Cloak and Dagger (1983) 4

By Bill Mantlo, Rick Leonardi, and Terry Austin
Jan 1984

True Confessions

Cloak and Detective O'Rielly materialize at the hospital. Cloak revives Dagger by giving back the light she had given to him. The rest of the issue is devoted to Cloak and Dagger telling the detective and the priest about their origins.

Dagger (Tandy Bowen) tells her story first. She came to New York from Shaker Heights, Ohio. She didn't grow up poor from the looks of it. Her mother was very wrapped up in her modeling career. Her stepfather tried to be supportive of Tandy but that's not what she needed. That's the life she left behind when she ran away away from home and caught a bus to New York City.

Cloak (Tyrone Johnson) had a harder time growing up in Boston. He was a gifted basketball player but he spoke with a stutter. He saw Billy, one of his best friends, get killed by a police officer who suspected him of killing the manager of a shoe store. Tyrone and his friend didn't kill the man, they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Tyrone ran away after that and (like Tandy) caught a bus to New York City.

Tyrone and Tandy met soon at the bus terminal in New York City. Soon after that they were abducted by hoods who were working for an organization that was looking for test subjects. This part of the story had been told before in Spectacular Spider-Man but not in quite so much detail.

I like how the origin stories for both Cloak and Dagger are told. I was expecting a rehash of the past but these versions of their stories help to flesh them out. The panel arrangements and colors used in this part of the story add to each of their stories significantly.

This story was not meant as a one off or a complete new story. It feels like a prologue to something more.

Cloak and Dagger (1983) 3

Dark Is My Love, and Deadly
By Bill Mantlo, Rick Leonardo, and Terry Austin
Dec 1983

Cloak tries to put distance between himself and Dagger. She wants to help him, to feed him her light but he worries that he will end up killing her. He descends into the tunnels beneath New York City but finds himself rejected there.

Detective O'Rielly comes looking for Cloak and Dagger. She visits the Holy Ghost Church on 42nd Street. Father Delgado is there by himself. After she leaves Dagger shows up. She is weak, before she passes out she sends daggers of light out to find her missing companion. Father Delgado takes her to a hospital. Cloak is found by Dagger's daggers and heads back to Holy Ghost Church.

Detective O'Rielly sees the priest and the young woman get into a cab. She goes into the church looking for Cloak. A gang of hoods enters the church. They are looking to rob the joint. Cloak and O'Rielly fight them off. Cloak releases the poisoner, whom he swallowed last issue and who has been in his cloak since then.

I think understand now. This story is all about Cloak and Dagger's symbiotic relationship. He needs her light and from the looks of it she also needs him. It isn't entirely clear what she gets from him or I may just misreading where this story is headed next. Either way I feel better about this story now that it seems to have gained a sense of direction.

The art seems to get a little rougher as the story progresses. It isn't bad, it just seems to lack some of the polish it had in the first installment.

At this point there's no way I'm not reading the next chapter but I'm undecided as to how I feel about reading more beyond the limited series.

Cloak and Dagger (1983) 2

Bellyful of Blues
By Bill Mantlo, Rick Leonardi, and Terry Austin
Nov 1983

Cloak and Dagger hunt down a man who has been poisoning unsuspecting victims. They spot Detective O'Rielly at the funeral for one of the victims. They pay her a visit. She has more or less solved the crime and just needs to apprehend the perpetrator. She tells them who he is and where she thinks he will strike next.

Cloak has some real trouble dealing with his hunger for human souls in this story. He feeds off the life force of a pimp who. I really wish that there was more to his character than his hunger. He claims to be doing good when he attacks the pimp but he seems to do it as much out hunger as he does to protect another, one of the pimp's women.

There's a moment where Dagger tries to revive the murdered woman and realizes she cannot. She has demonstrated the ability to heal people, in particular to cure them of their drug dependencies, but resurrection is beyond her. I like how this moment is handled. It is in moments like this that I see what maybe moved me about this series when it first came out. By that I mean that they are superheroes but that they have limitations because of their powers (Cloak) and that they encounter dilemmas that their powers cannot help them with (Dagger).

The story ends with Cloak consuming the poisoner within the folds of his cloak. Did the man deserve it? Probably but once again what is Cloak's motivation? I suppose he can have more than one but one of them seems more like instinct than rational thought.

I like the look of the book for the most part. There is one panel, actually a splash page where Detective O'Rielly's pose seems odd for a police detective. I seem to delight in finding these incongruities.

This mini-series isn't living up to my memories of it. The story beats are familiar but when I put them all together it feels like there is something missing. Where is the emotional center? Cloak and Dagger don't feel three dimensional and considering that the story is taking place in the "real" world and involves "real" issues of the day that makes this gap a problem. I'm not going to quit on this 4-issue limited series but I'm halfway through and I'm not feeling it.

Cloak and Dagger (1983) 1

By Bill Mantlo, Rick Leonardi, and Terry Austin
Oct 1983

This issue seems to lack a meaningful center. It is broken up into a few chapters. The first two introduce new characters: Father Francis Xavier Delgado and Detective Brigid O'Rielly. The priest offers Cloak and Dagger sanctuary in his church, Holy Ghost Church on 42nd St. The police detective is hunting them because they have been enacting vigilante justice on some of the criminals who operate near the 21st Precinct headquarters.

The story winds down after two teenagers (Jerry and Alice) from somewhere far away are taken in by some men who are looking to take advantage of them. Cloak and Dagger try to help but in the the melee that ensues Jerry is shot and killed.

I love the art in this story. There are a few splash pages. The architecture of the old church is really beautiful in comparison to the more modern building that surround it. There's a gorgeous double page spread that is split into panels by diagonal borders which look like rays of light. It is on this page that Cloak and Dagger make their first appearance in this series and where the priest meets them for the first time.

On the whole I think I like this issue more for the art than for the potential it presents in terms of plot or character developments. That may change but that's where I stand right now.