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.

Marvel Fanfare 19

Mar 1985

A three part story, all written by Bill Mantlo but each part of the story is drawn by a different team; and for the first time in this collection no Spider-Man

Such Sweet Sorrow...
By Bill Mantlo and Tony Salmons

- C&D save a drug addict who is about to die from an overdose and punish the drug pusher who gave him the lethal hit
- ends with Dagger saying she wants to strike out on her own, try to be normal again
- She promises to return to Cloak, he wistfully watches her leave

- so-so, this feels like similar ground from prior stories


Dancin' the Night Away!
By Bill Mantlo, Rick Leonardi, Terry Austin

- Dagger goes to a discotheque, tries dancing the night away, meets and dances with a man (Jack) who unbeknownst to her works for the mob (drug dealer) and knocks her out when she's least expecting it
- Cloak angry and anxious looks for his partner, busts up a party where people are doing coke

- this is the artwork I came for, my favorite in this collection with the possible exception of the next chapter
- the two page sequence of Dagger dancing
- last panel on p 15 of faces of people mesmerized by her dancing
- the way Cloak's cape billows
- p 18 especially the 4th panel


Dagger's Light
By Bill Mantlo, Kerry Gammill, and George Freeman

-Jack delivers Dagger (still unconscious) to his Uncle Sandino who rewards him; but then Dagger wakes up and creates havoc
- Cloak sees Dagger's light from a distance as she fights the gangsters and comes to her
- they need one another, they feed off of one another's energy
- up until now Cloak has felt this need to feed his hunger which Dagger satisfies best; here it is explicitly shown that Dagger has a similar need which he satisfies best
- Art-wise it runs a very close second to the previous chapter, or maybe it is more of a toss-up between the two
- Dagger dancing as she fights the gangsters
- p 24 panel 3 - Uncle Sandino's jacket fading into a memory of C&D

6/15

Spectacular Spider-Man 96

The Final Answer!
By Al Milgrom, Jim Mooney
Nov 84

Part 3

- lots of recap and references to other comics
- Final confrontation involving Spidey, the Black Cat, Cloak, Dagger, Kingpin, Silvermane, and the Answer
- trapped inside Cloak's cape Silvermane lashes out and fights his way back out causing considerable pain to Cloak
- after changing into his old costume Spidey meets Up with Black Cat and they head to Kingpin's HQ
- the Answer doubts that Dagger can help Vanessa now because Dagger is so weak; the Kingpin doesn't want to hear it and sets a plan in motion to have Dagger's life energy transferred to Vanessa
- interlude 1: MJ thinking about her relationship with PP
- interlude 2: Flash Thompson and Betty Leeds trying to avoid armored men running around the city wrecking havoc
- Spidey questions BC as they head to KP's HQ; he thinks she is hiding something; she won't tell him but later on he hears it from KP that she owes KP a favor
- Spidey and BC arrive at KPHQ and find Silvermane fighting a bunch of KP's thugs
- Cloak arrives and tries attacking KP but the Answer takes him out of the fight fairly quickly; Cloak is still weak
- Spidey and Kingpin fight; then Silvermane busts through a walk and joins the brawl, he is after Dagger; Kingpin fights Silvermane to prevent him from getting to Dagger and gets beaten pretty badly by the cyborg
- the fight ends when the Answer takes the comatose Dagger's hand and then vanishes; Dagger awakens and gives back to Silvermane the life energy she took from him; Silvermane is restored and leaves without saying a word
- Dagger is cracking with energy; Kingpin begs her to restore his wife, she refuses; she restores Vloak who has collapsed on the floor and then they teleport away
- Black Cat and Spidey take off after Kingpin turns on them, leaving Wilson Fisk alone with his wife, Vanessa
- final page get a glimpse of Spidey's black suit trapped at the Baxter Bldg trying to escape

- what happened to the Answer in the end ? Converted to energy helping to heal Dagger; according Comic Book DB his power is to develop a power for whatever he needs but just one or two powers at a time; 1st appeared in SSM 91-97; but his appearance in SSM 97 might just have been a recap appearance and then nothing until 1993 (9 years later); just 5 appearances in 1993 and then nothing until 2005

