Marvel Database
Marvel Database
Marvel Database
264,646
pages
in: Characters, Blood Hunters (Earth-616)/Members, Hounds (Earth-616)/Members,
and 53 more

Tandy Bowen (Earth-616)

Sign in to edit

I've got plenty of light to give and you're damn lucky to have it. I hope you know that. The church might be broken, the walls could fall in any minute, but the vows Ty...The vows still stand.

—Dagger[source]

Tandy Bowen is Dagger, the Avatar of Light and one half of the divine duo Cloak and Dagger. After her exposure to an experimental drug and the machinations of a fear Lord known as D'Spayre Tandy's body now endless generates a form of 'Living Light' known as the Lightforce making her the living personification of Light itself and granting her the primordial powers over the very concept of Light.[11]

As Dagger, she draws strength from her partner and soulmate,Cloak. The dark-light pair met after running away from home and meeting at a fateful bus stop in New York. There they were kidnapped and forced to take an experimental drug. Due to the experiment and the machinations of the fear lord, D’Spayre, Tandy's body was transformed into a generator of pure Light which granted her powers over the concepts of Light and Hope itself.[11]

History

Early Life[]

Tandy alone in her room

Tandy alone in her room

Tandy Bowen was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, an affluent suburb of Cleveland. Bowen's mother, Melissa, was a celebrated and self-centered model who had become rich not only from her own career but also from receiving her previous husband's estate. Tandy's father had left for India seeking "spiritual rebirth." Subsequently, Melissa married Phillip Carlisle. Although kind, Tandy was still hurt by her father's leaving and did not accept Phillip. Her mother also neglected her.[11] Feeling unloved, the despondent Tandy left home on a bus for New York City. While there, a man tried to rob her but was stopped by a boy about the same age as her at the time that she would later learn was Tyrone Johnson.[11]

Tyrone Johnson[]

Ty and Tandy eating burgers

Ty and Tandy eating burgers

It was at the fateful Manhattan's Port Authority Bus Terminal that Tandy would first meet her other half and soulmate Tyrone Johnson, a boy who had also run away from home and leaped into action after a to pursue a their after witnessing Tandy's purse had been stolen, Tyrone impulsively tackled the thief and returned Tandy's purse. A grateful and relieved Tandy then offered to buy Tyrone dinner after and the two teens became fast friends. When a naïve Tandy accepted an offer of shelter from some strange men, the wary Tyrone went along to protect her; however, the two teens were soon forcibly delivered to criminal chemist Dr. Simon Marshall.[11]

Kidnapping and Experiment[]

Ty and Tandy being experimented on

Ty and Tandy being experimented on

Dr. Simon Marshall and his men rounded up runaways, offering them food and shelter. Naive, Tandy agreed, and a weary Tyrone went along with her, suspecting things were not right. There, they were knocked unconscious and injected with a designer drug the Maggia wished to use as a replacement for heroin. Tyrone and Tandy however survived while the other runaways died to the drugs effects.[12] They escaped, along with another prisoner, the Chinese human-carrier who would become Mister Negative,[13] jumping into the river, and both began manifesting superhuman powers. Marshall's men attacked, but were consumed by Tyrone's newly found Cloak and power over Darkness which was the followed with a blast from Tandy's new found powers of Light.[14][11]

Cloak & Dagger[]

The Beginning of Cloak and Dagger

The Beginning of Cloak and Dagger

The two became Cloak and Dagger, pledging to protect other young people from the dangers they had encountered. Tandy and Tyrone are fiercely loyal to each other, creating an environment of symbiotic mutualism between themselves, operating and functioning as two halves of a whole that represent balance. Their powers changed their body's chemistry in a way that they became dependent on each other for living, Dagger’s light burns too bright and needs the cool energies of Cloak's Darkforce to temper her while Cloak’s darkness is an abyss of hunger that needs the energy of Lightforce/Lifeforce that only Dagger can provide to be satiated. Their codependence at first started as a means of survival, but over time their fondness for each other emerged and it transformed into romance and their form of release. They portray unity through dichotomy on various things like; race, powers, upbringings, world views, and more.[15]

Cloak & Dagger also teamed with Spider-Man and others to halt a murderous supervillain rampage led by superhuman serial killer Carnage; later, Dagger helped rescue the New Warriors from the supremely powerful Sphinx. She accepted an offer of New Warriors membership, though Cloak declined to join. Serving as a Warriors reservist, Dagger also undertook a single mission with the informal Secret Defenders group.

