Creator Terry Austin recounted that "readers had obviously gotten tired of seeing Cloak and Dagger endlessly go up against drug dealers, who, let’s face it, would never pose much of a challenge to them.

Characters are never more interesting than when they have a seemingly unopposable force to push against, and to that end I came up with what I hoped would be their major reoccurring arch-foe, the maniacal Mr. Jip, and his foot soldiers Night and Day.

[2] These days Jip likes to think that he still did some good, as it was his example that allowed the Ancient One to recognize the signs of Baron Mordo's betrayal centuries later.

To do so he started to extend his life at the costs of others, but these dark arts twisted and corrupted his own body into a monstrous shape.

However, he failed to prevent the theft of his artifact by Sidewinder and Diamondback, who turned it over to their clients Ghaur and Llyra.

[9] Jip's attempt to deliver Dagger to Doctor Doom was foiled by Cloak, Night, Brigid O'Reilly and "Rusty" Nales.

Jip restored Dagger's sight, but was seemingly destroyed by a "bullet of living darkness" formed by Night and fired by Rusty.

He has the ability to manipulate magical forces for a variety of effects, including teleportation, energy projection, physical malleability, the ability to cancel out or tamper with the magic of others, and the tapping of extra-dimensional energy by invoking entities or objects of power existing in dimensions tangential to Earth's through the recitation of spells.

He can create illusions, observe other places by scrying and conjure into being mindless minions to perform simple tasks, like a flying creature that he uses as his spy.

This ability has several limitations though: After the process is completed, Jip can take on the appearance of any of his former hosts, though probably only for a short time.

[12] After Crossbones barges into a meeting demanding payment, Jip suddenly transforms into a large, terrifying, purple monstrosity and attempts to kill him and Ecstasy, but is thwarted by the New Ultimates and Terror Inc.[13] Eventually, Bombshell creates an opening within him and Terror enters and heads to Jip's heart.