- first mention of the Dark Dimension

- see Thor 349 for the reason why it is snowing in the Summer; must have something to with the cask of ancient winters
- see ASM 258 for the full details on why Spidey is back to his old costume and how it is that MJ now knows that Peter Parker is Spidey

- my favorite story of this collection, very intricate; the art not so hot but it gets the job done; the only story of this collection not written by Mantlo

6/7

Spectacular Spider-Man 95

The Dagger at the End of the Tunnel
By Al Milgrom, Jim Mooney
Oct 84

- Spidey is injured from his fight with Silvermane; Black Cat helps him get home and into bed and then she leaves him to rest
-Silvermane continues to search for Dagger
- Dagger continues to be plagued by weakness which she can't understand but somehow seems to be tied to Silvermane and the fact that she's the one who killed him
- Spider-Man's costume possesses him while he is sleeping and had him go out swinging around; he later returns unaware of what he has been up to; not sure if that is going to be revealed in a future ish of SSM or possibly in the current ish of ASM
- the Answer is the one who first figures out about the connection between Dagger and Silvermane, he also contacts the Rose (on the Kingpin's behalf) and gives him a job
- the Rose doesn't understand the request but follows orders
- Black Cat goes out looking for C&D while Peter is sleeping, then she sees Spidey swing by; she calls out to him but he doesn't respond or give any indication he heard her; eventually she tracks down a lead which leads her to the docks; she seems to be jealous of Dagger even though Spidey seems to be with BC he keeps talking about D
- Kingpin is concerned about his wife who still hasn't recovered from the events of DD 180; maybe he thinks Dagger can cure her?
- the docks is where the Rose has laid a trap for C&D
- Peter wakes up back on bed and puts the the black costume on and goes out; he calls Ben Urich who gives him some intel about a big drug deal down on the docks
- everyone winds up at the docks in the end: C&D, Spidey, BC, Answer, Silvermane, the Rose; a big fight ensues; it ends with (1) the Answer flying in and swooping off with Dagger and (2) Silvermane jumping into Cloak's cape and Cloak disappearing

- was this the first reference to the Dark Dinension in a C&D story? (p. 16)
- reference to ASM Annual 18 which involves J Jonah Jameson on a page where they show what's going on in the lives of some of the supporting characters of Spidey's books
- lots going on

Spectacular Spider-Man 94

How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down at the Morgue After They've Seen N.Y.C.?
By Bill Mantlo, Al Milgrom, Jim Mooney
Sep 84

- Kingpin, with some help from some scientists and the Answer, revives Silvermane and sends him out to run some errands, but not before placing a submission collar around his neck
- Cloak and Dagger rough up some drug dealers but Dagger discovers that something has happened to her powers to make them inert
- Spider-Man runs into Silvermane while he is chasing a common criminal, they fight and Silvermane beats the heck out of Spidey
- Kingpin and friends seem to lose control of Silvermane
- Spidey shows up at the Black Cat's apartment out of breath and badly beaten

- not crazy about Spidey's black outfit
- the Answer's 1st Appearance was in SSM 91
- this Kingpin Appearance is post Miller Daredevil; DD 210 (Sep 84)
- although C&D aren't in it the story in this issue seems to flow out of the story in the previous one which is not included in this collection
- a little confusing but knowing that there's more to this story that isn't in this collection helps

5/26

Marvel Team-Up Annual 6

The Hunters and the Hunted!
By Bill Mantlo, Ron Frenz, Jevin Dzuban
1983

- Spider-Man and the New Mutants guest-starring Cloak and Dagger
- New Mutants: Cannonball, Psyche, Wolfsbane, Sunspot
- published at the same time as Marvel Comics cover dated Oct 1983 including New Mutants 8, in other words very early in their publication history; at this point they were still wearing their costumes that looked like the old X-Men uniforms

- New Mutants? Why New? Who refers to themselves that way? I feel the same about the name New Teen Titans; it's fine for a title but not the actual team's name

- Spider-Man runs into C&D on the docks, taking down some criminals breaking down stolen cars, but it turns out also have ties to gangsters doing drug experiments on teenagers like the one that gave C&D their powers; the difference is that they want to create super-powered teenagers that they can control, find bodies of teens killed in the experiments

- C&D's responses to the appearance of Spidey; Spider-Man? Spider-Man!

