Cloak

Origin

Tyrone Johnson grew up poor in the slums of South Boston. He was a stutterer, and at age 17 this affliction became more than an embarrassment when he couldn’t speak up to save his best friend’s life from a policeman’s bullet.

Overwhelmed with grief and guilt, Tyrone ran away from home. He ended up in New York City, haunting the Manhattan Port Authority Bus Terminal, desperate for food and searching for someone to rob. Instead, he found Tandy Bowen, another runaway, and ironically, prevented her from being robbed. Their strong friendship started here, with each trying to help the other.

The pair were homeless, and despite Tyrone’s reservations, they were lured to the laboratory of Simon Marshall. He was a chemist working for the Maggia, attempting to develop an addictive drug the crime family could sell. Marshall used teenage runaways to test his new drug – with lethal consequences. There were no survivors of his experiments until Tyrone and Tandy. They were transformed into super-powered beings and escaped. Tyrone had become a being of darkness and shadow, with a hunger for the light of life forces that Tandy’s glowing powers could ease. He hid his strange appearance with a cloak and adopted the name of the garment. Eventually, the pair would use their new abilities to destroy their captors and save other children from crime, drugs, and abuse.

At one time, it was believed the designer drug had made their latent mutant genes manifest. Later it was revealed that D’Spayre’s machinations were responsible for Tyrone and Tandy gaining their powers.

Creation

Cloak was created by Bill Mantlo and Ed Hannigan and first appeared alongside Dagger in The Spectacular Spider-Man #64 – Cloak and Dagger!.

Major Story Arcs

Against All Ods

Tyrone and Tandy remained together for a long time and bonded to an extant that they could not be apart from one another. They both swore to fight crime and put an end to as many drug-related crimes as possible. Because of their mission, they came into contact with other super-powered people such as Spider-Man ass wel ass local police chief Brigit O’Reilly. During their time spent together, Spider-Man and Tandy where attracted to one another and Spider-Man thought that Cloack had a bad influance on Tandy. It also seemed that Tyrone had romantic feelings towards Tandy, but these where unawnsered from her part. This caused Cloack to become very jealous of Tandy sometimes when she would flirt with Spider-Man or when she got herself a boyfriend. Cloak eventually accepeted that Tandy did not love him in the same way he did her. Tandy did however help Cloack on a number of ocassions since he sometimes felt consumed by his dark powers. It was Tandy that would blast him with her light powers. This eventually became an addiction to Cloack as he kept on feeding of her lightpowers. Feeling betrayed, Dagger left Cloack for some time, during which time Cloak’s Dark powers became more and more out of control. For some time, Cloak managed to get his “Light-fix” thanks to the mutant known as Dazzler, but her powers could not satisfy Cloak, coasing his darkness to grow. The two eventually got back together again as friends after they shared a battle against the evil Mister Jip. During their times together, they also explored their newfound powers. They apparently lost it on a number of ocassions, but eventually got them back again too.

Infinity Gauntlett and Maximum Carnage

When Thanos killed half of the universe during the events of Infinity Gauntlett, this included Dagger as well. Cloak joined all the remaining superheroes in a fight against Thanos, to avenge Dagger’s death. Cloak was later also killed by Thanos, among a number of heroes. However, after this event, the actions of Thanos where reverserd by Adam Warlock, causing Cloak and Dagger to reappear alive once again.

After a number of months, Tyrone and Tandy appeared on the scene once more when they joined and helped a group of heroes, including Spider-Man, Iron Fist, Captain America and Black Cat in defeating the deranged serial-killer known as Carnage. After Carnage had escaped his jail and his death-pennalty, he went to New York City where he gathered a band of villains and started a rampage thoughout the city. The ensuing chaos caused riots in the streets. The tide was turned when Cloak and his teammate Dagger joined the team. This with Tandy’s powers being able to subdue Carnage for some time. Eventually, the heroes managed to stop Carnage, with many thanks to Cloak and Dagger.

Some months later, Cloack and Dagger where seen resuming their war against drugs.

With the Marvel Knights

Many months after these events, Dagger was seen again, seemingly without Cloak this time. She became part of a non-team formerly known as the Marvel Knights, a group of street-crime fighting superheroes consisting of, among others, Black Widow, Daredevil and Shang-Chi. Some time after Dagger joined, Cloack resurfaced. It was revealed then that he had been in the clutches of Nightmare, an evil entity. Luckily, the Marvel Knights where able to free Tyrone, but at the cost of his powers, or so it seemed. Afterwards, Tyrone also joined the Marvel Knights, but the team eventually disbanned and Cloak and Dagger once more whent their own way.

