Cloak & Dagger: Crime And Punishment

Reprints Spectacular Spider-Man #64, 69-70, 81-82, 94-96, Marvel Team-Up Annual #6, Marvel Fanfare #19.
Written by Bill Mantlo & Al Milgrom.
Penciled by Ed Hannigan, Al Milgrom, Ron Frenz, Tony Salmons, Rick Leonardi, Kerry Gammill, Terry Austin & Kevin Nowlan.

Inked by Al Milgrom, Jim Mooney, Kevin Dzuban, Tony Salmons, Terry Austin, George Freeman.

Variant Cover.

Spider-Man is hot on the trail of a drug dealer named Simon Marshall. Suddenly, Marshall is attacked  by a teenaged duo who call themselves Cloak & Dagger!  

Spider-Man encounters Cloak and Dagger for the first time.

Cloak wears a cloak that envelops people and makes them cold. He also has the power of teleportation. Dagger is extremely agile and shoots light-knives from her fingers. She uses her light-knives to kill Marshall. Spidey is enraged, reminding them that even criminals have rights. He attempts to capture them, but Cloak teleports away with Dagger in tow. 

Spider-Man looks into Marshall's activities and learns he was involved in a drug experiment conducted by the mob. Marshall and his cohorts kidnapped homeless teenagers, including Cloak and Dagger, and housed them in the ruins of Ellis Island. The teens were then injected with an experimental drug. All the other kids were killed, but Cloak and Dagger survived and gained super-powers.    

Spidey checks out Ellis Island and finds Cloak and Dagger holding a trial for the other men involved in their drug experiment. Spider-Man intervenes, but one of the drug dealers gets the drop on Dagger. The dealers are accidentally killed during the ensuing melee. Spider-Man tells the duo that they need to stop acting as judge, jury and executioner, but they flee, telling him they have no choice. Cloak and Dagger then teleport away from Ellis Island.

Cloak & Dagger break up a drug deal.

Sometime later, Cloak and Dagger investigate another drug ring. It turns out the dealers are working for the gangster known as Silvermane, leader of the Maggia crime syndicate. Cloak & Dagger are determined to kill Silvermane for his crimes.

Spider-Man tries to discourage Cloak & Dagger from going after Silvermane

But Silvermane is barely alive. He's recuperating from a long fall and his mob doctors are helping him cheat death. Dagger attacks the bedridden Slivermane and appears to kill him.

We later learn that Silvermane's doctors turn him into a super-strong cyborg in order to save his life.  His new "body" will act as a life support system. He goes on a rampage around New York, seeking to kill Cloak and Dagger. Eventually, he encounters Spider-Man. Dagger succeeds in killing Silvermane with her light knives, much to the disgust of Spider-Man.

Silvermane gives his new "body" a workout.

Shortly thereafter, the New Mutants visit New York City to take in a performance of Cats on Broadway. But team members Sunspot and Wolfsbane are captured by gangsters who are trying to recreate the drug that brought about Cloak & Dagger's powers.

It will take the combined forces of Spider-Man, the New Mutants, and Cloak & Dagger to save the day.

Subsequently, Cloak and Dagger defeat a small-time drug pusher. They learn that his source is none other than Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of Crime! Spider-Man learns of this is worried more than ever before about the teenaged duo. He tries to stop them from going after the Kingpin.  

To complicate matters, the Punisher has escaped prison and arrived in New York. He's continuing his one-man war on crime, gunning for every criminal, no matter how minor their offenses. Punisher is determined to kill the Kingpin, but he'll have go through Spider-Man, Cloak, and Dagger first.    

After that adventure, Kingpin hatches a plan to kill Cloak & Dagger. He has revived the cyborg body of Silvermane and will use it as his personal killing machine. Kingpin appreciates the irony of using one of his rivals to take care of the young duo.

Spider-Man does his best to protect Cloak & Dagger, but he's having problems of his own. His girlfriend and crime-fighting partner, the Black Cat, has been acting distant. She recently went to the Kingpin to get super powers and hasn't told Spidey about that for obvious reasons. This creates tension in the relationship.
 

Plus:
Spider-Man gets a new villain in the form of the Answer! He works for the Kingpin and has the "answer" to every problem!

Also, Dagger wants to feel like a normal teenager again, so she goes out to dance club. But she runs into an infamous drug dealer.


Review:

This is a great introduction to Cloak and Dagger. I'd read most of these tales, but their first appearance was a story I never owned. Bill Mantlo created the duo and writes most of the stories contained here.  I get the impression that Cloak and Dagger mean a lot to Mantlo.

Story:
The first story in this book is a great debut for Cloak & Dagger. They make an exciting first impression. We see them in action, killing a drug dealer and we get an origin story as well. Mantlo also makes nice use of New York landmarks: Spider-Man discovers the drug dealers hideout is on Ellis Island. This story took place when the famous immigration center was abandoned and in disrepair. I found this especially interesting, since, like Mantlo, I had family that arrived in America through Ellis Island.

I also enjoyed the Marvel Team-Up Annual story that featured the New Mutants. I can't recall any other stories where Cloak & Dagger interacted with their peers.

I enjoyed Mantlo's portrayal of the Punisher. He's depicted as a total madman here, sentencing passersby to death for littering.

If there's any problem with Crime And Punishment, it's that some of the stories seem a bit too similar to one another. Several stories center on generic drug dealing gangsters. It doesn't ruin the book, but it's something that's more effective when it's spread across several months (which was the case when these issues were published).  

