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!

Cloak and Dagger Trailer, My Thoughts

Cloak and Dagger, the Marvel Universe's protectors of the lost in the New York City streets, is coming to television. I looked at a teaser of their series in the past, and now a new trailer is here!

The trailer begins with a helicopter flying towards an oil rig. Maybe this is the place Cloak and Dagger get their powers?

I think this take on them will take place in New Orleans. I like this idea. It allows them to have a place of their own to maintain some distance from the other heroes, and make their adventures feel a bit more self-contained.

Hmm, it looks like they're generally kept to their origins, but with some changes. For example, in the comics, Cloak grew up in one of the poorer areas of Boston. Here, Tyrone Johnson appears to be a private school student. I wonder if Tandy's origin will stay the same. In the comics, she was a rich girl.

We get to see a little more of their powers in the trailer. That's neat.

That Roxxon sign has got me wondering. In this adaptation, will they be the ones behind Cloak and Dagger's powers? Would give them a Big Bad to fight.

"One will live, one will die?" I don't like the sound of that. Considering Dagger "died" during Maximum Carnage in the comics, there may be a twist to that statement.

Well, this trailer is pretty neat. We got to see a bit more of the future Cloak and Dagger's past and powers, as well as more of them together. It's nice seeing them interact. I hope it's a hit with its target audience.

Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #64 (March 1982)

Cloak and Dagger. Born from the mind of Bill Mantlo and the pencils of Ed Hannigan, the two vigilantes were inspired by a visit Mantlo made to Ellis Island. According to Mantlo himself, they first appeared in his head practically fully formed in his head as he was haunted by the misery and loneliness of the island.

So, who are Cloak and Dagger? Well, you know the Runaways? Cloak and Dagger were the original Runaways, in a sense. A pair of teenagers who fled rough lives. Cloak was once Tyrone "Ty" Johnson, an African-American youth from Boston. Dagger was once Tandy Bowen, a ballet dancer from upper-class roots from Shaker Heights, Ohio. They came to New York, only to run into trouble. They ended up being test subjects for an experimental new drug being developed for the Mob.

The drug ended up giving them strange new powers. Johnson's body was transformed into a living portal into a dimension of endless darkness, and Bowen became a generator of light, which she can throw in the form of small dagger-like projectiles that can paralyze and kill people, and even cure drug addiction. Their new powers came with a caveat, however. Cloak's darkness had a hunger for people's "light", whatever that meant. Dagger's body could only hold so much light before becoming overcharged. Dagger's light powers could relieve Cloak's hunger, as well as keep her from overloading. As a result, the two of them were basically stuck together.

Over the past three decades, Cloak and Dagger have had mini-series, their own series, and many guest appearances in other titles. They've also gone through many a crazy change in their careers, with Cloak losing his powers for a while, Dagger going blind for a while, and even the two of them recently getting their powers switched. Despite this, Cloak and Dagger have maintained a presence in the MU, so much so, they have appeared in cartoons, and are getting a live-action TV series.

The cover is actually pretty neat, it has that Eisner Spirit-esque feel to it, thanks to the words on the buildings. There is one thing about the cover that does bother me, though...but it's not the cover's fault. It's the title of the comic itself. Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man. The title does come off as a bit overly long. And why mention that Peter Parker is Spider-Man here? At the time, he was the only active Spider-Man. This was many years before Miguel O'Hara and Miles Morales came into existence, and shared the Spider-Man identity with Peter.

"Cloak and Dagger"
Writer: Bill Mantlo
Penciller: Ed Hannigan
Inker: Al Milgrom (The issue mistakenly credits Jim Mooney)
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Bob Sharen
Editor: Tom DeFalco
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The story begins with Spider-Man swinging through the city.

He hears a cry for help, and decides to investigate it. He finds a man, who is terrified for his life. Spidey jokes that if the man needs change, he himself is a bit short. The man explains that money's not his problem.

The man's problem is drugs. You see, the man used to be a pharmacist, but he fell into some bad debt. However, he was offered some debt relief by some people performing experiments. What they needed was for him to procure some substances that were...not exactly liked by the law, let's just say. He pleads with Spidey to take him to the District Attorney so he can confess. Spidey's Spider-Sense goes into overdrive, and the man's pursuers make themselves known.

