RICO'S
SUPERHERO
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"The darkness and light are both alike...I am fearfully and wonderfully made." - Psalms Tyrone Johnson was just another statistic. Wandering the concrete canyons of New York City, the young runaway was all alone...until he found a soulmate in troubled teenager Tandy Bowen. Fate struck when the two were kidnapped and injected with an experimental serum. Instead of killing them, the drug triggered latent mutant powers in both youngsters. Tyrone discovered that he could tap the soul-shredding energies of a dark dimension and force the dregs of society to face the disgusting depths of their shadowy psyches. Tandy manifested the ability to generate light-knives capable of cleansing the tainted souls of animals who would prey upon the innocent. A child of darkness. A child of light. Fighting to save future runaways from the dangers of the city's mean streets, they are Cloak and Dagger! Real
name: Cloak - Tyrone
Johnson / Dagger - Tandy Bowen Height:
Cloak - 5'9" / Dagger - 5'5" Cloak possesses the mutant ability to create an aperture into a dimension of total darkness -- through which he can cast criminals or project a black, gas-like substance. Often, he allows his victims to re-emerge after the darkness has drained the bulk of their light energy. However, Cloak has been known to relegate criminals to the dark realm permanently. Cloak can teleport himself and others from one point to another on the planet's surface by entering the dimension of darkness, traversing a distance and emerging on Earth. He is usually intangible, though he can regain human form through a tremendous act of will. While immaterial, Cloak is able to phase through objects or allow them to pass harmlessly through him. He appears as a shadow in human form -- though his facial features remain visible, possibly due to an act of will. Cloak feels a constant hunger that compels him to seek out living victims and project them into the darkness. It is his belief that the dimension somehow feeds on the life forces of these criminals, which manifest as light. Hence, Cloak finds himself dependent on Dagger. By absorbing some of her light into the dark realm, he can satisfy his hunger for a time without having to cast others into it. Conversely, Dagger's stores of light grow so large at times that they threaten to overwhelm her, and she must release a portion into Cloak. If Cloak goes too long without feeding his hunger, he suffers psychic and physical pain -- enough eventually to drive him mad. Weapons: Cloak can manifest an aperture into the dark dimension anywhere within his field of vision, but most often uses his cloak to help him define the area of the opening. Hence, the darkness seems to issue forth from under the garment. Dagger can project 6-inch, wedge-shaped projectiles of pure light from her fingertips. These light-knives deprive their human targets of life energy by inducing a paralyzing, biophysical shock reaction that can kill a person in poor health. In addition, Dagger's victims experience visions of what their lives would have been like if they had fulfilled their potential for good. The life energy the knives remove from their targets flows into Dagger, increasing her own supply of light. The light-knives either ricochet or disperse when they strike non-living objects, depending on the angle and force of impact. History: Tyrone Johnson was raised in a low-income section of South Boston. Despite a severe stuttering problem, the disadvantaged teenager was successful in his studies. Tyrone managed to keep himself out of trouble until the day he and his best friend, Billy, walked by a neighborhood store as it was being robbed. Fleeing the scene, one of the thieves shot the pursuing clerk dead. Afraid he and his friend would be blamed for the theft and murder, Billy began to run. When a late-arriving police officer ordered Billy to stop, Tyrone tried to explain what had happened. However, his stammer prevented him from voicing his thoughts. Assuming Billy was one of the thieves, the officer shot him. Overcome with guilt over his friend's death and afraid the police would target him next, Tyrone boarded a bus to New York City. Teenager Tandy Bowen grew up in the wealthy Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights with her stepfather, Phillip Carlisle, and mother, Melissa Bowen. Her father had emigrated to India seeking spiritual rebirth. A celebrated model, Melissa Bowen was preoccupied with her career and social life, to the point where she neglected both her husband and Tandy. Hurt by her father's desertion, Tandy refused to accept her stepfather. Feeling unloved at home, she turned to an older boy for affection. After he left for college, Tandy headed to New York City. When Tandy arrived at Manhattan's Port Authority Bus Terminal, the penniless Tyrone saw her as an easy mark. He was about to rob her outside the station when another thief snatched her purse. Tyrone tackled the man and returned Tandy's belongings. As a reward, Tandy treated him to a meal. While they ate, they shared the reasons they had run away. When Tandy and Tyrone left the restaurant, thugs employed by renegade pharmaceutical chemist Simon Marshall offered them a place to spend the night. Tandy naively accepted. The street-smart Tyrone, sensing ulterior motives, went along to protect her. The men knocked out Tyrone and took the teens by boat to Ellis Island, where Marshall had established a secret laboratory. Contracted by the Maggia, an international crime syndicate, Marshall had developed a synthetic substitute for imported heroin. He used the runaway teens his men had captured as guinea pigs to test the experimental narcotic. Tandy and Tyrone were the only survivors; they escaped from their holding cell and dove into the river to avoid being shot. As they swam for Manhattan, Tyrone found himself engulfed in total blackness. Tandy was glowing with light, and he swam to her. When he reached her, Tyrone saw that Tandy's light dispelled his darkness. On shore, Tandy became delirious, and Tyrone realized that he had been transformed into a strange, inhuman being. Shortly thereafter, Marshall's men located the runaways. Tyrone began to engulf them within the eerie blackness of the large cloak he had improvised. Just then, Tandy awoke and instinctively struck the thugs with light-knives. The drug had transformed the teens into superhumanly powerful beings. As Cloak and Dagger, Tyrone and Tandy hunted down and killed Marshall and his henchmen. They then set out to prevent other runaways from falling victim to similar abuse. Their noble crusade has led them to fight alongside a whole host of other costumed champions. Early on, the duo helped the wisecracking, web-slinging super hero known as Spider-Man thwart the murder of the Kingpin, the most powerful figure in East Coast organized crime, by the vigilante called the Punisher. Tandy has attempted to leave her life as Dagger, but always returns -- convinced that only Cloak loves her. Even when Spider-Man sought to reunite Dagger with her stepfather, she stood steadfast by Cloak's side. Tyrone attempted to envelop the wall-crawler in his cloak, angered by his interference, but Dagger grabbed hold of Spider-Man to protect him from the garment's effects. Within the blackness, she showed the web-slinger the world as Cloak sees it: an amalgamation of auras and evil, where darkness of the soul shines through like an ebony beacon. This experience reassured Cloak that Dagger never would dessert him. No longer able to keep the darkness at bay, Cloak embarked on a mad quest to consume any and all lawbreakers -- from a healthy motorist who had parked his car in a handicapped space to the Punisher. A desperate Dagger sought the aid of a loose-knit band of urban-based adventurers: the Black Widow, super-spy turned super hero; Daredevil, fearless blind adventurer; Dr. Strange, Earth's Sorcerer Supreme; Moon Knight, undead avenger of evil; and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. In an attempt to reason with Cloak, Strange transported Moon Knight, Daredevil and the Black Widow into the dimension of darkness, which had been transformed into a nightmarish reflection of New York City. There, the heroes learned that Cloak had come under the control of the demonic entity known as Nightmare. Meanwhile, Dagger confronted Cloak on the mortal plane. Tyrone had been transformed by the hunger, leaving Tandy no choice but to unleash the full extent of her power against her crimefighting companion. Through her love for her best friend, Dagger cleansed Cloak of the darkness and transformed him back into the young man he had been prior to Simon Marshall's experiments. The darkness that once possessed him now resides in Dagger, balanced by her light. |
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* when tangible Dagger
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