DAGGER

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Real Name: Tandy Bowen
Aliases: Lady Light
Identity: Secret
Occupation: Vigilante
Citizenship: United States Citizen
Place of Birth: Shaker Heights, Ohio
Known Relatives: Melissa Bowen (mother), “Lord of Light” (father), Phillip Carlisle (stepfather, deceased), Father Michael Bowen (uncle, deceased)
Group Affiliation: Partner of Cloak, the Secret Avengers; formerly Brides of Set, Eurocirque, Daredevil’s Unnamed Super-Hero Team, New Warriors, Secret Defenders
First Appearance: Spectacular Spider-Man #64 (1982)
History: Tandy Bowen was a sixteen-year-old who was neglected by her mother and felt distanced from her new stepfather. She ran away from home and came to New York City. Once she was in New York she met Tyrone Johnson, a fellow runaway. Johnson had planned to steal her purse, but when he saw another thief beat him to it, he tackled the thief and returned Tandy’s purse to her. This began their long partnership as the two came to rely on each other to get along on their own. Tandy and Tyrone were offered shelter by henchmen of Maggia crime lord Simon Marshall. Marshall”s hospitality was only a front for testing a new synthetic narcotic. The two teenagers escaped, but not before they were injected with Marshall”s drug, which awakened latent mutant abilities in both of them (a process secretly encouraged by the demon D’spayre who had hoped to feed upon their angst). Tyrone found himself compelled to drain the life-force of others by enveloping them in the darkness of his cloak. Tandy, on the other hand, gained the ability to project light in the form of energy daggers, which she used to subdue Tyrone’s darkness. The two decided use their powers to protect the streets from men like Marshall, and became known as Cloak and Dagger.

The two vigilantes have specialized in combating drug-dealers and helping runaway children. For all the work that Cloak and Dagger have done to help reform addicts and topple dealers, they realize that drug abuse is an evil greater than they can ever hope to conquer. The duo have often teamed with Spider-Man. Unlike Cloak, Dagger enjoys adventuring and has often run into trouble without him. She has even served as a member of the New Warriors and as a part of Daredevil’s Unnamed Super-Hero Team. Because of Cloak’s anti-social behavior, Dagger has often been his only link to humanity. Dagger has protected Cloak from being manipulated by various enemies including the Darkling, Nightmare, and Mister Jip. A short time ago Cloak and Dagger were manipulated by the Pride into tracking down their six runaway children. The heroes found the Runaways and learned the truth about the Pride. Promising to help the children, the Pride found them instead and wiped their memories of the whole event.

Recently Dagger was attacked and kidnapped by a ‘stalker’ who managed to copy Cloak’s powers causing all of their hero allies to believe that Cloak had attacked Dagger. Cloak sought out the assistance of the Runaways who helped Cloak rescue Dagger and fight off her stalker.

Later, Norman Osborn tracks down Tandy and Tyrone in Colombia, continuing their war against drugs, by burning down drug fields and approaches them to join his new team of “X-Men.” Initially against the idea knowing Osborn’s past; Dagger is persuaded when Osborn tells them that they can take their war on drugs to a global scale as well as having no trouble with police anymore.

Cloak and Dagger are then recruited into the “Dark X-Men” by Norman Osborn. On their first mission, they take down Hellion, Sunspot, Match, Meld, Lorelei Travis, Adam-X, and Avalanche, who are protesting against Osborn’s reign.

Emma Frost eventually offers them a place with the real X-Men, to which their agree. During her time with the X-Men, it is revealed by tests conducted by Dr. Nemesis, that neither Tandy nor Tyrone are actually mutants, as they had previously believed. When Cloak later vanishes, Dagger tracks him down and with the help of the X-Men, Anole and Dr. Nemesis, is able to free Cloak from his captors. Cloak and Dagger decide to depart the X-Men’s home base of Utopia, and return to New York City to continue their fight against the war on drugs.

During this time, Dagger tries to stabilize her life, despite becoming homeless with Tyrone, by doing what she can to attend College. It’s during this time, that Dagger is captured by Mister Negative, who corrupts her with Negative Energy; her powers become altered, now using the Dark Force, similar to Cloak where she has a hunger for light and begins to die without it. Cloak pleads with Mister Negative to give him the same touch in hopes that it would reverse his powers as well; and it does, so that Cloak now has the same powers as Dagger once had. Cloak quickly feeds Dagger his light to “feed” her and keep her alive.

