Hi everybody I'm Fab Fante you're
watching Fante's Inferno, the circle for
fans of film and comic books.
In this episode we're going to revisit the
good old battle days of New York City
with Marvel Comics Cloak and Dagger
number one.
A few years ago I reviewed Marvel Comics Cloak and Dagger number one from their
1983 four-issue mini-series
written by Bill Mantlo and illustrated
by Rick Leonardi
and Terry Austin, Cloak and Dagger number
one was the title character's first solo
comic
after five appearances in Peter Parker:
The Spectacular Spider-man.
Cloak and Dagger's first appearance in
Spectacular Spider-man number 64
written by Bill Mantlo and illustrated
by Ed Hannigan
was a powerful introduction to the
characters highlighting their powers and
their motivations for
distributing their brand of justice. But
that initial story made it really hard
to gauge Cloak and Dagger's role within
the Marvel Universe
because they were written as two
powerful beings hell bent on vengeance
rather than classic marvel heroism.
So a little backstory before we take a
look at the first issue of their 1983
miniseries.
Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen, two
teenage runaways,
are held captive at the mob's secret
drug lab on Ellis Island
and used as guinea pigs to test a new
synthetic drug.
Unlike the other runaways tyrone and
tandy survived the effects of the deadly
drug and now have powers of light and
darkness.
Yyrone envelops criminals in the cold
dark void within his cloak
and Tandy has the power to emit lethal
daggers of light.
Now we fast forward to the first issue
of their 1983 mini-series.
The story begins with Father Francis
Delgado walking the crime and
drug-infested streets of Hell's Kitchen
observed by Cloak and Dagger from the
top of the Port Authority bus terminal.
After a noble but unsuccessful night of
trying to save the street walkers and
criminals,
Father Delgado returns to his 42nd
street church praying for the strength
to continue his mission.
But his moment of despair is broken up
when Cloak and Dagger, bathed in her
light, appear on the altar.
Moved by his desire to save the hopeless
they ask Father Delgado for sanctuary
in his church
and recount the dark circumstances that
led to their powers and their mission of
vengeance against predators of the
innocent.
Meanwhile at Hell's Kitchen's 21st
Precinct a doctor tends to a group of
sick men in a jail cell.
The doctor can't make out their puzzling
symptoms that the cops dismiss as a bad
drug reaction.
Detective Brigid O'reilly has seen
their type before,
low lifes that prey on young runaways
in the Port Authority bus terminal known
as chicken hawks.
O'reilly takes an interest when one of
them tells her about the vigilantes that
took them out.
His description of Cloak and Dagger
matches the NYPD's previous reports of
powered vigilantes that took out
organized crime and drug dealers
and o'reilly will be damned if she lets
them control her territory and get
innocents killed.
Back at the church Tyrone and Tandy are
given shelter and food but Father
Delgado wants
answers. He's called the police to
confirm two vigilantes fitting their
description have made waves in hell's
kitchen.
But Father Delgado respects their
request for sanctuary and won't turn
them in.
Cloak and Dagger are confused as to why
Father Delgado would show pity toward
the criminals they target
but Father Delgado stresses they still
must be prosecuted according to the law.
Cloak isn't convinced of Father
Delgado's argument and they once again
take to the streets of Hell's Kitchen.
At Port Authority Jerry and Alice,
teenage siblings running away from a bad
home life,
step off the bus without money or
plans. They're quickly marked by Port
Authority chicken hawks promising them
food and a place to stay.
But as quickly as they walk through the
door to their den, motives become clear
and they can't fight their
way out. But cloak and dagger, following
them since they got off the bus,
bust in to dispense justice on the
predators. Dagger gives them an
opportunity to let Jerry and Alice go
but her good deed goes as expected and
one of the thugs charges them. Trapped
and released from the cold,
dark void of Cloaks... cloak, his cronies
don't make the same mistake and fire on
Cloak and Dagger.