Cloak was manipulated by Nightmare into wanting to consume all lawbreakers. Dagger sought the assistance of Daredevil, Black Widow, Moon Knight, Shang Chi, Doctor Strange, and the Punisher. Eventually, Dagger was forced to use her full power on Cloak, which seemed to transfer his darkness to her, reverting him to normal. Cloak eventually regained his powers from Dagger and the two continued to adventure.[16]

More recently, the secret criminal group known as the Pride tricked Cloak & Dagger into trying to retrieve their superpowered children. An encounter with these young Runaways soon convinced Cloak & Dagger of the Pride's true nature, but before they could act on this knowledge, the villains erased the duo's memories of the Pride. Cloak & Dagger continued to roam the mean streets, bringing the light of hope to the innocent and dark justice to the guilty.

Civil War[]

During the conflict around the Superhuman Registration Act, she joined the Secret Avengers. She and Cloak were captured in a stratagem of Captain America to make S.H.I.E.L.D. trust his circumstantial ally Wilson Fisk. They escaped, were recaptured, and freed for the final battle. As the Negative Zone Portal was closed, Tandy convinced Tyrone to open a portal to Manhattan where the battle continued.[17]

X-Men[]

At some point, Cloak and Dagger were active in Colombia, destroying drug plantations. The drug lord hired Iron Patriot via the H.A.M.M.E.R. to take them down. Instead, he recruited them into his own X-Men,[18] and used them against San Francisco rioters and Stephen Lang's Bio-sentinels.[18]

When Emma Frost and Namor eventually revealed their true allegiance, they asked Cloak and Dagger to stay back and, following the traitors to the newly built mutant nation of Utopia, were presented by Cyclops as being part of his plan from the beginning so they would be accepted in the community.[19]

Later, she was one of those who convinced Cyclops that his attitude toward Deadpool (rejecting him from joining Utopia's X-Men) was kind of hypocritical.[20]

Spider-Island[]

Cloak and Dagger with their powers switched

Cloak and Dagger with their powers switched

Cloak and Dagger's powers were switched thanks to Mr. Negative during the events of Spider-Island, in an attempt to prevent a prophecy that foretold him falling to death by the hands of Dagger. After Mr. Negative swapped Dagger's powers she would begin to unleash a storm of Darkness that would to consume all that was, Cloak desperate to save the life of his partner and soulmate would accept would accept the offer from Mr. Negative to swap his powers in order to save Dagger and help her contain and temper her new found Darkforce powers. Tempering her with a kiss and loving embrace the two would exchange the excess of their powers into each others bodies to achieve a state of new found balance one where Cloak now provided the light, while Dagger provided the dark. To what extent their other powers have been exchanged has yet to be seen, however that both Cloak and Dagger seem to gain new abilities whenever they swap powers.[21][22]

All-New, All-Different[]

Although Martin Li was arrested at some point, Cloak and Dagger had been using Shade patches, which dosed them with a drug that stimulated the effects of Negative's touch, ensuring that their criminal personas would 'remain' loyal to him. Breaking him out of the prison ship where Li was being kept they restored him to Mister Negative to lead an assault on Parker Industries in Japan. Although Peter was able to escape being corrupted by Negative thanks to Negative's prior corruption of Spider-Man, Cloak and Dagger managed to help Negative escape when Peter tracked them to his Hong Kong headquarters by secretly placing a Spider-Tracer on Cloak. Using this tracer, Peter was able to inject Cloak with a cure for Shade that he later used to cure Dagger, apparently restoring their original powers. Although Mister Negative had escaped, Cloak and Dagger decided to remain in Hong Kong to guard it from any future attacks.[23]

