Spider-Island: Cloak and Dagger #2
Spider-Island continues from Amazing Spider-Man #669…
Now
Tandy Bowen, aka Dagger, has a strange dream where she is married to Mister Negative and they have a child. The pair are out shopping for more diapers. The dream takes a dark tone when she picks the severed head of Tyrone Johnson, aka Cloak, and asks Spider-Man — who is a cashier — how much it costs. He doesn’t know since she was the one who killed him. Mister Negative then has a surprise for her and takes her around the corner where armed men have mowed down a crowd. He tells her that he got them on sale. When she looks down the skin of her baby is melting off its face.
That’s when Dagger wakes up. She is tied to a chair and Cloak — stripped of his namesake — is curled up on the floor. They are prisoners of Mister Negative and he reiterates that she has a choice. When Tandy passes out again, the mobster wonders if she heard him.
Three Hours Ago
Dagger is in the Empire State University dorm room of her classmate, Patrick. They are going over Rousseau’s Social Contract when Patrick decides to show off the spider-powers he and many New Yorkers have recently obtained.[1] Tandy isn’t very jealous pointing out that she has powers of her own. When she asks if he developed any other powers other than wall-crawling and he tells her no as he tries desperately to hide the spider legs that are growing out of his back. He then asks Tandy to go to a bar with him, but she suggests they focus on their work. Because her back is turned, she doesn’t see when Patrick suddenly transforms into a massive spider.
The massive spider then attacks her from behind but luckily, Tandy is able to leap out of the way. The creature smashes through the wall and she blasts it away with her light powers. She soon is swarmed by other spiders and can’t hold them all off. That’s when Mister Negative and his Inner Demons arrive. He orders his minions to help her and they begin slaughtering the spiders. When Tandy protests this, one of the Inner Demons knocks her out with a drug-soaked rag.
Now
Dagger wakes up again and Mister Negative confirms that people all over the city are turning into giant spiders. However, there are other pending matters that he wishes to address. He then turns her attention to Cloak, who is still curled up on the floor.
Two Hours Ago
Cloak is looking down on a city swarmed by massive spiders from the safety of a rooftop. That’s when Mister Negative and his Inner Demons appear and attack. Cloak puts up a good fight but the Inner Demons are endless. Ty loses his temper when he sees that Mister Negative has Tandy prisoner. When he lunges at the mobster, Mister Negative knocks Cloak out.
Now
Dagger suddenly recognizes Mister Negative as one of the people who Simon Marshall experimented upon back in the day.[2] He gets to the point and tells Tandy that he kidnapped her and Ty because a fortune-teller named Suan Ming predicted that Dagger was going to kill him. Dagger suggests that he let her free so she can get this over with, but Negative has no intention of doing so. That’s when Tandy points out that he is being played. She explains that this is like Twelve Monkeys a science fiction story where a man goes back in time to prevent his nightmare future only to cause it to happen. When Mister Negative doesn’t understand what she means, she says that Suan Ming told him that Dagger was going to kill him so that he would create the exact scenario where that could happen.
That’s when Mister Negative reveals that he doesn’t want to prevent his own death, he just wants to make sure he dies by a hand of honor. He then has his minions put a knife to Cloak’s throat and says that his men will kill him if Tandy doesn’t give him her hand. With no other choice, Dagger reaches out and touches Mister Negative’s hand. As his corrupting touch begins to affect her, Mister Negative explains that before he dies he wants Dagger to experience her true self. The corrupting touch inverts Dagger’s power, changing her from a creature of light to one of darkness.
Recurring Characters
Cloak, Dagger, Mister Negative
Continuity Notes
For more on the spider-plague affecting New York read Amazing Spider-Man #666-673 because although this is a Spider-Island title, it has very little to do with it.
Mister Negative was previously a snakehead who smuggled illegal immigrants into New York from China. When his operation was shut down by the Maggia, the man who would become Mister Negative ended up one of Marshall’s guineapigs. See Dark Reign: Mister Negative #1-3.
Topical References
Real-world products: Netflix
