Tandy BowenDagger

Tandy Bowen’s life started in privilege, but it wasn’t the life for which she was destined. The teenage rebel’s path took a super-powered turn when she crossed paths with Tyrone “Ty” Johnson and the two ended up participating in a shady scientific experiment. Because of this, the duo developed powers that balanced each other. Tandy became Dagger, an embodiment of light that provided the yin to Cloak’s dark yang. Together, they became nearly unstoppable and inseparable.

Running Toward the Light

Tandy Bowen grew up in a wealthy Cleveland suburb, wanting for nothing—except love. As a child, her father, Nathan Tyler, abandoned his family to seek spiritual enlightenment in India. Her mother Melissa, a successful model, went through a string of replacement husbands, neglecting Tandy in favor of her career. Tandy coped by throwing herself into dancing, sharing her dream of becoming a prima ballerina with her friend Mary Gregory, who in turn hoped to become a famous actress. Eventually Melissa Bowen married Phillip Carlisle. While he actually did really care for Tandy, his love was not reciprocated. At age sixteen, Tandy ran away to New York.

Upon arriving in the Big Apple, her handbag was stolen within minutes of her arrival, but fellow runaway Tyrone Johnson retrieved it, initiating a fast friendship. Believing that they were being offered shelter, the two were taken against their will to Ellis Island. Simon Marshall, a pharmaceutical chemist for the criminal gang the Maggia, was experimenting on dozens of runaways to develop a new synthetic, addictive narcotic his employers hoped will be cheaper than imported heroin. Tandy and Tyrone survived the experiment, thanks to their unique body chemistry.

After they escaped, they swam to safety in freezing waters. Tandy began to glow with light while Tyrone was surrounded by darkness. Reaching shore, the pair faced the gang who sold them to Marshall and they slayed the criminals with their new powers. Tyrone absorbed Marshall’s thugs into his darkness while Tandy struck them down with daggers of light. The two teens dubbed themselves Cloak and Dagger and declared war on drug crime.

The demon D’Spayre later claimed that he placed “soulforms” within them, allegedly swapping and perverting their natural powers so that they would spread despair for him. When D’Spayre tried to reclaim the light and dark forms for himself, Cloak and Dagger resisted, and D’Spayre was seemingly destroyed. In the process, Cloak’s and Dagger’s powers were altered, though their original abilities reassert themselves over time.

Illuminating Abilities

Dagger generates an excess of the psionic energy possessed by all living beings, which she can release as light, usually in the form of six-inch-long “light knives” fired from her fingers. These normally transfer some of the victim’s life energy to Dagger, and can stun, paralyze, or slay, depending on their strength. Though harder to create, she can generate knives that project, rather than steal, light, cleansing harmful substances such as narcotics and providing redemptive visions. While these do not heal injuries, they can boost a recipient’s natural healing process, even reviving the near-dead. This light can also protect others within Cloak’s darkness and stave off his hunger. Usually the knives do not affect “unliving” or soulless creatures, but Dagger’s powers have fluctuated over the years. On occasion, the knives have short-circuited electronics. The knives can turn in flight to pursue a target, even seeking out specific individuals whose location is unknown to Dagger over distances of several miles, though they lose their potency the farther they travel.

If Dagger absorbs too much light, or fails to regularly discharge her own, she becomes aloof and cruel, then mentally hazy, and finally feverish. Conversely, if she gives away too much, she weakens and could theoretically die.

Her internal light increases her agility and swiftness to nearly super human levels. Combined with her natural athleticism, dance, and gymnastic skills, this makes her a good hand-to-hand combatant, even able to dodge gunfire. Evidence suggests the light also enhances her attractiveness, such that weaker-willed individuals may become obsessed with her. When Night removed Dagger’s natural darkness, Tandy’s powers were enhanced to where she could generate solid weapons out of light. Conversely, D’Spayre briefly gave her Darkforce powers, generating solid shapes from shadow, allegedly what she would have developed without outside interference. She is partially immune to both Cloak and Mayhem’s powers, due to their interrelated abilities. Dagger can function and fight in total darkness, having learned to do so while she was blind.

Antagonistic Adversaries

Tandy’s father becomes a cult leader as the Lord of Light in India. He discovers his own light powers through meditation and becomes a “light vampire” who feeds on the life forces of others. Realizing his powers have made him deranged, Cloak and Dagger fight him until Tandy’s pleas move him to commit suicide by leaping inside Cloak.

While the sorcerer Mr. Jip sought out a new host body in Cloak, his agents Night (Lea C. Farr) and Day (Anthony Zerbe) were driven away by Dagger who drew out the Predator, an ancient and shapeshifting demon from the Darkforce Dimension.

In a confrontation with Mister Negative, another survivor of the drug experiments, Cloak and Dagger switched powers.

Crime-Fighting Colleagues

Dagger’s biggest ally is Cloak, as the two operate most effectively as a team. Police detective Brigid O’Reilly (who later became Mayhem) regards the duo as a menace until they help her capture serial poisoner Duane Hellman. O’Reilly’s former partner, police detective Rebecca “Rusty” Nales, becomes an ally to Cloak and Dagger as well.

