Marvel Series You Forgot Existed Buried On Disney+

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is massive, especially now that Disney+ includes sections on Fox’s X-Men and Fantastic Four, even acknowledging shows like Legion and The Gifted, and Morbius is part of the Spider-Verse collection. Tucked away on the service, though, where no one can find it without looking for it specifically, is the one Marvel series that was tossed out onto Freeform, formerly ABC Family, Cloak and Dagger.

Airing for two seasons, the series brought to life the adventures of teenage runaways (no, not those runaways), Tandy and Tyrone, normally Spider-Man supporting characters, but stuck in their own show with no connection to anything in the MCU. 

Super-Powered Teen Angst

In the series, Tandy and Tyrone are played by Oliated from New York to New Orleans, and the drug-fueled origin story of the superhero pair from the comics is replaced with an industrial accident. Cloak and Daggeris one of those shows that could get away with drastically changing the origin of its heroes because even in the comics, the pair are always stuck in a supporting role and rarely given their own title

It’s a testament to the stars that Cloak and Daggeris as good as it is. The show leans hard into teen angst, and takes advantage of the lack of any seminal stories featuring the heroes to build them up fresh as new characters without any fan expectations. This time around, Tandy is world-weary, beaten-down, and defeated, but she has the power to see everyone’s hopes and dreams when she touches them. Tyrone keeps his connection to the Darkforce Dimension but is also able to see people’s fears. 

Freeform never gave Cloak and Dagger much of a budget to play with, but thankfully, the pair’s powers are some of the cheapest that can be shown on screen since all you need is a bright light and deep darkness. While the Disney+ MCU shows look and feel like movies, the world of Tandy and Tyrone looks like Secret Life of the American Teenager, if demons sometimes made an appearance. D’Spayre, a D-level Doctor Strange villain, plays a major role in the series alongside, since it is New Orleans, Baron Samedi, the famous Vodou Ioa. 

Banished To The Dark Dimension

Cloak and Dagger spends its first season dealing with how the pair got their powers and the trauma that bonds them together, while season two follows them using their abilities to help change the world for the better. It never reaches the heights of Netflix’s Daredevil, but both seasons were well received, earning Rotten Tomatoes scores of 89 and 86 percent.

The premiere also generated 7.3 million views across linear and digital platforms, giving Freeform its biggest digital debut and best series launch in two years. Critics praised the show for embracing dark, teen-centric storylines head-on without insulting or talking down to its intended audience.

Tyrone and Tandy only ever appeared in one other Marvel show, the Hulu Original Runaways, after the end of Cloak and Dagger. Their self-contained crossover brought together two series that have since been pushed to the margins of the MCU, with Runaways removed from Disney+ and Hulu entirely in 2023. Today, Cloak and Dagger are receiving renewed attention thanks to their inclusion in the free-to-play hit MarvelRivals, but despite that newfound exposure, Marvel has announced no plans to bring them back to the MCU.

Cloak and Dagger is streaming on Disney+.