Seriously, check out the link for the Carl Potts cover: from 1987, Strange Tales #9, featuring "The Luminous Lady" Written by Terry Austin, breakdowns by Brett Blevins, inks by Bob Wiacek; and "African Genesis!" Written by Peter B. Gillis, pencils by Terry Shoemaker, inks by Randy Emberlin.
Per the GCD, this was the first appearance of Mr. Jip: we saw him back when we checked out the X-Men chapter of Atlantis Attacks, but the GCD seems to think he would go on to be "a major villain." Uh-huh. Cloak had lost his powers, and worried he would lose Dagger; so he took them back from a mysterious figure who said he could pay later...man, kids can be dumb sometimes. Cloak again "became the cursed mad custodian of darkness," but Dagger, who only wanted a normal life, was not thrilled with him and left. Now, the creepy darkness inside of him (which may or may not have been a separate entity, referred to as the predator) needed to feed; and while he was absorbing the city's light, he needed the "living light" of souls. So this month's guest-star, Dazzler, isn't as much help as you'd think!
Cloak has just enough willpower left to keep from feeding on the innocent Dazzler; but is then beaten by Night and Day, who seem to have powers not unlike Cloak and Dagger's, and who turn Cloak over to Mr. Jip. Meanwhile, with most of their supporting cast insane and feeling like she needed to talk to a "clear-thinking, always together, functional adult," Dagger goes looking for Spider-Man. She may be barking up the wrong tree there, but she finds a different guest-star next issue...
Meanwhile, Dr. Strange is in Africa this month--an Africa that looks like the American image of it circa the eighties and probably doesn't really resemble reality, even before we get to the creepy temple that seems to be harvesting the locals. Strange was not at the top of his game here: he was trying to stop an evil he had inadvertently released, but seemingly no longer had access to 'white' magic, only dark. His new trainer, Kaluu, berates Strange for not working with the tools at hand, but also seems suspicious as all get out.
I didn't read this regularly when it came out, but I remember an issue where the two features crossover; and Strange has to, for whatever reason, reverse-psychology Dagger to save Cloak. "Let him die, Dagger! It's for the best!" Hopefully we'll see that issue at some point here.
Ok, I'll bite- what about the cover sells it? Seems kind of plain to me.
ReplyDeleteMmm, outta the quarter bin I liked it, and it was different that the other covers from this series that I can remember: usually they were split, with Strange in some predicament on his side, C&D the same on theirs.
ReplyDeletePretty solid covers, some even have Kevin Nowlan art on 'em.
ReplyDeleteDue to the nature of his powers, poor Cloak will probably never get rid of that gnawing hunger, only ever hope to contain it. He really should find a way for both of them to have to permanently lose their powers. Maybe Dr. Strange or Reed could help?
Funny how Dagger things Spider-Man's a stable guy who has his shit together.....nothing could be further from the truth, but you can't blame her for thinking that when for a good while he was basically playing the guidance counselor of the MU to other young and inexperienced heroes starting out since what, the mid/late 70's?
All you'd hear from was the same spiel, "Great Power, Great Responsibility" yada yada yada.
Hopefully one day, he'll actually finally reconcile with his failure to stop Uncle Ben's killer and leave all that guilt behind. But then where would the fun and drama be in that right?