The two have been seen together, continuing their fight against crime and drugs, with their swapped powers. However, in Shanghai, China, at Parker Industries, Doctor Yao Wu, has discovered an antidote to the drug called “Shade” that Mister Negative had used, which unleashes a person’s darker side. This very drug was used on both Cloak and Dagger that swapped their powers and made them loyal servants to Mister Negative.

When Mister Negative uses Peter Parker as a pawn to slip Shade to a Chinese speaker named Shen Quinghao, he expects it will unleash Shen’s darker side and the world will watch in horror. When Shen delivers his speech without a problem, Mister Negative demands that Cloak to teleport them there. When they arrive, they’re greeted by armed policemen, and Mister Negative realizes it’s a trap. Spider-Man shows up and first hits Cloak with the cure to Shade, which reverses Cloak’s power and appearance, back to his standard Darkforce.

Things seem to be going well, until Peter Parker’s girlfriend, Lian Tang, shows up in the Spider-Mobile, trying to kill Spider-Man. Unbeknownst to Spider-Man, she is being black mailed by a terrorist organization called Zodiac, and they’re the only ones keeping her mother alive, and they have forced Lian to turn against Spider-Man.

In the meantime, Mister Negative tells Dagger to kill Shen Quinghao, and Cloak, now of sound mind once more tries to stop Dagger. Cloak, despite the history of drugs shared between Cloak and Dagger, injects Tandy with the cure to Shade, restoring her powers and appearance.

At that moment, Mister Negative reaches Shen Quinghao, who confesses (though with no audience), that he was indeed, a former gang member known as Silver Fang, and his Snakehead gang was once involved in human trafficking. Frustrated, Mister Negative commands Shen to jump out a window, which he does. Spider-Man, who had been speaking to Lian, explained he knew her situation, just as Shen goes flying by. Lian uses the Spider-Mobile to catch him, but the sudden shift causes it to begin falling.

Cloak and Dagger appear, and teleport them all to safety. Shen is taken to a hospital, where the cure to Mister Negative’s touch was given to him. Mister Negative manages to escape in all the confusion, but now both Cloak and Dagger are immune to his touch, and the drug, Shade.

When the vampires return and seemingly abduct Cloak (among other Darkforce users) in an effort to block out the sun, Dagger tries to uncover where Cloak has been taken and finds herself ambushed by vampires; her light daggers act as wooden stakes, able to destroy the vampires who ambush her. However, one of the vampires is someone she knew and tries to go easy on them; but the vampire hunger is too strong, and the arrival of Elsa Bloodstone, the immortal vampire hunter, kills the recently changed vampire, Veren. They are quickly attacked by Yelena Belova, better known as the White Widow. Dagger insists that Elsa not kill her, so Elsa pins Yelena to the wall with silver stakes. Dagger attempts to heal her with her light powers, and manages to do so – but Dagger is turned into a vampire in the process!

Elsa and Yelena fight one another when Elsa attempts to kill Dagger now that she’s a vampire; as the two fight amongst each other, Dagger is able to fight off the vampiric effects and regain control of herself, expunging the virus from her body. Shortly after, another waves of vampires is seen and Elsa fires a silver stake into one – and it doesn’t die! It lands on the ground, and reveals that she is Janine Godbe, known as Hallow’s Eve, and she has a bag of different masks that allow her to become whatever she needs to; and that she’d been wearing a vampire mask to hide among them as a means of surviving, but that she isn’t an actual vampire. When the other vampires descend, Janine uses a Spider-Man mask to try and help out; but when it becomes too much and Dagger is trying to heal everyone, but being overwhelmed… Dagger cuts loose emitting a massive white light and the man she’d been trying to cure stands and is human once again; the other vampires have seemingly fled or been destroyed.

Dagger convinces Janine, Yelena, and Elsa to all form a team and find a way to cure these vampires as much as possible, rather than kill them; because they all know someone who is a friend or family, who has been infected with the vampire virus, and they need to find a better way of saving them.

 

Height: 5’5″
Weight: 115 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond
Powers: Dagger can generate and throw “light daggers” which stun targets by forcing them to confront the darkness in their own souls. Her light can also cure drug addictions in some people, as a side affect of that painfully enlightening experience. Additionally, her light can alleviate Cloak’s thirst for light and warmth.

Accessories: None

Note: Dagger is an experienced dancer. She was also blind for a time, so she knows how to move unhindered without being able to see.