Customer Reviews

Cloak & Dagger: Child of Darkness, Child of Light

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

...but not much wrong with what *is* there.

This volume is less than a 100 pages of story and covers. It's padded out with a Marvel Age Magazine feature and the Cloak and Dagger entries in the Marvel Universe reference. For $20 retail that's a little light; a number of people have wondered why Marvel couldn't have included Cloak and Dagger's first appearance in Spectacular Spider-Man.

The four issues of the mini series that are there are a good introduction to the characters. Cloak and Dagger are set up to be complete contrasts - one is white, female from a wealthy background, the other black, male, from the inner city. But they're both young, have problems at home, and run away to New York where they're sucked up into the grim underbelly of New York society. They emerge with contrasting powers of light and darkness and become protectors to some, vigilantes to others, and estranged from just about everyone.

The writing is good and, thankfully, despite the subject matter, there is little sermonizing on the part of scripter Bill Mantlo. I wouldn't like the art on most features; a little too gritty for my tastes. Here it works perfectly. The story moves quickly and can easily be read in half an hour. Production values are well up to Marvel's usual high standards.

This just misses 5 stars for lack of quantity. The quality gets the 5 stars.

Over forty years now since I first began to read comic books.

None of them has ever HIT me like Cloak and Dagger.

15 years of actively reading all the greats: Eisner, Barks, Miller. EC. Lee and Kirby, O' Neil and Adams etc, etc.

Now Cloak and Dagger from the lesser-known Bill Mantlo means more to me than all of the above put together.

Cloak and Dagger: a Marvel comic about teenage superheroes in a grim, dark world of drugs and crime. And yet this world of real horror is shot through with tenderness, morality and hope.

Strange ... these Cloak and Daggers are less technically accomplished than some of the comics mentioned above. There are plot holes, some stilted expository dialogue here and there, the usual comic book clichés of a 1980's Marvel book.

Big deal. Doesn't matter. Something in these comics SHINES like no other.

What shines most of all here is Bill Mantlo's writing. Writing with a heartfelt, moral core ...

How to capture this writing in a few words? There is genuine social conscience, an understanding of moral growth, a very touching personal emotional awareness from a writer whose heart is obviously ALIVE. Here is a heart, which clearly feels both the joy and horror of what it is to be human in this world.

Strangely, the comic also possesses a very Catholic and some might say medieval sensibility. The supernatural pervades the series and the superheroes live in a Catholic Church and Catholic themes and iconography repeatedly recur. Along with this is a vivid sense of good and evil. The evil is frequently disgusting, the good is beautiful and enobling.

Then there is the art of Rick Leonardi. Now Leonardi is an underrated great talent and his atmospheric art adds tremendously. But as much as I love Leonardi's visuals, these alone would not lift it to the status of my personal favourite comic of all time.

I ADORE this comic and the reason for that is Bill Mantlo.

Again: despite the rough edges. Probably Mantlo was writing under comic book deadline pressure and couldn't help the rough edges. Whatever: here is a true diamond - even if it is a diamond in the rough. Don't let the rough distract you from what is precious and rare here in the world of the comics.

Certainly Mantlo never managed to do all with Cloak and Dagger that he might have done - given the opportunity. He was apparently unceremoniously removed from the comic and then suffered the most tragic of accidents, meaning that in all likelihood he will never be able to write this (or any) comic again.

And the world of the American comic book is forever poorer as a result.

Now I confess, my comments here pertain to the entire run of Bill Mantlo's Cloak and Dagger - an ongoing story spread out over some thirty issues in the 1980's.

Only four stories are collected here in this volume, but they are a great place to start, featuring as they do the series' finest artist (again the underrated but wonderful Rick Leonardi).

If like me, you get hooked on Bill Mantlo, you will either have to search out old back issues or petition Marvel to reprint the rest. I pray the latter will happen. This series deserves to be remembered and cherished.

A final note regarding these later stories not collected in this volume. Unfortunately not all the later artwork in the series is anywhere near Leonardi's high standards. And perhaps the lesser artwork in some of those later stories helps to explains why Cloak and Dagger never achieved the reputation it deserves.

But I wonder if Leonardi HAD drawn the whole series ... I wonder if people just might begin to speak Mantlo and Leonardi, the way they speak of O' Neil and Adams, Wein and Wrightson, Lee and Kirby.

And I wonder ... what would happen if Marvel were to republish the entire run and the great Leonardi were to re-illustrate some later stories, replacing their substandard art?

I wonder ... if some people might join me in my opinion: simply the best comic book Marvel ever produced.

I remember reading Cloke & Dagger when I was a teenager. And to be able to re-read the comic again in full color. Well that was a major treat. This was worth the wait. All the joy of a comic book and no hassles with printers ink on you fingers. Love it.