. This not only mentally revitalizes him, it makes him mad. Not insane mad, but angry mad. Fighting mad.

 

Tyrone catches the Ripper in his namesake cloak and drags him into the Predator's home dimension. Dagger leaps in afterwards, as she wants a piece of the Ripper herself. For understandable reasons, of course.

She finally gets to meet the Predator, face to face. He warns her that if she kills him, it'll doom them both. I don't get why, but I can assume that he's just trying to screw with her head. But she has had enough of it. He got her thinking Cloak was a mindless killer, and she's willing to make him pay for it. She tries to blast the demon with her light, but she has too little power left. The only other option she has left is to run away.

She flees out of Cloak's body, telling him to never let that creature out. He won't, with her help. She happily takes his hand and the two head home. 

In an epilogue, a couple priests watch Father Delgado get put into an ambulance. They are presumably taking him to a mental health facility. The priests believe that he went crazy from reading all those texts on exorcism he had. As the sun comes out, one of the priests notes that the Holy Ghost Church won't get a new priest assigned to it for a while. Unaware of this, Cloak and Dagger return, Tandy remarking that it feels good to be home.

I enjoyed this graphic novel. In fact, it was one I had wanted to read for a long time. I did kind of find it hilarious that the Predator chose a murdering flunky that had no qualms betraying him. I mean, the Predator had plenty of other souls to choose from. Maybe he shouldn't have chosen one that was so...ambitious. I can also imagine why some may be mixed on the revelation that a demon was behind Cloak's hunger for the "living light" that Dagger can provide him. I can understand that. It does seem to undermine the symbiotic nature of their powers, and it doesn't really change the fact that Dagger needs to unload her excess light into him. 

Stroman's art has a nice bit of grit to it that fits these street-level characters. I also think he shows a strong sense of layout and his take on the Predator is really cool. 

If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2018 trade paperback Cloak and Dagger: Predator and Prey. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! See you next time!