As characters who debuted in 1982, Cloak and Dagger certainly are among the most famous of Marvel’s creations from the 1980s. Their popularity has, of course, extended even after the 1980s and that is why I have decided to dedicate today’s article to this duo. Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger are quite interesting characters with a very interesting story, and although they are not among Marvel’s most popular characters, Cloak and Dagger are certainly interesting enough to merit an article.
Cloak and Dagger do lose their powers in a storyline involving Sunspot and Wolfsbane, but that was only temporary and they got them back in that same storyline in full capacity.
In today’s article, I am going to talk about Cloak’s and Dagger’s powers. You are going to find out what exact powers they have and how they function as a team. Then, I am going to talk about them losing their powers and how that event actually ended, i.e., how they got their powers back. Let us begin!
What are Cloak’s powers?
Tyrone “Ty” Johnson acquired the Dark Form of the demon D’Spayre, which endowed him with the ability to create an opening in the Darkforce Dimension and to send people into the dimension, which is his main powers. With his, he also gained the ability of intangibility, as well as the ability to teleport himself and others through the Darkforce Dimension.
People shrouded in Cloak’s darkness feel terrified and experience horrifying visions of their own fears and nightmares. Long-term exposure to the darkness can drive people completely mad.
Cloak’s teleportation abilities are quite admirable, as he is able to, by traveling only a short distance within the Darkforce Dimension, reappear back on Earth, but a great distance away from his point of origin. This ability is enhanced due to the fact that only a few steps in the Darkforce Dimension translate to several miles on Earth.
As Cloak, Tyrone is virtually intangible, although he can take on a tangible form if he wishes so, or by absorbing enough “light” to temporarily saturate his form.
Cloak feels a constant hunger that can only be appeased by feeding on the light projected by Dagger or the light consumed by the victims sent to the Darkforce Dimension. In later stories, he is able to control this hunger much better.
Also, he can mentally see and project the fears of certain people he touches, although this wasn’t a firmly established power in the comic books.
What are Dagger’s powers?
Tandy Bowen is the polar opposite of Cloak. Her main ability is the creation of a multitude of Lightforce light daggers that travel wherever she wants them to and that drain vitality from living things when they strike them.
Her light daggers also have the ability to heal certain people of drug addictions and can alleviate Cloak’s above-mentioned hunger for light, while, at the same time, keeping her from becoming overcharged with the Lightforce.
Much like Cloak, Dagger can even mentally see and project the hopes of certain people by touching them.
Both Cloak and Dagger have moderate street fighting experience, and Dagger’s combat techniques utilize her Lightforce powers and ballet-dance training, as well as his sense of spatial relationships, which had been enhanced by her temporary blindness.
How do Cloak’s and Dagger’s powers work together?
Although there are a lot of superhero duos and groups, Cloak and Dagger have a pretty unique dynamic as their powers completely complement each other and, in a way, the two of them are mutually dependant.
Cloak and Dagger represent two polar opposites. Cloak is the embodiment of Darkness (Darkforce), while Dagger is the embodiment of Light (Lightforce). In that aspect, they do not cancel each other out in any way, they actually complement each other. Dagger feeds Cloak’s thirst for Light, while Cloak enables Dagger to not overcharge herself with her Light.
They are a perfect combination and that is really what makes them so special and so unique in the world of superhero comic books.
How did Cloak and Dagger get their powers?
Tyrone Johnson grew up poor in the slums of South Boston. Being a stutterer, he was unable to warn his friend of impending danger and saw him die. Traumatized, Ty, as he was called, leaves for New York.
Tandy Bowen was a sixteen-year-old girl who grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, where many wealthy people lived. Bowen’s mother, Melissa, was a famous and self-centered model who had become wealthy, not only because of her own career, but also by receiving the inheritance from her former husband.
Tandy’s father had left for India in search of a “spiritual rebirth.” Sometime later, Melissa married Phillip Carlisle. Though kind, Tandy was still hurt by her father’s departure and wouldn’t accept Phillip. Her mother neglected her too.
Living on the streets, Ty is desperate for food and looking for someone to steal from but when he sees Tandy, a young woman who has just run away from home, he decides to help her not get mugged. She bought him food and the two began to trust each other.
Sometime later, Simon Marshall and his outlaws offer Tandy and Tyrone food and shelter. Naive as she is, Tandy accepts, but Tyrone suspected that some things might be wrong. When they arrived at the shelter, they were beaten and rendered unconscious.
Simon actually worked for Maggia and took the pair to Ellis Island, where they injected them with a drug they intended to use as a substitute for heroin and needed guinea pigs. Due to genetic factors (and some magical interference from Despair), Tyrone and Tandy survived while the other human subjects died from the drug’s effects.
These drugs caused both of them to become mutants. Tandy and Tyronne escape together with a Chinese man (who would later be known as Mr. Negative). Not long after the incident, the two teenagers began to manifest superhuman powers. Marshall’s men attacked and were consumed by the hunger of Tyrone’s new powers. The two decided to rename themselves Cloak and Dagger, pledging to protect other young men from the dangers they will encounter.
Did Cloak and Dagger lose their powers in the comics?
Marvel Comics has a long history with mutant characters and there are truly more than enough reference points for us to answer some of the questions regarding the duo’s powers.
What we know about mutants is that they, generally, do not lose their powers. Why? Well, their powers are generally a side-effect of their own genetic structure and since that is not something that changes quite often, mutants don’t generally lose their powers. They can be inhibited or temporarily halted by some means, but mutants usually retain their powers.
So, can Cloak and Dagger lose their powers? If one is to trust the storyline of the Marvel Team-Up Annual #6 (1983), Cloak and Dagger can indeed lose their powers.
In this story, featuring Spider-Man, Cloak and Dagger work on their usual drug-fighting cases when they encounter a couple of X-Men and Spider-Man. They find out that someone has kidnapped two other X-Men, Sunspot and Wolfsbane, two young mutants and that these people plan to experiment on them using the same drug that created Cloak and Dagger.
When Cloak and Dagger find that out, they rush to help them, followed by Spider-Man and the other mutants. But they arrive too late, as the kidnapped mutants had already been injected with the drug, which results in them losing control over their powers completely.
Sunspot and Wolfsbane become rabid and they attack everyone around them. And while Cloak easily managed to subdue and calm down Sunspot (although the consequences were the same, he got exposed to Sunspot’s drug in a different manner), Dagger is bitten by Wolfsbane, which causes her to lose her powers and Wolfsbane to calm down.
It was explained that such a reaction was a consequence of Wolfsbane’s saliva, which contained the drug, came into contact with Dagger’s unique chemical structure. The reaction cured Wolfsbane, but caused Dagger to go crazy.
This, as it seems, is a possible manner in which the duo could lose their powers – exposure to another dose of the same drug that had created them.
How can Cloak and Dagger return their powers?
The same story that told us how Cloak and Dagger can lose their powers also showed us how they can retrieve them. Namely, when Cloak and Dagger went mad and out of control, which threatened their lives as well, they decide to cancel each other out.
Namely, Cloak’s Darkforce enveloped Dagger’s Lightforce and the two polar opposites annulled each other. It seemed dangerous, but Spider-Man correctly deduced that the two were just helping each other out and that their respective powers had healing properties for the other one. This annulled the chaos and calmed them down, leaving them as before – “cursed”, but not chaotic.