- New Mutants in Manhattan, in civilian attire; just leaving the theater after seeing Cats (the musical); go into an arcade, get into a fight; they leave but are followed and get into a fight with a big gang
- Wolfsbane and Sunspot get knocked out and dragged away by a couple mobsters, who work for the same criminals that are trying to repeat the experiment that created C&D; Cannonball and Psyche don't notice their teammates are gone until it is too late
- Spidey, C&D, Cannonball and Psyche all wind up at the Holy Ghost Church on 42nd St run by Father Francis Xavier Delgado; at first it looks like they might fight but then they decide to team-up to look for Sunspot and Wolfsbane
- the team of 5 finds the other two New Mutants but it is too late, they have already been injected with the experimental drug; SS and WB break free and start attacking everyone (gangsters, superheros) in a crazed state
- Cloak heals Sunspot when Sunspot jumps into his cape; Wolfsbane bites Dagger which infects her with the drug just as Dagger hits WB with her light daggers which cure WB; Dagger then attacks Cloak; somehow he is able to cure her
- afterward Spidey suggests that maybe Professor X could help C&D; they like the idea but reject it because they want to work things out themselves

- not great; C&D still seem a little one-note; they are all about being vigilantes and not accepting help from others

Spectacular Spider-Man 82

Crime and Punishment!
By Bill Mantlo, Al Milgrom, Jim Mooney
Sep 1983

- Part 2
- the Punisher, on a rooftop, dealing out justice to a man who attacks his wife one minute and to a litterbug the next
- Spidey visits the Kingpin to warn him but KP already knows what's coming and has made preparations
- the first to arrive is C&D; Spidey spars with them, in effect defending KP which gives KP a chance to escape into another room where the Punisher is waiting for him
- running from Dagger's light knives Spidey ducks into another room and runs into a bunch of KP's goons who aren't overjoyed to see him and do their best to take him down
- C&D catch up to Spidey and help to end that fight before renewing their battle with web head; Spidey gets sucked into Cloak's cape once again and only escapes when Dagger's light knives follow him in and show him the way out
- for the first (?) time Cloak seems to benefit from Dagger's light knives and says something about feeding off of the light, which creeps Spidey out
- it looks like Punisher has the upper hand but KP manages to defeat him, KP gets especially angry when Punisher threatens Vanessa, his wife

- this is it for Cloak and Dagger, for now, the Punisher's part of the story continues in the next issue

Spectacular Spider-Man 81

Stalkers in they Shadows
By Bill Mantlo, Al Milgrom, Jim Mooney
Aug 1983

- part 1 of 2
- with some help from Boomerang who is also incarcerated there, Punisher breaks out of Dannemora State Prison; he double crosses Boomerang at the last minute so only the Punisher escapes
- Peter helps his landlady, mrs. Muggins to fight off some addicts
- Cloak and Dagger tangle with the same addicts a few minutes later, not realizing that Peter (the kid who they saw fighting them off) is also Spider-Man; using her light daggers Dagger cures the junkies
- Punisher shows up just after C&D depart to interrogate them to learn whom they were getting drugs from
- Peter goes to visit Felicia Hardy (Black Cat) in the hospital although he has to change into costume to get past the policemen and women guarding her, including Captain Jean DeWolff
- Spidey investigates a boarded up building that he is swinging by when his spider-sense starts tingling and he finds C&D surrounded by the bodies of the junkies; he suspects them of killing the druggies and also reiterates his belief that Cloak must have some sort of hold on Dagger; after unsuccessfully  trying to take down Cloak, Dagger shows him that he's wrong
- by lighting up the room she enables him to see that they were shot with bullets, laced with a sedative according to Cloak
- the Punisher stands alone on a rooftop and states his plan to kill the man behind the drugs, the Kingpin