The gunfire draws O'reilly to their lair,
but as the runaways try to escape
jerry is killed by a stray bullet. Any
thoughts of mercy are cast aside as
Dagger's shards of light take out the
three remaining chicken hawks.
O'reilly threatens Cloak and Dagger's
arrest for the death of Jerry.
Dagger is shattered by the death of an
innocent as O'reilly hammers them with
the reality that their methods are no
better than those of the criminals.
Cloak and Dagger teleport back to the
church where Dagger begins to question
their actions.
In the background Father Delgado is
called to administer last rites for the
dead runaway.
Compared to the origin stories of the
other Marvel heroes, Cloak and Dagger's
origin is pretty dark stuff,
right up there with Luke Cage's origin
story from a decade earlier.
But Cloak and Dagger number one takes us
to another level as Tyrone Johnson
and Tandy Bowen navigate the seedy,
dangerous New York City of the "good old
battle days" of the early 1980s,
with the drugs, prostitution and crime
represented in an unflinching manner in
Bill Mantlo's scripts.
It was usually the art that drew me to
buy a particular comic book
and this was no exception when Cloak and
Dagger hit the stands in 1983.
Just seeing Terry Austin's name on the
cover was more than enough for me to put
my 60 cents on the counter and buy this
issue.
His inks were a great match for Rick
Leonardi's pencils,
and to this day an original page of art
from this miniseries is still very high
on my want list.
But it was Bill Mantlo's writing,
particularly his use of 1983 New York
City as a backdrop,
that got me to buy the subsequent three
issues of this mini-series.
Mantlo poems no punches when writing
about the perils of runaways and
unprepared newcomers to new york city,
so this is a hard-hitting mini-series
establishing Bill Mantlo
as a passionate, uncompromising writer
that incorporated social issues into
this comic book.
His writing combined with Rick Leonardi's
pencils and Terry Austin's inks
brought the seediness of early 80s
Hell's Kitchen to the comic book page.
Issue number two was inspired by
real-life headlines from that era about
a sick sociopath
that poisons bottles of aspirin to kill
random unsuspecting people.
And in the first issue of their later
bi-monthly series,
Cloak and Dagger take on the predators that ensnared young women into a nightmare
life of Times Square peep shows
and worse. Looking back I'm actually
surprised
at how much of this atmosphere they were
able to use in their stories.
This was a comic book that likely had a
significant readership
under the age of 18 that depicted
prostitution and drugs.
This was pretty dark stuff for the time,
long before dark and gritty would
actually become overused in comic books.
While Cloak and Dagger never had the
same level of popularity as the
bellwether characters like Spider-man, the
Avengers or the X-men to name a few,
their 1980s stories were exciting, their
backstories hard hitting,
and their obligation to fighting for the
weak and seeking vengeance on the wicked
was very powerful.
In spite of their short comic runs or
the sales figures of their issues,
Cloak and Dagger truly fit the Marvel
premise that Stan Lee had used to
describe Spider-man:
Cloak and Dagger were two young
characters trying to navigate their
powers and the tribulations of life.
But their entrenchment in the crime and
drug-infested underworld of new york
city put that premise on steroids.
Cloak and Dagger number one of the 1983 mini-series still
resonates after almost 40 years and
that's a testament to Bill Mantlo.
Even though it represents an era of New
York city that hopefully won't make a
comeback,
there's a timelessness to these stories
and I highly recommend revisiting them.
The first four issues of the Cloak and
Dagger mini-series are currently
available on ComiXology,
and single print issues and the hardcover
trade are reasonably priced on eBay.
Thanks for watching everybody i hope you enjoyed this episode, and if you did
please hit the like button.
Leave a comment below and let me know
what you think about Cloak and Dagger.
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my website fantesinferno.com where
you'll find
other comic book reviews from previous
years. Thanks for watching and i'll see
you in the inferno.