The Answer captures Dagger & flies away.

Art:
The early parts of this book are penciled by Ed Hannigan. This represents some of Hannigan's best work. To my eyes, the covers and splash pages look like homages to comics legend Will Eisner.

In fact, you can even see a sign for a business named "Eisner Industries" in the background of one panel (see image below) . Al Milgrom does a fine job inking Hannigan.

Milgrom takes over as penciler for the later stories, so there's not a drastic stylistic change. The portion that reprints Marvel Team-Up Annual #6 features pencils by Ron Frenz inked by Kevin Dhuzban. Their art isn't flashy, but it's solid.

The final story of the book features 3 different art teams, each getting 10 pages a piece. The best of these are penciled by Rick Leonardi and inked by Terry Austin.

Dagger wants to go out dancing & feel like a normal teenager for just one night.

How Does it look?:It looks great. Here's another scan from the book:

Extras:
We get several full-page pinups of Cloak & Dagger, plus some covers that feature the duo.

Rating:
Cloak & Dagger: Crime And Punishment features action-packed stories from start to finish, with plenty of 80s grittiness thrown in for good measure.

 

4 Sals

Black Widow: Web Of Intrigue

Reprints Marvel Fanfare #10-13, Bizarre Adventures #25, Black Widow:The Coldest War graphic novel.
Written by Ralph Macchio, Gerry Conway & George Perez.
Penciled by George Perez, Paul Gulacy, George Freeman, Bob Layton & Luke McDonnell.
Inked by Joe Sinnott, Jack Abel, Brett Breeding, Al Milgrom, John Beatty, Ernie Colon, Mark Farmer, George Freeman, Mike Harris, Val Mayerik & Joe Rubenstein.

Natasha Romanoff, better known as the Black Widow, is contacted by S.H.I.E.L.D. Its director, Nick Fury has a special mission for her: find Ivan Petrovich. Ivan is one of the most important people in Natasha's life. He rescued her from certain death in war-torn Russia and served as Natasha's guardian.  Ivan later defected to the U.S. with the Widow, but Fury fears that the Soviets have captured Petrovich.  Or worse: he may have decided to rejoin the USSR of his own accord.

 Nick Fury tells how Ivan rescued Black Widow during WWII.

The Black Widow's quest for Ivan takes her all over the world:
From New York, to Moscow, to Hong Kong, to a villain's island headquarters. It turns out that the villain behind Ivan's capture is a foe from her past. Before she can rescue Ivan, she has to fight her way through a team of assassins. The deadliest of them is Iron Maiden, who served with Natasha when they both worked for the Soviet Union.

Black Widow Vs. Iron Maiden

But there's more:

In another tale, an MI-6 agent is killed while investigating Soviet intervention in South Africa. Natasha is contacted by S.H.I.E.L.D to look into this case. It turns out the leader of the Soviet operation is Irma Klausvichnova, the woman who trained the Widow.

That training has saved Natasha's life more than once, but now S.H.I.E.L.D. has ordered her to kill Irma.  But when Black Widow tracks down Irma, nothing goes according to plan!

Alternate Cover

Review:

Black Widow: Web Of Intrigue is a decent book, not a great one. I've always enjoyed Black Widow in the Avengers or the era when she co-starred with Daredevil. But I don't think Black Widow has ever been very successful as a solo character and this book shows why. Writers seem to get stuck on telling stories about Black Widow's past as a Soviet spy and we get two in this hardcover. I won't reveal the identity of the villain who mastermined Ivan's capture, but I will say that it's someone who fought the Widow while she was partnered up with Daredevil. Web Of Intrigue also features a nice retelling of Natasha's origin and back story.  

Story:

Ralph Macchio pens a good tale here. The first part (from Marvel Fanfare #10-13) feels a lot like a Bond movie, with all the globetrotting, larger-than-life thugs, and a villain with an island hide-out, but the ending feels a bit sudden.

The second story, from Bizarre Adventures, also written by Macchio, is short but in some ways the better of the two tales. It should be noted that this book has a "parental advisory" on the back cover. There's a line where another agent says Black Widow was "good in the sack", so it's not a book that should be given to kids. Bizarre Adventures was a magazine aimed at adults, so it's not surprising to see this.  

I need to point out that there are several continuity and/or geographical errors in this book. For instance, at one point we're told that Ivan Petrovich rescued Natasha during the battle of Stalingrad. Later, we're told the rescue took place in Leningrad. And at one point, Nick Fury tells her they've booked her a room in one of Japan's finest hotels, but the hotel is actually located in Hong Kong. I hope someone got a No-Prize from Marvel over these bloopers!

Art:
George Perez is a favorite artist of mine. Sometimes his inkers let him down here, but the art generally looks good.

Paul Gulacy's art is outstanding as always and it looks great in black & white. Prior to the publication of Web Of Intrigue, this story had only ever been published on newsprint-quality paper. It looks fantastic here on glossier paper. Gulacy often drew characters to look like famous movie stars, as we see below:

"Langley" bears a striking resemblance to Humphrey Bogart!

How does it look?:

Great. All the images in the review are scanned from the book, and here's another:

Extras:

A 1988 graphic novel called Black Widow: Coldest War can be found at the back of the book.   

My rating:

Not a classic, but Black Widow: Web Of Intrigue is a good introduction to Black Widow and the art by Perez and Gulacy makes it a worthwhile purchase.  

3 Sals.