Absolute Carnage[]

During Carnage's rampage with his Cult of Knull, Tandy and Tyrone were recruited by Iron Fist along with some other heroes in order to rescue Misty Knight who was being chased by Demagoblin and Carnage's Hive in the sewers.[24] The heroes entered the sewers and looked for Misty Knight, with Dagger fighting off many of Carnage's symbiote minions. After a long time fighting the waves of symbiotes, the team found Misty as she was about to be killed by Demagoblin and the Man-Wolf. The heroes managed to defeat Demagoblin and made Man-Wolf to free himself from Carnage's control.[25] Dagger and the other heroes were later brought by Cloak to the final battle against Carnage's horde.[26]

Savage Avengers[]

When a new iteration of the Savage Avengers was united to confront the threat of a Madbomb set off by the Cult of Set, Dagger discovered a range of new uses for her powers, including more extensive range of constructs, physical healing abilities (even of the recently deceased), invisibility, and light manipulation.[citation needed]

Fall of X[]

After the fall of Krakoa, Cloak was converted into a Hound while the two were split up by Director Vulture's technology, and he converted her too. They attacked Kurt Wagner alongside Feral, then captured Reaper, Animax, and Fatale to be converted as well.[8]

Attributes

Power Grid[45]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Experienced Fighter:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Single Type: Long Range:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Normal

