By Seaberry

Cloak and Dagger #1
One-shot
Written by Stuart Moore
Cover and art by Mark Brooks
Colors by Emily Warren
Letters by Dave Sharpe
Marvel Comics
Price: $3.99
Release Date: March 31, 2010

I have always been a bit of a Cloak and Dagger fan, and I have been pleased to see them in more Marvel Comics lately. They were duped by Norman Osborn into joining his Dark X-Men, but came to their senses and joined the real X-Men team. I was really excited about my favorite duo on the team.

For the uninitiated, Cloak and Dagger were two runaway kids living on the streets who were kidnapped and injected with drugs. These drugs transformed Tandy Bowen into Dagger, a creature of light energy, and Tyrone “Ty” Johnson became Cloak, a creature powered by Darkforce who teleports and absorbs energy, usually from humans, to survive.

The story for this Cloak and Dagger #1 one-shot opens with Dagger training with the Young X-Men and fitting in pretty well on Utopia, the X-Men’s island headquarters off the coast of San Francisco. Cloak, however, has been teleporting back to his old neighborhood in New York, reacquainting himself with Tia, an old flame. Cloak is using his powers to appear normal in an attempt to hide his secret. Little does Cloak realize that Tia has a secret and she has allied herself with people who have sinister plans for Cloak and Tia. Dagger attempts to get the X-Men’s assistance to find Cloak, but they are too busy trying to renovate Utopia so they can live there comfortably. Of course, Dagger decides to go it alone and rescue her partner.

The story was very interesting. Stuart Moore does a great job of capturing the on-again, off-again romantic tension between Cloak and Dagger. I also enjoyed his characterization of X-Men supporting character Dr. Nemesis. His characterization of several of the X-Men was perfect as well. You could understand why they couldn’t devote time to assist Dagger in her attempts to rescue Cloak. This storyline also gives the definitive answer on the question of whether or not Cloak and Dagger are mutants, latent mutants, or just superhuman. I found that revelation very interesting. Also, Cloak and Dagger have to decide if they want to continue living on Utopia. I also have to mention the phenomenal art by the always astounding Mark Brooks. Marvel, please put this artist on a monthly book immediately!!

The Cloak and Dagger one-shot was awesome and I am glad Marvel took a chance on these characters again, considering that their two previous monthly series didn’t last very long. I really hope everyone goes out and buys this one-shot, convincing Marvel to finally publish the Cloak and Dagger miniseries that they have been promising since 2008. Who knows? Maybe Cloak and Dagger can get a series again? I am always glad to see the “B-list” characters get a chance to shine. I recently bought several back issues of Cloak and Dagger‘s previous series, and I really hope this comic can convince new readers of how cool these characters can be.

Rating: 4 out of 5