The man, Simon Marshall, tries to flee. Spider-Man tries to protect him, but Cloak traps him in his...well, cloak. The cloak contains an endless dimension of darkness that Spidey can't seem to find a way out of. Worse, it somehow weakens his Spider-Sense. Marshall flees for his life, but Dagger, using some acrobatics, manages to catch up to him. Marshall pleads for his life, even saying he's going to turn himself in, and even apologizes to her. Dagger is hearing none of it.

Her light daggers cause a shock to Marshall's system, and the dying man falls into a pigeon cage. Spider-Man is able to escape Cloak by punching him in his still-solid jaw. Spider-Man discovers Marshall's body, and Dagger states that she did kill him. Yeah, in their early appearances, Cloak and Dagger had no issue using lethal force, especially against people involved in the drug industry.

Spider-Man is furious with them, stating that they had no right to execute Marshall, but Cloak and Dagger thinks otherwise, and Dagger throws her light daggers at Spidey. However, unlike Marshall, Spidey is in better shape, and has spider-like speed and agility.

However, Dagger can mentally control her light projectiles, and as a result, they can follow Spidey around. Spidey is able to neutralize two of them by making them hit a water tower, but he's still got two after him.

Spidey gets ambushed by Cloak, who immobilizes him long enough for Dagger's light daggers to hit him. Spidey's body is wracked by pain, but he sees the two superpowered Punishers. He tries to leap at them, but Cloak wraps Dagger in his namesake, and they vanish. The Webhead is left curled up on the roof in pain, and he is found by a couple of cops.

The cops find the deceased Simon Marshall and want Spidey to come in for questioning. They've been looking for Marshall for some time, and the Wall-Crawler takes his leave, still feeling the effects of Dagger's light projectiles. He's actually so messed up by them, he had to take the subway home.

The next day, Peter Parker goes to the Daily Bugle to find out more information about Simon Marshall, hoping to learn more about Cloak and Dagger. Peter learns that Marshall was developing some new drugs, so new that medical journals didn't know about them. The police discovered him working out of Ellis Island. When they launched a raid on the place, they found bodies.

Marshall had used many young people as test subjects for his new creations. The test subjects were runaways, whom the Mob would meet and make lofty promises to them before taking them to Ellis Island.

Spidey goes down to Ellis Island, wondering about Cloak and Dagger's connection to the place. He wonders if maybe they were hired by the Mob to silence Marshall, or could they have a connection to the lost runaways. Creating a glider out of webs, Spidey floats down to Ellis Island itself.

This is an aspect of Spidey's webbing we hardly ever see nowadays. I love it when Spidey makes things out of webs. Yeah, it doesn't make a ton of sense, but it's still cool. Peter floats down to the island and starts getting a chill down his spine.

These panels are great. You almost get the feeling that Spidey is being haunted by the ghosts of those who came through the island in an attempt to make a new life for themselves in America, and considering this is the Marvel Universe, which houses heroes like Doctor Strange and Blade, who deal with the supernatural...who's to say there aren't any there? Also, considering how Bill Mantlo got inspired to create Cloak and Dagger, I think this scene may have been a nod to the visit that led to their appearing in his head, almost like he is giving thanks to Ellis Island for inspiration.

Spidey's imagination haunting him comes to an end when he hears a scream. The Wall-Crawler follows it and finds that one of the windows in the buildings is lit up. Parker deduces that Cloak and Dagger must be in the area, and he checks his webshooters. Inside the building, Cloak and Dagger have gotten a group of men all rolled up in one room. One of the men, Joey Tartaglione, realizes that the two vigilantes are one of "the kids". But he states that's impossible, because they're all dead.

From here, we get to learn about Cloak and Dagger's origins. Basically, they were a pair of runaways who were used as test subjects for a new drug developed by Simon Marshall.

