Issue(s): Marvel Comics Presents #9 (Cloak story only)
Cover Date: Dec 88
Title: "In the dark"
Credits:
Marc McLaurin - Writer
Tony Salmons - Penciler
Alan Gordon - Inker
Mike Rockwitz - Assistant Editor
Terry Kavanagh - Editor

Review/plot:
Marc McLaurin is the Assistant Editor on the regular Cloak & Dagger series and we've seen Tony Salmons' stylized art before, notably on Dakota North.

Cloak hears about a well shaft that has collapsed on a little girl, and thinks that his teleporting powers would be ideally suited to rescuing her. It's also an opportunity to prove to Dagger that he's worthy of her love and not a monster (something that we all know she doesn't need proven, and it's worth noting that Cloak and Dagger seem to be sharing a bedroom in this story).

When Cloak arrives on the scene, the local rescue force assumes that he's a monster of some sort, and they start shooting at him. So he teleports into the well and finds that the girl has been taken by Moloids.

In the kind of blatant irony that is only acceptable when you have eight pages to work with, Cloak immediately makes the same assumptions about the Moloids that the police had about him. He starts absorbing them but finds that instead of draining their light he is weakened because they are devoid of both light and darkness. The little girl also schools him for making assumptions about the Moloids, who were actually helping her, and so Cloak helps them get her out of the well.

You really have to watch your expectations on these. I found myself thinking, "Hey, this was actually ok!" before i caught myself and realized that no, this story has no reason to exist and Tony Salmons' art kinda sucks. Once again, we have a story devoted to a character that already has an ongoing series; i don't understand the point of it.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Dagger has short hair. Since she's asleep in the one panel that she appears in, there's no telling if she's blind or not. But the short hair seems to require that this go prior to Strange Tales #16. After that issue Cloak and Dagger are basically unavailable for generic appearances until the break in Cloak and Dagger #8, and at that point Dagger has grown her hair out again. So i've placed this between Strange Tales #15-16.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A