SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "First Light," the series premiere of Cloak & Dagger.


The source of Cloak & Dagger's powers may not be as mysterious as it seems to be. Since their superhuman abilities tie back to Roxxon Oil Corporation, which has quite a lengthy history in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we can trace this source to its very beginning -- and it seems like Cloak & Dagger has everything to do with a little thing called Darkforce, which was introduced in Agent Carter Season 2.

After the development of the atomic bomb in the 1940s, several of the MCU's big name tech companies -- including Stark Industries and Roxxon -- engaged in an atomic arms race. One of these companies, Isodyne Energy, accidentally stumbled across the Darkforce in the process. Originally called Zero Matter, Darkforce was an element comprised entirely of pure negative energy with some mystical attributes.

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During an atomic experiment conducted by Isodyne, an anomaly shaped like a giant crack in reality formed at the test site. A nearby military team was subsequently sucked into it, never to be seen again. The crack then disappeared, leaving only a puddle of Darkforce matter behind in its wake.

"There's no fit for it anywhere on the period table. Zero Matter is unlike any substance that we have ever seen," Isodyne scientist Jason Wilkes explained to Peggy in the second episode of Agent Carter Season 2. "I have a hypothesis. Do you know what a perfect fluid is? Real fluids conduct heat and have viscosity. Perfect fluids have no sheer stresses, no heat conduction. You see, Zero Matter is always drawing energy into itself. It'll always be the coldest object in the room because it is literally devouring any nearby energy."

Indeed, another Isodyne employee found this out the hard way. When scientist Jane Scott touched the Darkforce, she was frozen solid, kicking off the murder investigation that led Peggy right to Isodyne.

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According to Wilkes, he had to "build and maintain the magnetic containment chamber" -- the only way Isodyne could handle the substance. He believed it "could be extraterrestrial. Could be extradimensional," the latter of which tracks with its nature in the comics. "The place where Zero Matter comes from, it's dark, painful. It's not a place you want to be," he added in the episode "The Atomic Job."

Later in the episode, Wilkes and season antagonist Whitney Frost had a close encounter with the Darkforce. As Wilkes attempted to steal the Darkforce from Isodyne, Frost tried to stop him. They dropped the container holding the element in the process, breaking it open. Freed from its confinement, the Darkforce released a pulse of energy so strong that Peggy felt its effects outside the building. Intriguingly, this energy pulse visually mimicked the one from the Cloak & Dagger series premiere, when the Roxxon rig fell into the lake and exploded.

By the time of Cloak & Dagger, Isodyne Energy was long gone -- but its assets weren't. Per the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 4 episode “The Good Samaritan,” Roxxon acquired Isodyne Energy on October 13, 1956. As Leo Fitz explained to Alphonso “Mack” Mackenzie, “Peggy Carter and her team encountered them back in the 40s. They were conducting experiments on something called Zero Matter, or Darkforce, but Isodyne doesn’t exist anymore. Its assets were acquired by Roxxon Corporation in the 50s.” This indicates that Roxxon is in possession of whatever Darkforce Isodyne had left over, which suggests Darkforce may have been involved with the Roxxon rig explosion in Cloak & Dagger.

“There’s obviously a couple of moments in Agent Carter that we made sure we watched, to make sure that everyone understood that it is all connected," showrunner Joe Pokaski teased at WonderCon back in March.

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The Darkforce explosion in Isodyne labs affected Wilkes and Frost in very different ways. Where Wilkes was rendered invisible and intangible, Frost gained the ability to psychically manipulate the element; while infected by the Darkforce, she could send it out from her body and absorb other things -- like people and animals -- into it. She could control it enough to inflict pain without completely absorbing her victims. She was also seen speaking into thin air, as if she were conversing with something on the other side. As with Wilkes and Frost, it seems the Darkforce has affected Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson in different ways.

Likewise, the Darkforce has shown up on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., albeit in smaller ways. In the Season 1 episode "The Light in the Darkness," a lab assistant named Marcus Daniels was infected with the Darkforce. Subsequently, he developed energy absorption powers, among other abilities. His Darkforce energy could even disrupt life force, allowing him to kill with a simple touch. He could also project Darkforce, stunning victims who came in contact with his bolts. Unlike Wilkes and Frost, he had a limit on how much energy he could absorb, which Coulson's team used to end his reign of terror.

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In Season 3's "Parting Shot" episode, the Russian Armed Forces' General Androvich underwent Terrigenesis and developed Darkforce-based powers. Androvich could manifest Darkforce at will. In the form of his shadow, he could manipulate it to attack others without having to lift a finger. Bobbi "Mockingbird" Morse eventually killed Androvich, causing his Darkforce shadow to disappear and the threat to vanish.

Unlike Tandy, the comic book version of Tyrone has close associations with the Darkforce. Cloak's body is a portal into the Darkforce dimension. If he absorbs others into the Darkforce, they often emerge cold and terrified; some have even been driven insane by exposure to his Darkforce powers. Additionally, he can teleport himself and others and become intangible at will. All of this tracks with the way the Darkforce has been presented in the MCU, so it seems likely Freeform's Tyrone will follow in those footsteps.

As established in Agent Carter and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., the Darkforce has a myriad of properties, each tailored to the person it infects. Considering that, Tandy and Tyrone will likely display powersets different than those that came before them. However, it remains to be seen how the Darkforce -- if that's truly what it was -- impacts Cloak & Dagger's protagonists moving forward. You'll just have to tune in to see.


Airing Thursdays at 8 pm ET/PT on Freeform, Cloak & Dagger stars Olivia Holt as Tandy Bowen/Dagger and Aubrey Joseph as Tyrone Johnson/Cloak, as well as Andrea Roth as Tandy’s mother Melissa Bowen, Gloria Reuben as Tyrone’s mother Adina Johnson, Miles Mussenden as Tyrone’s father Michael Johnson, Carl Lundstedt as Tandy’s partner in crime Liam, James Saito as Dr. Bernard Sanjo and J.D. Evermore as Detective Connors.