Racism, injustice are real villains on ‘Cloak & Dagger’

In “Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger,” Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson are two teenagers whose lives were forever changed after they each lost a family member one rainy night when they were children.

They also both happen to have superpowers.

Unlike the characters in other superhero shows, neither Tyrone nor Tandy takes the emergence of new abilities as a sign to become costumed vigilantes or code-named crime fighters.

They have plenty of other demons to deal with, such as substance abuse, depression, strained relationships with parents and everything else that comes with just trying to survive as a young black man and a young white woman in America.

“We’re not just telling a cool story about cool superheroes,” said Olivia Holt, who plays Tandy opposite Aubrey Joseph’s Tyrone in the series. “We actually get to tell a story about real, damaged teenagers. What they go through and what their feelings are and not glamorizing it in any way.”

Central to the drama, which airs Thursdays on Freeform, is the relationship between Tyrone and Tandy, who mysteriously saved each other’s lives as children on that rainy night.

A modern take on the characters introduced in the pages of “Peter Parker, the Spectacular SpiderMan” No. 64 in 1982, “Cloak & Dagger” is not a show that requires any knowledge of comics or being up to date on the happenings of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

“‘Cloak & Dagger’ is always about a young man and a young woman who are trying to figure out their lives and who have to come to the challenging (realization that) they are better off together than they are apart,” said Jeph Loeb, head of Marvel TV and an executive producer on the show.

Setting the pair apart from other Marvel characters, according to showrunner Joe Pokaski, is that Cloak and Dagger were always equals, a dynamic that was reflected in the original comic books.

“It wasn’t a sidekick and a hero,” explained Pokaski. “They were two damaged people who needed each other.”

For the series, Tandy and Tyrone’s story has been tweaked to better reflect current issues. Tyrone, a star athlete at a private school, has parents who are as supportive as they are overbearing. Tandy, on the other hand, is a runaway who tries to make ends meet by stealing from unsuspecting people.

In the comic books, Tyrone was the poorer one, while Tandy had money. Flipping Tyrone and Tandy’s economic status, Pokaski explained, was meant to make sure race was separated from wealth in order to understand the effects of both.

“It was really just impressive the way that (their story) was updated,” said director Gina PrinceBythewood (“Love & Basketball”), who was drawn to the characters of Pokaski’s script even before delving into “Cloak & Dagger’s” comic book history. “It had to be updated. But at its core, Tandy and Tyrone were the same characters. And their relationship is the same.”

This commitment to tackling racism, police corruption, sexual assault, substance abuse, grief and other topical issues is one of the driving forces behind “Cloak & Dagger.”

Whereas some superhero stories take an allegorical approach to confronting various injustices, “Cloak & Dagger” directly calls out white privilege and society’s hostility toward young black men. The series also depicts how white privilege and racism affect people regardless of class.

The goal, according to Joseph and Holt, is that the show foster discussions about these topics.