Dagger

Powers and Abilities

Dagger’s light has mutated into something called solid light, which does not seems to possess the spiritual characteristics her inner light once did.

Also, the senses she developed while being blind had raised her physical coordination and agility, and she is more assertive and determined than before.

It was also discovered, when she was killed by Shriek, that Dagger does not stay dead for long.

History

Tandy Bowen’s mother was left with a fortune when her husband, Tandy’s father, left for India to experience spiritual rebirth. She began a career as a jet setter and had numerous short-lived marriages. The only person who ever loved her was one of earliest husbands, Philip Carlisle, a kind man.

Feeling alone and unloved, Tandy finally ran away when her boyfriend left for the university.

Things in New York didn’t go well at all for the young runaway. She soon was captured by the Silvermane Maggia family along with many other street urchins, in order to serve as experimental subjects for a new drug. All but two died, and thus Cloak and Dagger were born.

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Mutant youth vigilantes

They soon began, at Cloak’s instigation, a career as vigilantes hunting criminals preying upon street kids.

Tandy was much less intense in the bloody vengeance department than he was, and sometimes attempted to return to a normal life. However she always came back to vigilantism, due to both her sense of duty toward street kids and the feeling that only Cloak really loved her.

For a long time, she was morally and financially supported by Philip Carlisle, who even moved to New York. His eventual death was a tough blow for Dagger, as she obviously considered him her true father.

Adventures and misadventures

Bowen’s peregrination included :

• A relationship with a man who was revealed to be an arms dealer.
• The case of a priest who was at first an ally but soon was certain that Cloak was a demon.
• The complete failure of an attempt to reconcile herself with her mother.
• Meeting her biological father.

Tandy’s dad had developed powers that were roughly equivalent to his daughter’s, only more sinister. He thought of himself as a god. He finally realized that he wasn’t and the evil he had done, and redeemed himself by letting Cloak’s darkness kill him.

Dagger once lost her sight due to Mr Jip’s machination. She later obtained two working eyes and defeated Jip. She also appeared in the Maximum Carnage storyline, ending an episode by defeating the powerful Shriek.

Description

See illustration.

Personality

Having lost and regained her sight, lost the only relative she really loved (Philip Carlisle) and having experienced years as a vigilante in the mean New York streets have hardened Dagger. Her light, less pure and physically harder, reflects that.

She considers Cloak her only family, and her vigilante activities are now a serious mission, as she is certain of the positive impact they have.

Quotes

Mean nazi punk: “What’s with all the questions – you a cop ?”
Dagger:“No. Mutant vigilante. Who wants to know ?”

DC Universe History

Cloak and Dagger were created as more realistic vigilantes working more realistic streets, in contrast with Spider-Man’s less gritty fights. Perhaps they could have appeared in the hard parts of Metropolis.

Since they were in some ways more powerful than Spider-Man (Spidey ran to them when he couldn’t defeat Silvermane, for instance), their power level may have to be beefed up to make them a part of Superman’s cast.

Of course, there is the matter of the obvious resemblance with Jade and Obsidian. Perhaps Jade and Obsidian could be replaced by Cloak and Dagger (keeping some sort of distant familial link with Green Lantern), which would allow for disregarding anything that happened to them in recent Green Lantern issues. That alone would make it worthwhile.

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Spider-Man and Cloak and Dagger comics (Marvel Universe).