Runaways

Cloak and Dagger were manipulated by into tracking down the six runaway children of the Pride, a secret criminal organization. The two heroes eventually learned the truth about the Pride and promised to help the children, but the Pride caught up to them and erased their memories of the truth.

Civil War

During the superhuman Civil War, Cloak and Dagger both join the Anti-Registration Movement. Both Cloak and Wiccan acted as teleporters for the Movement. Before the first major battle between the Pro and Anti-Registration in the Geffen-Meyer Chemical Plant, Iron Man knocks out both Cloak and Wiccan, preventing the two to teleport out of the chemical plant. After the death of Goliath, Cloak, with the telepathic assistance of Cable, was able to teleport the Secret Avengers out of the chemical plant. During the final battle, Cloak teleports both Pro and Anti-Registration Movements out of 42 and transport them to Manhattan.

Dark Reign

Cloak and Dagger, after another drug-elimination sortie, were approached by Norman Osborn, who offered them a deal to have their criminal record cleared if they would join his special mutant peacekeeping force.

The two accepted and became part of Osborn’s personal team of X-Men. The normally reclusive Cloak thus became part of a greater team assigned to keep the peace in San Francisco after a series of pro and anti-mutant riots. Donning a new costume, and now keeping his face un-hooded, Cloak realized that he and Dagger could no longer hold themselves apart from the world at large. When Dagger expressed the idea of running again, Cloak stopped her, saying that if they ran away again they would be on the run forever.

They kept true to their heroic ideals even when mixed with the more distasteful members of their team. Thus, when Emma and Namor betrayed Osborn as part of Scott Summers’ ploy, both Cloak and Dagger were invited to join the true X-Men in their exodus from San Francisco.

Tandy and Ty accepted, and the two runaways became part of a different team, and among their own kind.

After tests were taken, it was relieved that neither Tandy nor Ty were mutants and that the drug gave both superheroes their powers.

Sabertooth Reborn

Some time ago, Wolverine had Cloak trap Romulus in Cloak’s dark dimension. Now, a recently resurrected Sabertooth has kidnapped Dagger and forced Cloak to release Romulus. Cloak complied but instead of freeing Dagger, Sabertooth tied him to the top of the Empire State Building. This is where Wolverine finds him, but when he unties the weakened Cloak the pair fall to earth. Cloak is able to port them to safety

Later Cloak goes with Wolverine to the place he hid Sabertooth’s corpse, and although Cloak claimed it was Sabertooth that had attacked him, Sabertooth’s dead body is right where Wolverine had left it. The pair is standing there looking into the grave when Cloak hears Dagger’s scream.

Wolverine and Cloak track the scream to a cabin and find Romulus holding a weakened Dagger. Wolverine attacks Romulus and Cloak grabs Dagger. Against her wishes, he teleports the pair to safety leaving Wolverine behind.

Sometime later, Wolverine needs Cloak’s teleporting powers to sneak himself and Remus into Romulus’s Italian stronghold. Cloak will not leave Dagger’s side so he brings her along too. Once inside Wolverine breaks from the group, but when he is overpowered by a stronger fiercer Romulus and a smarter Sabertooth, Cloak, Dagger, and Remus, come to his aid. Cloak is able to fight Sabertooth to a standstill but when Sabertooth pulls out “Plan B’, a large bomb, Cloak teleports Dagger and Remus to safety.

Cloak is later seen with Wolverine, Remus, and Dagger on a beach somewhere in the South Pacific. Wolverine comments on how Cloak is dealing with an SPF 45 world and Ty comments on how he and Tandy are going to head to New York City.

Fear Itself: The Deep

Attuma has become one of the Worthy and is transformed into Nerkkod, Breaker of Oceans after he comes into possession of one of the mystic hammers. Nerkkod would bolster his army and prepare to conquer the oceans but is confronted by Namor and company. Dr. Strange would conjure up a spell and call upon the Defenders from the past and present including Cloak for reinforcements. Nerkkod is forced to retreat and his army is defeated.

Spider-Man and Mister Negative

It was revealed that both Cloak and Dagger were captured by crime-lord Mister Negative and, by use of his ‘negative powers’, had been turned into his henchmen. While under the influence of Mister Negative, both Cloak and Dagger were tasked with bringing down Spider-Man. Luckily Spider-Man managed to reverse the transformation which caused Cloak and Dagger to turn sides, and help Spider-Man in defeating Mister Negative.

Powers

Cloak’s powers derive from his ability to manipulate Darkforce energy and access the dimension from which it originates. He might actually be made of this negative energy. Darkforce energy is perceived by humans as dark matter, either in gas, liquid, or solid form. It is cold, draining, and prolonged exposure can cause insanity, turn one evil, and even kill. Cloak can do the following:

• Create a localized field of impenetrable darkness.
• Create mobile, solid tendrils of darkness.
• Hide in shadows.
• Become intangible, perhaps by changing the solid state of his body into a gas state, perhaps by only partially moving into the Darkforce dimension.
• Pull people into the Darkforce dimension by opening a portal within his ‘cloak.’
• Teleport himself and others by opening a portal into, then out of, the Darkforce dimension, i.e. taking an inter-dimensional shortcut.

