Tyrone Johnson and Tandy Bowen (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

Cloak & Dagger In the first season of Cloak & Dagger, set in New Orleans, Louisiana, teenagers Tyrone "Ty" Johnson and Tandy Bowen, connected through a shared childhood tragedy and respectively coming from backgrounds of wealth and poverty, acquire superpowers after a life-changing event revolving around the collapse of the Roxxon Gulf Platform. As their friendship unfolds into romance, they soon realize that their new-found powers work better when they are together, they use these powers to try to fix some of the wrong in the world as the superheroes Cloak and Dagger, respectively with the ability to engulf others in darkness and transport them through the Darkforce Dimension, and the ability to emit daggers of solid light. In the second season, Cloak and Dagger work to solve the abductions of women run by Andre Deschaine while facing Brigid O'Reilly's vigilante half Mayhem. Runaways Ahead of the series premiere of Cloak & Dagger, considering the larger events of the MCU at that point, Pokaski said he was "not allowed to talk about" how the series would connect to the events of Avengers: Infinity War but stated "We've had some exciting conversations about how we could artfully cross [Cloak and Dagger] over [to other Marvel properties]. The beauty of these two is that they can show up anywhere [and it makes sense]." while Jeph Loeb said that "You'll see things that comment on each other; we try to touch base wherever we can... things that are happening in L.A. [where Runaways is set] are not exactly going to be affecting what's happening in New Orleans [where Cloak & Dagger is set]... It's being aware of it and trying to find a way [to connect] that makes sense." On August 1, 2019, Holt and Joseph were announced to appear in the third season of Runaways, appearing in the episodes "Left-Hand Path" and "Devil's Torture Chamber". ==Concept and creation==

and Aubrey Joseph at WonderCon 2018 promoting the first season of Cloak & Dagger. At San Diego Comic-Con in 2011, head of Marvel Television Jeph Loeb announced the series Cloak & Dagger was in development at ABC Family. The series, which would be set in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, would follow Tyrone Johnson / Cloak and Tandy Bowen / Dagger as the two "find each other and realize that their powers both complement and complicate their lives", and written by Joe Pokaski. In April 2016, the series received a straight-to-series order for Freeform, the new name of ABC Family, from ABC Signature Studios and Marvel Television. In January 2017, it was announced that Aubrey Joseph and Olivia Holt had been cast as Cloak and Dagger, respectively. Maceo Smedley III and Rachel Ryals were subsequently respectively cast as a young Tyrone and Tandy. ==Characterization==

Series showrunner and executive producer Joe Pokaski spoke about the differences in Cloak and Dagger's origin story from the comics, saying, "I think the original [comic] stories were fantastic, but for the time, while they were a little progressive, they were a little bit sexist and racist once you got into it, for now. What we tried to do was deconstruct it and make it about [Cloak and Dagger], understand who they were." Structurally for the season, Pokaski felt the first four episodes was the season's first act, where viewers get to understand [Cloak and Dagger] individually, the next three "are about them coming together comprehensively, not only as a team, but as best friends", before concluding with the last three episodes. Following the first-season finale reveal of Cloak's ability to absorb people into his cloak, Pokaski said that Cloak is "a doorway to something" and "we're going to step into that doorway a little more" into the series' second season. Pokaski enjoyed being able to unfold the characters' powers like this so they could be tied to emotions. Pokaski said the season would explore his favorite element of superhero stories: people balancing their personal life with their responsibility as a hero. He said it would also show how a person can become a vigilante in a way that he hoped would be unique from other installments in the superhero genre. The season also sees the living arrangements of Cloak and Dagger reversed from the first, with Cloak now on the run from the police and living in the abandoned church that Dagger had been living in, until she moved back in with her mother at the end of the first season. Pokaski felt this would allow them to explore a side of Dagger that she herself has neglected, as well as showing who Cloak is without the "brave face" he has been putting on. ==Reception==

Early reactions to the Cloak & Dagger series premiere "First Light" from its screening at South by Southwest 2018 were largely positive, with praise going to Joseph and Holt's performances. Alex McLevy of The A.V. Club noted that "the charismatic leads are the true find, and if the show succeeds, it will largely be on the back of the work they do." He further praised the title characters' major changes from the comics, including the relocation of the characters from New York to New Orleans and the addition of "parents, home lives, and all manner of other backstories rejiggered to serve the long-form TV storytelling framework." Meredith Borders of /Film felt the leads "have tremendous chemistry onscreen" that she became "deeply invested" in, calling it "among the upper echelon of Marvel television.... [doing] so with style and powerful storytelling" and felt it was "new in every particular way". She also felt the protagonists' powers were shown "in a really visually organic way"; while noting the strong divergence from the comics source material, she nonetheless felt that "the spirit of the characters absolutely remains the same." For io9, Charles Pulliam-Moore noted the series as "[not] exactly a show for die-hard comic book purists looking for a live-action translation of the superheroes they love, but that ultimately works out in its favor because that's not what it's trying to be." Allison Keene of Collider was critical of the attempts to split the early episodes between both Johnson and Bowen. Entertainment Weeklys Darren Franich complimented the first season for taking a "rough outline" of the comics "and cleverly moderniz[ing] it in unexpected directions" and how throughout the early episodes the New Orleans location "finds unexpected ways to root Tyrone and Tandy in the local culture." Accolades Holt and Joseph were both nominated for Choice Summer TV Star at the 2018 Teen Choice Awards, with Holt for the win. Joseph was nominated for Choice Fantasy Sci/Fi Actor and Holt was nominated for Choice Fantasy/Sci-Fi Actress at the 2019 Teen Choice Awards. ==See also==