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Cover: Ed Hannigan & Al Milgrom

The Spectacular Spider-Man #64

Name: The Spectacular Spider-Man #64
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Mar 1982 · Marvel · 0.60 USD; 0.20 GBP

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“Cloak and Dagger!”

★ 1st appearance — Tandy Bowen★ 1st appearance — Tyrone Johnson★ 1st appearance — Dagger★ 1st appearance — Cloak

About this Issue

Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #64 is the debut of Cloak (Tyrone Johnson) and Dagger (Tandy Bowen), two of the most thematically distinctive characters Marvel introduced during the Bronze Age. Writer Bill Mantlo built them around the real social crises of early-1980s New York — the drug epidemic, street-level crime, and the vulnerability of runaway youth — giving their origin a gritty moral weight that stood apart from the era's conventional superhero fare. The issue simultaneously introduces and provides the complete origin of the pair, including their symbiotic light-and-dark powers, making it a rare single-issue debut that required no retroactive backstory. Their uncompromising vigilante ethics — willing to kill their abusers where Spider-Man draws the line — posed an ethical challenge to the title character and to readers, a storytelling tension Mantlo and the medium were only beginning to explore.

In "Cloak and Dagger!", Spider-Man races to stop the mysterious duo from reaching Simon Marshall, a former pharmacist now working for the mob. When the mission goes tragically wrong, Peter Parker uncovers a shocking truth: Marshall was testing dangerous experimental drugs on runaway kids, and Cloak and Dagger were among the few survivors—whose powers emerged from that very ordeal. Written by Bill Mantlo and illustrated by Ed Hannigan, with inks by Al Milgrom and colors by Sharen, this 1982 issue delivers a raw, emotionally charged story that deepens the origins of two of Spider-Man’s most enigmatic foes, all set against the haunting backdrop of Ellis Island. The cover, by Ed Hannigan and Al Milgrom, captures the tension perfectly.

writer Bill Mantlo · artist Ed Hannigan · inker Al Milgrom · colorist Sharen · letterer Rosen · cover Ed Hannigan, Al Milgrom

ComicBooks.com Value

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Raw (Fine) $18

CGC 9.8 · 374 in census $701

CGC 9.6 · 771 in census $145

CGC 9.4 · 562 in census $88

CGC 9.2 · 378 in census $67*

CGC 9.0 · 321 in census $55*

CGC 8.5 · 260 in census $44*

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CGC 8.0 · 215 in census $38*

CGC 7.5 · 132 in census $32*

CGC 7.0 · 109 in census $29*

CGC 6.5 · 82 in census $23*

CGC 6.0 · 53 in census $23*

CGC 5.5 · 37 in census $20*

CGC 5.0 · 24 in census $20*

CGC 4.5 · 15 in census $20*

CGC 4.0 · 11 in census $20*

CGC 3.5 · 9 in census $20*

CGC 3.0 · 5 in census $20*

CGC 2.5 · 3 in census $20*

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CGC 9.8 ▾ $420–$850 5 listings

CGC 9.8 $420 CGC 9.8 $480 CGC 9.8 · Newsstand $595 CGC 9.8 $599.99 CGC 9.8 · Signed · Newsstand $850

CGC 9.6 ▾ $225–$495 5 listings

CGC 9.6 $225 CGC 9.6 $250 CGC 9.6 · Newsstand $275 CGC 9.6 $469.99 CGC 9.6 · Variant $495

CGC 9.4 ▾ $140–$200 6 listings

CGC 9.4 $140 CGC 9.4 $140 CGC 9.4 $150 CGC 9.4 $150.49 CGC 9.4 · Newsstand $174.99 CGC 9.4 $200

CGC 9.2 ▾ $135–$168 3 listings

CGC 9.2 · Newsstand $135 CGC 9.2 $150 CGC 9.2 · Newsstand $168

CGC 9 $117 1 listing

CGC 8.5 ▾ $99.99–$122 2 listings

CGC 8.5 · Newsstand $99.99 CGC 8.5 $121.5

CGC 7 $64.99 1 listing Raw — MINT $200 1 listing

Raw — NM+ ▾ $99.95 2 listings

NM+ $99.95 NM+ $99.95

Raw — NM ▾ $85–$131 2 listings

NM $85 NM $130.74

Raw — NM- ▾ $59.48–$69.97 2 listings

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FN+ · Newsstand $44.99 FN+ $51 FN+ $58.99 FN+ $59

Raw — FINE $78 1 listing

Raw — FN ▾ $42–$130 5 listings

FN $42 FN $65 FN · Variant $84.99 FN $100.98 FN $129.99

Raw — VG $58.21 1 listing

Raw / ungraded ▾ $25–$150 22 listings

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GD $47 VG $48 VG $75 FN $90 FN+ $100 CGC 8 · Newsstand $110 CGC 7.5 · Newsstand $120 VF $130

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History

Bill Mantlo conceived Cloak and Dagger during a personal visit to Ellis Island, and by his own account the characters arrived in his imagination fully formed — powers, origin, and motivation intact — with the immigrant history and despair of that location resonating as the emotional core of their backstory. Artist Ed Hannigan, already collaborating with Mantlo on the Spectacular Spider-Man title, was brought into the visual development early; the two discussed the characters' distinctive look together, with Hannigan designing the contrasting dark cloak and light-daggers aesthetic that defined them instantly. Editor Tom DeFalco oversaw the issue, with Mark Gruenwald serving as assistant editor at a Marvel that was actively encouraging socially engaged street-level storytelling alongside its cosmic and mutant books. Mantlo's script even weaves in a brief history of Ellis Island itself, grounding the characters' origin in a real and symbolically loaded New York location.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance and complete origin of Cloak (Tyrone Johnson) and Dagger (Tandy Bowen), two teenage runaways whose powers were activated by an experimental synthetic drug administered by mob chemist Simon Marshall.
Written by Bill Mantlo, pencilled by Ed Hannigan, inked by Al Milgrom (erroneously credited as Jim Mooney in the issue; corrected in the letters page of Spectacular Spider-Man #68), colored by Bob Sharen, lettered by Joe Rosen.
Cover date: March 1982; actual release date: December 15, 1981; published by Marvel Comics under editor Tom DeFalco.
The story is titled 'Cloak and Dagger!' and runs 21 story pages; the issue also contains a full-page Spider-Man promotional pin-up and a back-cover Dungeons & Dragons ad with art by Bill Willingham.
Simon Marshall, the criminal chemist responsible for the duo's transformation, is killed in this issue along with his mobster associates — meaning the characters' chief villain dies in the very issue they debut.
Cloak and Dagger next appeared in Spectacular Spider-Man #69 and #70 before eventually receiving their own four-issue limited series debuting in October 1983, followed by an ongoing bi-monthly series launched in 1985.
The issue has been reprinted in Essential Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 3 (2007, black and white), Marvel Premiere Classic #93: Cloak & Dagger: Crime and Punishment (2012), Cloak and Dagger: Shadows and Light (2017), and the Cloak and Dagger Omnibus Vol. 1 (2019).
The characters were adapted into a two-season live-action MCU television series for Freeform (2018–2019), starring Aubrey Joseph as Tyrone Johnson and Olivia Holt as Tandy Bowen, with Olivia Holt and Joseph reprising their roles in season 3 of the Hulu series Runaways after cancellation.