Powers

  • Lightforce Generation: As a result of her exposure to an experimental drug and the machinations of D'spayre, Dagger is now a living generator of a form of 'living light' which is actually Lightforce. She produces an incomprehensible more amount than normal humans or any other being does, but is usually conservative in the use of her powers. Overuse of her powers could be fatal. Dagger generates and stores this lifeforce energy automatically. If she goes for more than a week or so without using her powers she will become fevered and delirious, and eventually discharge her energy involuntarily, the only safe way to dispel of the excess of her powers is by having her partner and soulmate Cloak absorb it seeing as he's the only being capable of handling her light.[15] There is no limit to the amount of Lightforce she can generate seeing as she's a continuous and living producer of endless light, she has generated enough light to light up the entirety of Manhattan during a Darkforce blackout.[27]
  • Lightforce: Dagger is the Avatar of the Lightforce and due to her being the only and most powerful generator of it to exist, she can manipulate it to her will, and even create things with it. Dagger's Lightforce Powers also grant her immunity and invulnerability to certain ailments seeing as she does not get sick and cured herself almost immediately after being temporarily turned into a vampire.[28] Her Lightforce also makes her the only non Darkforce user to be able to safely traverse the Darkforce Dimension.
  • Lighforce blast: Tandy can also generate lethal and non-lethal Lighforce blast often seen using these blasts to either heal large groups of her allies in battle or take down massive enemy groups. To add her Lightforce blasts can be very destructive as is best displayed when she used her blasts to destroy the walls of her college room to evade capture from Mr. Negative.[29] The most destructive form of her Light blasts however is her 'Supernova' blasts that happens if Dagger has not expelled the excess of her Lightforce, she will unleash a fury of pure Light made of of bot the Lightforce and the very concept of Light itself which has the capability to completely wipe out an entire city full of vampires.[28]
  • Lightforce Constructs: Tandy can form constructs made of Lightforce. Primarily, these have been 6-inch 'light daggers' which she can throw from her fingertips. Her daggers may automatically form under certain conditions, such as another person in danger. The maximum effective range is unknown, Tandy has the ability to control their flight and reinforce them by compelling them to seek targets. They can track a being, but it is most effective when searching for her partner and soulmate Cloak. Those hit by these knives have their own lifeforce disrupted. Dagger can then drain a portion of their lifeforce; enough to kill if she wishes. Normally she chooses to leave them in a state of shock where they will see a vision of how their life might be different. The experience is powerful enough to make most individuals rethink their choices, although a hardened criminal or evil being is unlikely to change their ways.[30] During her membership of the Savage Avengers, however, she discovered that she could create more complex constructs, including armor, mech-suits, chains, swords, a swing, a bow and arrows, and a scale model of a temple the team was about to assault. Tandy now believes that her only limitation is her imagination.[5] To add Tandy can also clothe herself using her constructs as she's often seen wearing stylish clothing that glow much like her constructs do.
  • Lightforce Healing: Tandy's energy can also 'purge' a person, removing toxins, drugs, and other malignant substances from their system. It also has the capacity to cure certain persons of drug addictions.[30] During her time as one of the Savage Avengers, she discovered that she could use this power to heal physical wounds, including restoring Flash Thompson's wounded symbiote, and healing a recently killed Conan, and in combination with Cloak, amplify Elektra's necromancy. Her healing powers are also capable of reverting various magical afflictions as well and curing supernatural beings as seen when she cures vampires.[31]
  • Lightforce Manipulation: Tandy can redirect her daggers after they leave her fingertips, often making her daggers richochette off of walls and around corners. She can project her lifeforce energy in a diffuse manner, allowing her to illuminate dark areas as if by natural light, giving her a sort of constant night-vision no matter how dark a place she's in. Tandy can also projects her 'light' into Cloak's dimension to feed his 'hunger.'[30] She is unharmed when traveling through his dimension and can pass this protection to others.
  • Light Manipulation: Tandy can also manipulate the very concept of Light, bending light around her body to render herself invisible to the naked eye and even reshaping various light forms including simple lasers to her liking.[6]
  • Superhuman Speed: The Lightforce grants Tandy Light-speed reflexes and reaction time as is best displayed when she effortless dodged turrets that were being fired directly at her.[6]
  • Avatar of Life: Dagger's role as the Avatar of the Lightforce has granted her powers over Life to an unknown extent, this is best displayed when she used her powers of life in combination with her partner Cloak's powers of Death and the hand magic of Elektra to revive Conan from death.[32]
  • Psychic-Link: Dagger has a Psychic-link with her partner and soulmate Cloak[33] that allows them to always be able to locate one another as well as granting them the ability to communicate telepathically with each other.[34] In addition, their Psychic-Link can also shield the duo against telepathic attacks, this is best seen when it prevented Dagger from having her mind controlled by Mister Negative.[34]
  • Immortality; Tandy possesses a form of pseudo immortality seeing as when she dies she becomes atomized into pure light, her light essence will then seek out her partner and soulmate Cloak to gather her essence inside his Cloak and body, granting her shelter until she can safely reconstruct her physical form.[35]
  • Hope Manipulation: Tandy has the psychic and supernatural ability to see and manipulate peoples greatest hopes and dreams, she typically accesses this ability through physical contact with a person and can even access the hopes of more than one person at a time.[36] To add Dagger can draw power and feed off peoples hopes, as well as being able to steal a person's hopes.
  • Balance: Reserved as a duo ability only performed with her partner and soulmate Cloak, both Cloak and Dagger after exchanging the excess amounts of their powers in each other's bodies can achieve a state of synchronized balance that allows them to unleash a combination of both of their powers on a lager than normal scale. They have used this ability to resurrect beings from the dead,[32] as well as level entire cities[21]

Abilities

  • Dancing: Dagger is an experienced dancer.[30]
  • Skilled Combatant: Her athleticism, dance and gymnastic skills make her a good hand-to-hand combatant able to dodge gunfire. She was also blind for a time[37], so she knows how to move unhindered without being able to see.[30]
  • Experienced Leader: Dagger has experience leading teams[38]

Weaknesses

Nonliving objects are unaffected by her daggers.

