Issue(s): Cloak and Dagger #1, Cloak and Dagger #2, Cloak and Dagger #3, Cloak and Dagger #4
Cover Date: Oct 83 - Jan 84
Title: "The priest / The detective / Faith / Hope / Charity" / "Bellyful of blues!" / "Dark is my love, and deadly!" / "True confessions!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Rick Leonardi - Penciler
Terry Austin - Inker
Tom DeFalco - Editor

Review/plot:
Cloak & Dagger's appearances in Spider-Man were popular enough that Marvel used the new mini-series format to create a series for them. With Rick Leonardi and Terry Austin, this series defines a slightly abstract art style that is associated with the duo.

Cloak & Dagger show up at the church of Father Delgado and ask for sanctuary.

He's unhappy with their vigilantism, but takes them in.

Over the course of this series we delve into the backgrounds of Cloak & Dagger.

Cloak & Dagger are also pursued by Detective Brigid O'Reilly.

While attacking a group of drug dealers, a stray bullet meant for the duo instead hits an innocent runaway boy, and she holds them responsible for his death, but she comes around and works with them on other cases, including an over-the-counter drug tampering case.

However, that doesn't go so well either when Cloak absorbs the tamperer and won't let him go.

In issue #1, it's mentioned that Cloak doesn't actually eat food.

He derives sustenance entirely from his victims or Dagger's light.

And Cloak prefers to steal the 'light' from criminals who don't deserve it rather than feeding off of Dagger. He does eventually relent and release his victim, though.

Detective Brigid O'Reilly will eventually become the super-powered ghast named Mayhem. This is her first appearance.

Regarding their origins, i've always been a little uncomfortable about that fact that Cloak, a black guy, is a runaway because of a violent ghetto crime (he wasn't directly involved, but still)...

...and has "dark" powers and struggles with an evil nature...

...whereas Dagger is a runaway from a middle class home because her parents are divorced...

...and has angelic powers.

But i'd probably decry a scenario where their backgrounds or powers were reversed as too obviously PC, so i guess Marvel couldn't win either way. Maybe i'll just be offended by the introduction of yet another Irish cop instead.

Anyway, good art, and not a terrible story.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Father Delgado & Detective O'Reilly.

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is the first appearance of Father Delgado, so this needs to take place before Marvel Team-Up annual #6 where he appears as a character Cloak & Dagger already know.

References:

• Cloak & Dagger's origin, from Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #64, is retold and expanded upon here (no actual footnote).

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The beginning of the most beautiful comics I ever read ... Bill Mantlo - I adore what you gave here ... (This is said after 40 years of dedication to Barks, Eisner, Gerber, Feldstein, Miller, Claremont, O'Neil and countless others.)

The drug tampering plot was inspired by the real-life Tylenol poisonings that happened that year. They were the reason why all drugs & medicines to this day have 3 or 4 layers of tamper-proof barriers.

I always thought Cloak's origin was much better than the stereotypical "black man fleeing the police for a crime he didn't commit". Cloak panicked in a tough situation and as a result, one good man killed another. It's not really the law he was running from, it was his own guilt.

You're definitely right that Cloak's origin isn't a rehash of, say, Luke Cage's. And the stuttering aspect is a unique touch. What i was reacting to is how Cloak & Dagger's origin and powers are so obviously influenced by their ethnicities. Tandy has "poor little rich girl" problems, whereas Cloak was a witness to a violent ghetto crime. I backed away from the criticism, but that's what i was getting at.

I've revised my words a bit for clarity.

If your not comfortable with their powers you'll be glad to know they switched powers

They're like Power Pack now?
When did this happen? The last time I saw them (a one-shot written by Nick Spencer, probably about three years ago), they were still the same.

Screenshot here but from the little i saw of them (they weren't the focus of the issue) it seemed like Dagger still had the light power despite the costume switch.

Ed Hannigan was supposed to be the original artist for this book.

Chris, I think the "switch" happened in in their "Spider-Island" tie-in.

Regarding the "Light and Darkness come together panel": yeah, that's not sexual at ALL! (rolleyes.)

Even before their recent "switch," The final issue of the (second?) ongoing C+D series in 1991 reveals that Tandy and Ty were actually destined to get different powers but had their abilities altered through the interference of the demon D'Spayre. Originally, Tyrone would have gotten light powers and Tandy would have had darkness powers; they were latent mutants or something all along.

If that sounds convoluted and silly...well, it's a Terry Kavanagh story.

Fantastic artwork here, and Mantlo does some of his best work with these early Cloak and Dagger stories. It's just too bad he wasn't able to build a successful title by including all the necessary building blocks. But this LS is very good.

So were they considered "mutants" at this point or did that first come up after the X-Men became mega-popular at the beginning of the 90s? (Of course Marvel would confuse the matter by going back and forth of this. For all I know they're probably Inhumans now.)

In Power Pack 19, Cloak claims that he and Dagger are not mutants. The idea that they were mutants really started with their 1988 series.