Cloak’s powers can be fairly extensive. He managed to temporarily trap Thanos in his cloak. Once, when Mr. Jip magically increased his hunger, Cloak’s darkness spilled out of him to cover several square blocks of Manhattan.

Weakness:

Cloak feels a constant hunger which must be fed by a semi-mystical light energy, which is akin to the light of a soul. Dagger is one of the only possible sources of this energy and she regularly “feeds” him with her light bolts. Other sources of light don’t work; for instance, Dazzler tried to feed him once, using many kinds of light, but it didn’t help him.

If Cloak is exposed to too much pure light energy, he will revert back into his human form. While in human form he has no access to his powers.

Status

Known Relatives: Mr. & Mrs. Johnson (parents), Anna Johnson (twin sister), Otis Johnson (brother) & Smokin’ Joe (uncle)

Citizenship: Citizen of the United States; with a criminal record.

Place of Birth: South Boston, Massachusetts

Marital Status: Single

Occupation: Vigilante & Adventurer (Formerly: runaway)

Education: High School Dropout

Gender: Male

Height: Variable, normally 5’9″

Weight: Variable, normally 155 lbs (70 kg)

Eyes: Brown. White when in Cloak persona

Hair: Black. No hair when in Cloak persona.

Unique Characteristic: While in Cloak persona, all that is seen is his face.

Alternate Realities

Earth-295

Age of Apocalypse

The Age of Apocalypse versions of Cloak and Dagger were members of Sinister’s Six. They were mentally manipulated into working with Sinister on his team. Once under his control, he would use them to attack the X-Men. Cloak would be one of the few survivors of the battle. His mental control would be psionically broken by the telepathic ninja, Psylocke.

Earth-58163

House of M

In the House of M reality, Cloak is a member of Luke Cage’s Underground Resistance.

Earth-9200

In this reality, Cloak was quickly killed during Maestro’s initial attack. His cloak is saved as a remembrance by his one-time partner, Dagger.

Earth-1610

Ultimate Universe

In the Ultimate Universe, Cloak and Dagger are two teens who supposedly died in an automobile accident, only for their deaths to be faked by the Roxxon Corporation so that they could be used for experiments. The two gained superpowers, and used them to fight back against Roxxon.

Earth-8311

Spider-Ham Universe

In this reality, Cloak is called Croak and has the appearance of a frog.

Other Media

Television

Ultimate Spider-Man

Cloak appears in the Ultimate Spider-Man episode “Cloak and Dagger.” He and Dagger become members of Taskmaster´s Thunderbolts, and later joini S.H.I.E.L.D.´s New Warriors. He was voiced by Phil LaMarr.

Cloak and Dagger (2018)

The characters starred in a live-action Cloak and Dagger series for Freeform from 2018-2020, with Cloak played by Aubrey Joseph.

The Runaways (2019)

In an episode of the last season of The Runaways, Cloak and Dagger get summoned to Hostel and help the Runaways get to the dark realm. He is their source of teleportation and accidentally touches Gert, causing them to both see her worst fears. He later transports them out of the Dark Dimension, with Cloak and Dagger both leaving back to their home. Aubrey Joseph reprised his role.

Marvel’s Spider-Man (2019)

Cloak and Dagger guest-starred in Marvel’s Spider-Man in a self-titled episode, with Aubrey Joseph reprising his role as Cloak’s voice.

Games

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (2009)

Voiced by Ahmed Best, he appears as an NPC boss exclusively for the PS2, PSP and Wii versions.

Marvel Heroes

Cloak appears as unplayable NPC in the first act. He brought Ben Urich to Kingpin’s Collection area after the player has defeated the boss.

Merchandise

• ToyBiz released a two-pack featuring Cloak and Dagger.
• Diamond Select released a Marvel Select two-pack featuring Cloak and Dagger.
• Diamond Select also produced Minimates featuring Cloak and Dagger.
• Diamond Select produced a Cloak and Dagger bust.
• Sideshow Collectibles released a Cloak and Dagger bust, as well as a polystone statue of the two.
• Cloak was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Universe line as part of the Marvel Knights set of figures.
• Cloak and Dagger were featured in the Heroclix figure game as part of the Civil War set, and again in the Secret Invasion set.
• Eaglemoss created a special figurine depicting Cloak and Dagger.
• Cloak received a Marvel Legends figure as part of the SP//dr Build-a-Figure wave.