Data cursor with multiple axes

My issue surrounds the use of plotyy vs. manually creating multiple axes and the ability to use the data cursor. When I create a two-axis plot with plotyy, I am able to use the data cursor on both axes without any additional commands other than calling plotyy. When I plot to manually-created, overlapping axes on the same figure and then attempt use the data cursor, I am only able to use it on whichever axis is on the top. I can switch between them with uistack, but this is inconvenient.

The only reason I'm trying to avoid plotyy is because of how it behaves when I attempt to format the axes for publication.

Does anyone know how to allow "transparency" of an axis to the one underneath it or how this is implemented in plotyy? I have a feeling a ButtonDwnFcn is being called in the top axis when it's created with plotyy.

Below I have excerpts of the plotting portion of my scripts:

With plotyy:

figure;
[hax_yy,htmp_abs,htmp_em] = plotyy([0 0],[1 1],[0 0],[1 1]);  % Create dummy plots
h_uv = copyobj(h_uv,hax_yy(1));  % Copy handles from previously plotted data
h_em = copyobj(h_em,hax_yy(2));
delete(htmp_abs,htmp_em);  % Delete dummy plots

With manual axes:

figure;
new_hax_abs = axes;  % Make left-hand axes
h_uv = copyobj(h_uv,new_hax_abs);  % Copy data
ax_minwl = min(get(hax_abs,'xlim'));
ax_maxwl = max(get(hax_em,'xlim'));
set(new_hax_abs,'xlim',[ax_minwl ax_maxwl]);  % Set x limits to full range of both plots
set(new_hax_abs,...             
    'Units','normalized',...
    'FontUnits','points',...
    'FontWeight','normal')       % LH axes properties

axesPosition = get(gca,'Position');
new_hax_em = axes('Position',axesPosition,...
    'Color','none',...                 
    'YAxisLocation','right',...  
    'XTick',[],...               
    'Box','off');           % Right-hand axes
linkaxes([new_hax_abs new_hax_em],'x');
h_em = copyobj(h_em,new_hax_em);