Dagger briefly joins the youthful New Warriors Super Hero team as a reservist, despite the antisocial Cloak’s repeated refusal of membership. They also work with the Runaways at one point.

Cloak and Dagger befriend Father Lantom of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, who sympathizes with their crime-fighting and grants them refuge at St. Patrick’s when they need it. In return, the duo support Lantom’s parish and its charitable works wherever possible, though they also remain devoted to their vigilante work.

Powerful Partners

Cloak and Dagger started out as merciless vigilantes when they killed Simon Marshall despite the interference of Spider-Man (Peter Parker). Spider-Man also failed to stop Dagger from slaying the villain Silvermane, who was revived as a cyborg by Manfredi’s minions. Dagger short-circuited him, unwittingly absorbing his life force and forging a bond between them. After this, Dagger became less ruthless and tried to steer Cloak in a similar direction. Since his power compelled him to consume living beings, Cloak found it more difficult to follow this gentler path.

Cloak and Dagger twice aided Sunspot and Wolfsbane, members of the New Mutants and junior trainees of the X-Men. The two were injected with a serum created by the Maggia, meant to mimic the one made by Simon Marshall. Cloak and Dagger eventually learned that they were mutants themselves, and that Marshall’s drug had awakened their latent powers.

Cloak and Dagger found sanctuary at the Holy Ghost Church with the sympathetic Father Francis Delgado, but over time, Delgado became romantically obsessed with Tandy. Delgado viewed Cloak as a demon feeding off Dagger’s purity and went mad trying to split up the duo. Cloak and Dagger found a new mentor in Tandy’s uncle, Father Michael Bowen. A reunion with her mother, arranged by Father Delgado, proved less successful when Melissa publicly humiliated Tandy in front of her society friends.

In her return to crime-fighting, Dagger battled the Disciplinarian (Bruce Crossman) and Ecstasy (Renee Deladier) alongside the Crimson Daffodil (Vernon French). She was kidnapped by Tyrannus to be a Bride of Set, fought the Jester (Jody Putt), cured M-Branch’s X-Force of radiation poisoning, and helped capture the Marked Man. Jim later returned her sight as part of a bargain.

In a quest to find a mindless servant, the Kingpin (Wilson Fisk) revived the Silvermane cyborg, and it sought to reclaim its life force from Dagger, draining her energy from afar. Believing that the same energy might revive his ailing wife Vanessa, Kingpin kidnapped Dagger.

The Maggia’s Chic DiAngelo kidnapped scientist Gregson Gilbert to build a synthetic army to stop Cloak and Dagger, but the duo rescued him with the assistance of the youthful Power Pack and Dragon Man.

Cloak and Dagger joined forces with Spider-Man, Captain America, Black Cat, Nightwatch, Iron Fist, Deathlok, Morbius, Venom, and Firestar to defeat the murderous villain Carnage. Apparently killed by Carnage’s wife, Shriek, Dagger was later revealed to have been healed by Cloak’s shroud. Fragments of her consciousness found refuge inside Cloak’s darkness, his love giving her the strength to hang on and reform.

Cloak fell under Nightmare’s influence again and sought to consume all lawbreakers, both major and minor. With her partner missing, Dagger teamed up with Daredevil (Matt Murdock), Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff), and others, devoting much of their time to hunting their homicidal fellow vigilante Punisher (Frank Castle).

Their quest led them to Cloak, who absorbed the Punisher, Dagger’s allies, and many others until Dagger and Doctor Strange purged Cloak’s corrupting darkness and restored his victims to Earth. In the process, Cloak reverted to human form as Tyrone Johnson again, though he later regained his Cloak powers. She also briefly joined Dr. Druid’s Secret Defenders to repel the demon Slorioth, but soon returned to Cloak. Alongside Spider-Man and Ghost Rider (Danny Ketch), Cloak and Dagger defeated Thule’s neo-Nazis and their master Mephisto.

Cloak and Dagger later learned of the Pride and its control over the city, particularly its police force. They agreed to help the Runaways, but the Pride was able to capture the pair of them and wiped their memories clean before they could act. The procedure knocked Cloak and Dagger unconscious, and Alice Hayes was able to plant a false memory of binge-drinking in their minds.

They were later approached by Norman Osborn who wanted them to join his Dark X-Men. The two initially refused as they didn’t consider themselves mutants. While Cloak remained dubious, Dagger agreed when Osborn promised they could fight drugs on a global scale. Cloak and Dagger joined and fought against Hellion, Sunspot, Match, Meld, Lorelei Travis, Adam X, and Avalanche (mutants protesting Osborn) during their first mission. However, they soon defected to the real X-Men when they learned Osborn was torturing mutants. Cloak forged a strong working relationship with Wolverine, and together they trapped Romulus in the Darkforce Dimension. After Dr. Nemesis (James Bradley) learned Dagger was not a mutant, the duo quit and returned to New York City.

Cloak and Dagger switched powers when Dagger was corrupted by Mister Negative to use the Dark Force. This caused a “hunger” for light, without which she would die. Cloak begged Negative for help and his powers became dependent on light, which Cloak then fed to Dagger. This triggered an explosion, which reversed their abilities—the ones they were meant to have before D’Spayre was involved.