Cloak and Dagger: Lost and Found

Comic Info

Cloak and Dagger (1) #4

Reprints Cloak and Dagger (1) #1-11 and Strange Tales (2) #1-2 (June 1985-May 1987).  Cloak and Dagger begin to question their quest to fight drug dealers and mob bosses that prey on children and the innocent.  An encounter with the Beyonder shows the danger behind their powers, but the goal of stopping a dealer that brings in drugs to New York sends Cloak and Dagger on a worldwide adventure that could test their partnership and their feelings.

Written by Bill Mantlo, Cloak and Dagger:  Lost and Found is a Marvel Comics comic book collection.  Following Cloak and Dagger:  Shadows and Light, the series features art by Rick Leonardi, Terry Shoemaker, Marc Silvestri, Mike Mignola, Arthur Adams, Bret Blevins, June Brigman, and Larry Stroman.  Not included is the Doctor Strange portion of Strange Tales (2) #1-2.

Cloak and Dagger is comic of the period.  The war on drugs was big in the 1980s and New York City was kind of the cesspool of runaways, drugs, and crime in many people’s minds.  The city was a big, dark, dangerous place and a character with the power of light and a character with the power of darkness were perfect for the time.

The series is rooted in this time period as well as the characters.  You have some debate about the morality of drug use (it was seen as less of a disease then and more of a rabbit hole affliction).  Cloak and Dagger are pretty judgmental and “calmed” a bit by their encounter with the Beyonder in a Secret Wars II crossover…they get less ruthless and more compassionate.

Cloak and Dagger (1) #9

The characters are kind of all over the place.  Cloak is sometimes painted as manipulating monster but later in the collection, he is more of the compassionate one at points.  Dagger sometimes is a bit flighty, but sometimes she’s completely on point.  This is almost something you’d expect from multiple writers, but Mantlo writes the whole collection so it seems a bit odd.

In addition to the consistencies in the characters, there is still the issue of “what are Cloak and Dagger’s powers?”  I have always found them really hard to nail down.  Dagger’s light daggers don’t necessarily purify people but they sometimes paralyze people.  Cloak’s powers let people see the darkness inside of them and consumes the light…I guess.  It has always been a bit vague on how they work, and sometimes this is used to the writers’ advantage when people use the characters.

Cloak and Dagger is a fun little title, but it is probably a harder title to digest for younger readers.  The “dark ’80s” were never quite as dark at Marvel as they were at DC with things like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, but the characters of Cloak and Dagger try to find a happy medium between the Punisher and Spider-Man.  In ’80s fashion, you get the origin told almost every issue, and the title is much wordier than many contemporary books.  Cloak and Dagger:  Lost and Found is followed by Cloak and Dagger:  Predator and Prey.

Related Links:

Cloak and Dagger:  Shadows and Light