- better than the last three issues, possibly due to the inclusion of the Punisher

I now want to read some or most of the stories that fall in between SSM 70 and 81

Punisher
- Punisher is by no means a new character at this point
- he first appeared in ASM 129 (1974) but other than a couple stories in black and white comic book magazines he had only made guest appearances (mostly in Spidey's books) up to this point
- his appearance in this story is about a year after his appearances in Frank Miller's run on Daredevil
- just prior to this story he had appeared in SSM 78, 79 and just following this story in SSM 83 (which is not included in this collection) he goes on trial
- it would be a couple more years before he would get his first mini-series: Circle of Blood

Black Cat
- first appeared in ASM 194 (Jul 1979)
- had about a dozen appearances combined prior to this in ASM and SSM

Spectacular Spider-Man 70

The Great Cloak & Dagger Hunt!
By Bill Mantlo, Ed Hannigan, Al Milgrom
Sep 1982

- the return of Cloak & Dagger plus Silvermane (Part 2)
- Silvermane is dead, killed by Dagger, or so it seems, but his doctor is able to transfer his brains and organs into a bionic body
- Peter has another encounter with Deb Whitman who knows his secret, although he doesn't know she knows
- battle in the subway between Spidey, Silvermane, Cloak and Dagger; C&D are still eager to take him out of the picture
- SM brings the roof down which allows sunlight to shine down into the subway tunnel; the sunlight seems to recharge Dagger enough to fry SM's body; it seems like he is dead, but is he?

- this is Silvermane's first appearance since his body was broken in Amazing Spider-Man 180 in that fight with GG at RCMH
- unclear what affect Cloak has on a runaway subway train after he attempts to save or stop it by having it pass through him
- Silvermane reminds me a bit of the Terminator in T2 (1991)
- Once again Spidey tries talking Dagger out of killing SM and leaving Cloak; he is unsuccessful in both attempts
- why does Spidey only appeal to Dagger?
- just before they disappear Cloak hints that he and Dagger's association is a mutual decision and that he doesn't have some sort of hold over her; what's up with Spidey assuming that Cloak is manipulating Dagger?

Spectacular Spider-Man 69

The Return of Cloak and Dagger: In Darkness Seldom Seen
By Bill Mantlo, Ed Hannigan, and Al Milgrom
Aug 1982

- much better than the previous story
- part 1 of 2
- the art at times reminds me of Steve Ditko
- Cloak and Dagger are back, once again hunting criminals, specifically drug dealers, specifically Silvermane
- C&D don't seem quite as one note as they did on their first appearance; of the two Dagger seems more nuanced as she struggles with her conscience and her sense of loyalty to Cloak
- hints of a romantic attraction between Spidey and Dagger
- a number of Spider-verse characters make brief appearances: Nathan Lubensky, Debra Whitman, Marcy Kane, Jean DeWolff, Wilson Fisk
- in tracking down Silvermane, Spidey inadvertently leads C&D right to their intended target
- once again Spider-Man fights to save criminals from vigilantes but this issue ends with the apparent death of Silvermane by the hands of C&D

3/3

Spectacular Spider-Man 64

Cloak and Dagger
By Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan

- a little underwhelming, very straightforward

- Spider-Man meets Cloak and Dagger as they are chasing down a pharmacologist who experimented on them and other kids

- Spider-Man tries to prevent them from killing the scientist, unsuccessfully

- Peter gets someone at the Daily Bugle to do some research for him and discovers that Cloak and Dagger were just two of many who were used as test subjects by the mob on Ellis Island after it was no longer in use for immigration purposes

- Spider-Man heads to Ellis Island where he finds C&D who have captured the other men responsible for pumping them full of drugs and killing other teenagers, whom they plan on executing

- once again Spider-Man is unsuccessful in preventing C&D from executing the gangsters

- very 80s feel to it, not crazy about the art, probably cutting edge at the time

Feb 28