Created by writer Bill Mantlo and artist Ed Hannigan, the characters first appeared in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #64 (March 1982).

[6][7] After a number of additional Spider-Man guest appearances, they were given their own four-issue limited series, written by creator Bill Mantlo, penciled by Rick Leonardi, and inked by Terry Austin.

It debuted in October 1983 and was a success, prompting Marvel Comics to launch an ongoing bi-monthly Cloak and Dagger series in 1985, with the same creative team.

Costumed supervillains rarely appeared in the series, which focused on Cloak and Dagger's quest to end the drug trade completely, and frequently explored the issue of vigilantism.

[8] Though still successful, Cloak and Dagger's sales had been declining for some time, and Marvel's editorial staff felt that a new writer was needed to revitalize the characters.

[12] It was announced at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con that the team would be reappearing once again in their own five-part mini-series by writer Valerie D'Orazio, with pencils by Irene Flores and colors by Emily Warren.

Fraction explained, "Osborn presents it to them as the ultimate public service, [in which] they can work off their past indiscretions—[such as] Cloak's dealings with the Avengers during the Skrull invasion."

Fraction claimed the more appealing part of Dark X-Men was to see how Cloak and Dagger react in a real superhero team scenario.

[citation needed] Tyrone "Ty" Johnson (Cloak) and Tandy Bowen (Dagger) meet in New York City as runaways.

Tyrone is a 17-year-old boy from Boston, Massachusetts, with a stutter who ran away from his struggling parents to New York City when his speech impediment prevented him from stopping his friend from being shot by the police, who mistakenly believed he had just robbed a store.

Tandy is a 16-year-old girl from a privileged upbringing (born in Shaker Heights, Ohio) who ran away because her multi-millionaire mother was too busy with a supermodel career and social life to spend time with her daughter.

Tyrone tries to hide his shadowy appearance in a makeshift cloak by absorbing Marshall's thugs into his darkness while Tandy strikes them down with daggers of light.

[26] Though they tend to target ordinary street criminals, they have faced such diverse foes as Doctor Doom, the Beyonder, Vermin, the Zapper, the Disciplinarian, the Warlord of Kampuchea, Mephisto, Thanos, the Assembly of Evil, Firebrand, and Lightmaster.

[19] Dagger was one of the 'seven brides' selected for the serpent god Set in the Atlantis Attacks crossover storyline, the other six being Jean Grey, the Invisible Woman, Andromeda, She-Hulk, Storm, and the Scarlet Witch.

[45] Cloak and Dagger teamed with Spider-Man, Captain America, Black Cat, Nightwatch, Iron Fist, Deathlok, Morbius, Venom, and Firestar to halt a murderous super villain rampage led by serial killer Cletus Kasady aka Carnage.

[47] For some time, the Black Widow lets Ty and Tandy live in her apartment, which was later attacked by a homicidal Life Model Decoy of Nick Fury.

This caused a ceasefire, during which time Gertrude and Molly explained to Cloak and Dagger that the LAPD were actually corrupt and under the control of the Runaways' supervillain parents, the Pride.

After a fight with the New Avengers led to him sustaining a blow to the head, Cloak regained his memories and requested the Runaways' assistance in clearing his name, as he had been framed for attacking Dagger.

[50] Cloak and Dagger are revealed to be members of Captain America's faction of super heroes who oppose the Superhuman Registration Act during the 2006 "Civil War" storyline.

[53] They are freed by the shapeshifter Hulkling, who was disguised as the pro-registration Hank Pym,[54] which leads to the climactic battle between the two sides, both of which Cloak teleports to Times Square, New York.

Tia manages to escape the fight and Tandy and Tyrone decide to leave Utopia and the X-Men and return to New York to work on rekindling their relationship.

[64] In the "Spider-Island" storyline as Cloak and Dagger are established to have been left homeless after their home was determined by authorities to be in violation of building codes.

[68] Following the Secret Wars storyline as part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel' initiative, Cloak and Dagger have returned, still using the other's powers, but are now evil due to the corrupting influence of Mister Negative.

Although Martin Li was arrested at some point, Cloak and Dagger have been using Shade patches, which dose them with a drug that stimulates the effects of Negative's touch, ensuring that their criminal personas will 'remain' loyal to him, breaking him out of the prison ship where Li was being kept and restoring him to Mister Negative to lead an assault on Parker Industries in Japan.

[71] During the "Gang War" storyline, Cloak and Dagger are among the superheroes who help Luke Cage fight the giant Spider-Slayers sent by Alistair Smythe.

[72] During the "Blood Hunt" storyline, Cloak is among the Darkforce users who lose control of their powers, blocking out the sun and enabling a vampire invasion.

Dagger's combat techniques utilize her Lightforce powers and ballet-dance training as well as her sense of spatial relations, which had been heightened by her temporary blindness.

[citation needed] Cloak and Dagger were considered latent mutants in earlier appearances, whose powers were activated when they were injected with an experimental illegal drug.

[57] This is confirmed by Doctor Nemesis, who runs a full range of genetics scans on Dagger, reporting that her powers were derived solely from the drug that changed her and Cloak.

[89] An alternate universe variant of Cloak from Earth-58163 appears in House of M. This version is a member of Luke Cage's resistance against the mutant-led society and regards him as a father figure.