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I anticipated picking this up because although I always knew about Cloak and Dagger, the only time I ever remember reading anything with them in it was Maximum Carnage. This reprints their four issue mini-series from 1983 written by Bill Mantlo and illustrated by Rick Leonardi. I have to say, I love the design of the book. The hardcover is in black with white print, showing the different between Cloak and Dagger. The interior color scheme is all white, as well. There are two negatives I see with this book though. The first is the lack of introduction. That’s a minor point and something I won’t dwell on for too long. The second negative is a really glaring error. On the side of the hardcover, after you’ve taken the sleeve off, Dagger is erroneously printed as Dager, making it read, “Cloak & Dager:...” That’s pretty bad.
-Cloak & Dagger #’s 1-4- This four-issue mini-series takes rather unique approach in its storytelling scheme. Instead of introducing us to the characters, the origin is kept until the last issue. So the first three issues focused on Cloak & Dagger dealing with those who would prey on runaway kids while repenting in a church. They draw the ire of a detective when Cloak engulfs a criminal who has been poisoning young children by spiking their Tylenol. Cloak and Dagger end up splitting up but they soon realize they can’t survive without each other. Cloak gives the criminal back to the detective and we see the origin of how two runaways came together and got their powers (it was from bad drugs that killed everyone except for them).
-The Bottom Line- Again, there is no introduction here, though we are treated to some extras of the original pencils for the series by another artist that is reprinted from Marvel Age. The story I thought was pretty elementary. I don’t think it added anything new to the Marvel canon and didn’t give us really unique characters. The standard origin is here (drugs giving powers, a la Cage and Captain America) as well as a little story thrown in, too. The story was really resolved after three issues, with the fourth just being the origin. I thought the pacing of the story was a little off, too. Why not start with the origin and proceed from there? I just didn’t gravitate to this story. I guess I just didn’t dig it. Again, I have to ask about the economics of this book. This was $20. I can go on E-Bay right now and get the whole mini-series for $11, shipped. Is the Marvel Age and the two Official Handbook entries for Cloak and Dagger enough to make this worth $20? I don’t know. Certainly if it was I don’t think the story stands up on its own like previous volumes have. This was okay, and okay doesn’t make collections like this recommended.
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Questions? Comments? Shoot me an email.
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