Is it just me, or does Marshall look different here than earlier in the comic? I'm not sure, the face feels...off. The mob men notice that two of the runaways, despite being injected with the new drug, manage to escape. Marshall's drug killed all the other runaways, so the Mob consider it a bust. Marshall suggests they wash their hands of the whole thing, as the drug will kill the escaped runaways anyway.

Thing is, earlier in the story, Peter found out from the Bugle's researcher that the cops know about the new drug. Which basically means that when they found the runaways' bodies, they were given autopsies, which is how the cops likely discovered it. Marshall couldn't cover it up. It never occurred to the mob to...you know, destroy the bodies somehow?

Anyway, the two survivors didn't only just live, they were changed. Ty Johnson and Tandy Bowen were transformed into Cloak and Dagger. The comics have wavered back and forth over the years on whether the two were mutants whose powers were activated by the drug, or enhanced humans, but it was recently established that they were humans that were enhanced.

Spider-Man bursts in, screaming that if they had told him why they were doing what they were doing, he would have helped them stop the dealers and bring them to justice. Cloak and Dagger are more interested in getting revenge, and Spider tries to convince them to abandon that mission, as it'll make them no better than the drug dealers that killed their fellow runaways. The three scuffle, which allows one of the bound mob men to free himself with a glass shard. The mob man then ambushes Dagger, knocking her out.

He takes her hostage, and the Mob men try to flee. Spider-Man tries to pursue them, but Cloak teleports ahead. He uses his powers to surround the men in darkness, so thick they can barely see each other. Spider-Man comes out of nowhere, and is able to free Dagger unharmed. The Mob men run for it...into Cloak's...well, cloak. The men panic, but find a light and flee towards it.

However, the light was the moon shining through the window. The men fall through it, five stories they plunge, and they splat on the ground.

Cloak and Dagger, satisfied with what they have done, teleport away, leaving the Web-Head alone in the dark building. The Wall-Crawler is left confused, dazzled, and perhaps...a little frightened.

This was a pretty enjoyable comic. We get a good idea of Cloak and Dagger's motivations and origins, which would get expanded further in future appearances and their first mini-series later on. It's a standard revenge story, and Cloak and Dagger do come off as a bit one-dimensional, but the two characters do get expanded further upon, so it's forgivable. If you're a fan of the characters, this comic is a must-get.

If the upcoming TV show has got you interested in the characters, I recommend picking up the trade paperback Shadows and Light. It collects their early appearances, including this comic, and their first mini-series, which did expand further on their origin. They also encounter the likes of the Kingpin, Silvermane, the Punisher, and even the New Mutants.

Next time, in honor of a certain Marvel movie featuring a certain Thunder God, we'll take a look at an issue of Thor...

Cloak and Dagger Trailer, My Thoughts

It has been known for a while that a television series based on the adventures of Marvel's original Runaways, Cloak and Dagger, was in the works. And in a pleasant surprise, a trailer has been revealed. And here it is!

The trailer begins with a pair of people running, only to encounter a pair of cops. A brief shot of a young boy in a black hoodie, which then transitions to a young man looking at his face. I think this young man is our Tyrone Johnson.

Then there's a ship, I think. A truck, and then a shot of a young girl in ballet class. I think this is our Tandy Bowen.

Based on what we see in these shots, I'm guessing that Tyrone rescues Tandy from drowning in a car, and they probably start their friendship then, or maybe it's just the first time they encounter each other.

The scene with Tandy and Tyrone meeting each other was sweet. My only complaint was that Tyrone didn't have his stutter. You see, in the comics, before he became Cloak, Tyrone Johnson had a very bad stutter. It's what prevented him from speaking up and saving a friend from being killed, which made him run away in the first place.

It is neat to see that this series remembers that Tandy Bowen was a ballet dancer. That's good.

We do get to see brief glimpses of Dagger using her powers, including one of her light daggers. It looks like a crystal. I don't think we really see Cloak's powers in action, just some darkness around his hand in one scene. In a clever nod, we do see that Tyrone does wrap himself in a black cloak. There is a shot of him on a roof, which has a Roxxon sign on it. Could Roxxon be the ones behind Cloak and Dagger getting their powers here? They have empowered people in the comics.

This looks really interesting. I'll give it a looksee when it comes out.