Ultimate Spider-Man Episode Fifty-Six: Cloak and Dagger

Cloak and Dagger

First Aired: September 14th, 2014

Synopsis: Spider-Man and Iron Fist are looking for teenage superheroes Cloak and Dagger when Cloak appears, attacking them with Mindless Ones and absorbing Iron Fist into his portal. Dagger arrives as Cloak teleports away and explains to Spider-Man that Cloak's been that way for a few days since he disappeared during a fight. Spider-Man convinces her to work with him and they go to Doctor Strange. Doctor Strange is coincidentally being attacked by Cloak, who is revealed to be controlled by Dormammu. Strange is absorbed into Cloak, but before he is he manages to give Spider-Man the Eye of Agamotto, which gives Spider-Man access to magic. Spider-Man's able to teleport himself and Dagger to the dimension Cloak teleports to, and after Dagger restrains Cloak, she gives Spider-Man one of her light daggers as he enters Cloak's portal. From in there he's able to use it to free Cloak from Dormammu's control after convincing him to trust him. Cloak and Dagger want to run away, but Spider-Man convinces them to work with him against Dormammu.

Cloak reveals that Dormammu is gathering an army of mystics to invade Earth with, and when they arrive at Dormammu's castle there's also a gem, the Siege Perilous, being charged with energy to open a portal. Doctor Strange, White Tiger, and Iron Fist are at Dormammu's castle, controlled by him, but Dagger's light daggers are able to free White Tiger and Iron Fist from his control, as well as give them new costumes. Dormammu appears but Ava and Danny are able to distract him while Spider-Man and Dagger cleanse Doctor Strange. Afterwards Spider-Man grabs the Siege Perilous and they leave the castle, but Doctor Strange reveals that there are no portals back to their realm. Cloak offers to sacrifice himself to get them back home, so that Dormammu can't possess him again, but Strange says he can seal Dormammu out once they're back. Everyone goes through Cloak's portal to Earth, but Dormammu follows them before being easily pushed back into Cloak. As promised, Doctor Strange seals Cloak, and says that SHIELD should have the Siege Perilous for safekeeping. In the aftermath Spider-Man gives SHIELD's contact details to Cloak and Dagger, but afterwards they meet with Taskmaster, who tells them that they can't trust SHIELD.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• When Doctor Strange is possessed by Dormammu, he wears an all-blue, full-body costume. It's a neat nod to a period in the comics when he also wore it in an attempt to make him more superhero-esque.
• The Siege Perilous is a thing from the comics, but it's more often associated with the X-Men. By no means is this a bad thing, mind; I like when unexpected areas of the Marvel Universe cross over with each other (Acts of Vengeance, anyone?)

Review: Cloak and Dagger are a bit of a mixed bag - they've got a great dynamic and great visuals, but their powers are a bit vague and they've always struggled to find a niche in the Marvel Universe. Unfortunately, while I do like the characters, I don't think this episode does a great job selling them - Cloak's teleportation looks great, and Dagger's powers prove to be pretty useful, but introducing one of your exciting new characters as a mind-controlled drone for half the episode isn't a good look, and it's hard to say how useful Dagger's powers will be outside of mind-control plots. That being said, I do like the trust issues they're constantly shown to have, and the justification of it through Taskmaster manipulating them is exactly what I wanted from the show after last episode, so that's pretty great.

The more I think about it, the more I think it's the same problem Cloak and Dagger often have - they're cool characters, but the plot they're in isn't that great. There's no explanation for how Dormammu was able to control Cloak, and I'm a bit baffled by the explanation that he wants to make an army of mystics given that a) he already has an army of Mindless Ones he's planning to invade with and b) if he'd never captured them the heroes would have had no idea about his plan. Also, I'm no language expert but I'm pretty sure you need more than three people for an army. In general, while I like the character development of Cloak and Dagger learning to trust their new allies, they're less the stars and more just part of the ensemble cast, which isn't a great way to introduce them.

Still, the episode does have some nice stuff in it. Spider-Man unmasking to Cloak as a sign of trust was unexpectedly welcome, and Cloak offering to stay behind in Dormammu's dimension after everyone teleports through him was a pretty shocking moment. White Tiger and Iron Fist get neat new costumes that I hope carry through to other episodes, and as mentioned above, Taskmaster's connection to Cloak and Dagger is perfect. I'm not overly sold on this episode, but that doesn't mean that Cloak and Dagger don't deserve another chance.