Lloyd Farley
Sat, July 11, 2026 at 1:55 AM UTC
The MCU is ready to return in a big way with Spider-Man: Brand New Day on July 31. Coupled with the excitement surrounding the second season of X-Men ’97 and the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday, the franchise has been granted a renewed interest as a whole. That’s good news for MCU projects that haven’t been revisited in some time, and should be even better for one of the MCU’s hidden gems, a superhero series as worthy of a second look as any. That series is Cloak & Dagger from 2018
‘Cloak & Dagger’ Defies Expectations from the Start
Cloak & Dagger is based on the superhero duo that first appeared in the pages of Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man, in 1982, but from the start, the series made a significant departure from their comic book origins. In the comics, they’re a pair of teenage runaways — Tyrone, a black 17-year-old street kid, and Tandy, a 16-year-old white girl from a privileged background — from New York, who are kidnapped and injected with synthetic drugs by the evil Dr. Simon Marshall. In the TV series, though, their socioeconomic backgrounds are switched: Tandy (Olivia Holt) is now a destitute runaway who lives in an abandoned church, while Tyrone (Aubrey Joseph) hails from a well-off family. The departure from the outdated stereotypes shown in the 80s comic was a refreshing change of pace, as was the change in locale from the New York setting to the underutilized New Orleans.
There’s also no evil chemist looking to test experimental drugs on runaway teenagers. Instead, both are connected by a mutual tragedy in their past, the explosion of the Roxxon Gulf Platform off the Gulf Coast. The explosion causes Tandy and her father, Nathan (Andy Dylan), to crash into the ocean, leading to Nathan’s death. It also causes Officer Connors (J.D. Evermore) to accidentally pull the trigger on his gun, fatally shooting Tyrone’s brother, Billy (Marqus Clae), who falls into the ocean, with Tyrone jumping in to rescue him, albeit too late. As the two survivors, Tyrone and Tandy are affected by an energy force that surged through the ocean waters from the rig.
The full effects of the energy force aren’t unleashed until eight years later, when Tandy and Tyrone bump into each other at a party. The chance meeting activates their superpowers, manifesting as a dagger of light that Tandy creates to stab a man trying to assault her, and, for Tyrone, the ability to teleport (later revealed as traveling through the Darkforce Dimension) after an encounter with Connors, who is now a detective after burying the investigation into Billy’s death. As much as they try to stay apart, Tyrone and Tandy are almost karmically drawn together time and again. They soon realize that they can’t fight it, and that they work best as a team, with their powers heightened when they’re together. Rather than shove the characters together, Cloak & Daggerallowed for the characters to come to this conclusion naturally, a slow burn that pays off when they finally come together to fight crime.
There’s Never Been a Better Time To Watch ‘Cloak & Dagger’
They are, as pilot director Gina Prince-Blythewoodputs it, “two very damaged souls finding each other,” only it goes much, much deeper than that: they literallyneedeach other. Dagger generates psionic light, but at the risk of overwhelming her and burning out of control, while Cloak’s channeling of the Darkforce Dimension threatens to consume him or drive others insane. Each of their powers keeps the other in check. Dagger’s light provides the energy needed to keep Cloak’s darkness at bay, while Cloak’s access to the dark dimension tempers Dagger’s light-based powers.
It’s a yin/yang relationship that extends beyond just their powers, with Tandy’s ability to see the hopes and goodness in others when she touches them at odds with her deep cynicism, and Tyrone’s optimism standing in direct contrast to his ability to reveal people’s fears. Their personalities, too, are essential in supporting one another on an emotional level: Tyrone encourages Tandy to be less cynical, even to dare to hope, while Tandy inspires Tyrone to embrace his abilities and strengths and be more self-confident. It’s a relationship that works thanks to the strong chemistry between the two leads and the script.
Cloak & Dagger boasts great visual effects, the action sequences are top-notch, and the New Orleans setting is utilized to perfection. But to today’s audiences, that might not mean much: we’ve seen great special effects and beautifully crafted action sequences over and over. That’s whereCloak & Daggerseparates itself from its kin. The effects and the action, good as they are, take a backseat to the well-drawn-out, character-driven drama. It addresses meaningful issues like class disparities and racism, largely eschewing the usual teen angst that permeates most fare aimed at young adult audiences. Its most prevalent theme, and the one that makes it particularly relevant today, is mental health. The leads are open and honest with one another, not hiding behind memes or passive/aggressive social media posts, but actually connecting on a meaningful level and healing in the process. The series goes deeper into the subject than any other MCU series and touches on it in a nuanced way that elevates the series beyond mere superhero TV show status. For that reason alone, Cloak & Dagger should be your next binge.
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