Paraphernalia

Transportation

Teleports via her partner, Cloak

Notes

  • The mutant status of Cloak and Dagger is controversial, and has moved over the years:
    • Cloak speculated that Leech having no effect on his powers was because he and Dagger weren't mutants.[39]
    • Cloak and Dagger Vol 3 stated them to be mutants, and was full-titled "The Mutant Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger".[12]
    • The Civil War: Battle Damage Report stated that the drug giving them powers in fact triggered latent mutant powers, but that they were science- and magic-based mutates.[17]
    • When Norman Osborn came to recruit them for his X-Men, they stated they weren't mutants (to which Osborn replied they may as well be).[18]
    • Dagger was 'confirmed' by Doctor Nemesis as NOT being a mutant, with no X-Gene and no readings on Cerebro, but also no altered DNA helix or hereditary markers, her powers being solely based on the drug she and Cloak had been injected with.[40]
      • Dagger mentioned that there was other more extensive tests that could be done on their bone marrow to indicate if they possess an X-Gene, which was suggested by Beast, but Nemesis insisted in the fact she wasn't a mutant no matter what.[40]
    • Cloak and Dagger were stated to be mutants in Marvel Fact Files #19.
    • It was stated by Steve Rogers that it was now confirmed that both of them weren't mutants but altered humans.[41]
  • The white circle around Dagger's right eye is a manifestation of her abilities. It will spontaneously manifest when she uses her abilities at times, then vanish when she stops.[42] Professor Xavier and Wolfsbane also manifested the circle when they temporarily hosted Dagger's displaced power.[43]

Trivia

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Savage Avengers (Vol. 2) #8
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Savage Avengers (Vol. 2) #10
  3. ↑ Savage Avengers (Vol. 2) #9
  4. ↑ Cloak and Dagger (Vol. 2) #9
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Savage Avengers (Vol. 2) #6
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Savage Avengers (Vol. 2) #7
  7. ↑ Blood Hunters (Vol. 2) #1
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Uncanny Spider-Man #3
  9. ↑ Savage Avengers (Vol. 2) #3
  10. ↑ Spider-Island: Cloak & Dagger #1
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 Cloak and Dagger #4
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Cloak and Dagger (Vol. 3) #19
  13. ↑ Dark Reign: Mister Negative #3
  14. ↑ Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #64
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Cloak and Dagger (Vol. 4)
  16. ↑ Marvel Knights #7–9
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Civil War: Battle Damage Report #1
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Dark X-Men: The Beginning #2
  19. ↑ Dark Avengers #8
  20. ↑ Deadpool (Vol. 3) #16
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Spider-Island: Cloak & Dagger #3
  22. ↑ Superior Spider-Man Team-Up #1
  23. ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 4) #6–8
  24. ↑ Absolute Carnage: Lethal Protectors #2
  25. ↑ Absolute Carnage: Lethal Protectors #3
  26. ↑ Absolute Carnage #5
  27. ↑ Secret Empire #6
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Blood Hunters #3
  29. ↑ Spider-Island: Cloak and Dagger #2
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 30.4 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #3
  31. ↑ Blood Hunters #4
  32. ↑ 32.0 32.1 Savage Avengers (Vol. 2) #5
  33. ↑ King in Black: Planet of the Symbiotes #3
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 Cloak and Dagger: Negative Exposure - Marvel Digital Original #2
  35. ↑ Spectacular Spider-Man #203
  36. ↑ Cloak and Dagger (Vol. 2) #5
  37. ↑ Mutant Misadventures of Cloak and Dagger #1–13
  38. ↑ Blood Hunters (Vol. 2) #4
  39. ↑ Power Pack #19
  40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 Cloak and Dagger (Vol. 4) #1
  41. ↑ Heroic Age: Heroes #1
  42. ↑ Strange Tales (Vol. 2) #15
  43. ↑ New Mutants #24–25
  44. ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #3
  45. ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 3
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
More Fandoms