A Private Eye Learns That Some Mysteries Are Better Off Buried The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery #1

By Chad Burdette

on February 23, 2026

Writer Chris Condon and artist Jacob Phillips, creators of the hit series That Texas Blood and The Enfield Gang Massacre , introduce us to a private eye whose business is exposing our deepest secrets… but on this job, he’ll learn that some mysteries are better off buried!

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Tula Lotay Variant Cover:

Hayden Sherman Variant Cover:

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Álvaro Marti?nez Bueno Connecting Variant Cover:

Jacob Phillips Foil Virgin Variant Cover:

The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery #1

New York City, 1941. Ezra Cain is a private investigator with a reputation for taking it on the chin if it means solving a case. But it’s his former life as an archaeology student that makes him the only man to track down an artifact that’s gone missing from the Museum of Natural History… an ancient anvil said to hold the power of the Greek god Hephaestus.

If someone could harness that power, they could bend nations to their will. Science fiction quickly becomes Cain’s reality when a shadowy sect calling themselves the Brutal Dark appears in the city wielding resources that defy human logic. Now Ezra is the only thing that stands between them and their plot to overthrow America!

Creative Team

Writer: Chris Condon
Artist: Jacob Phillips
Colorist: Jacob Phillips
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Cover Artist: Jacob Phillips
Variant Cover Artists: Tula Lotay; Hayden Sherman; Sean Phillips; Álvaro Marti?nez Bueno; Jacob Phillips
Editor: Chris Conroy
Format: Limited Series
Cover Price/Page Count: $6.99/40 pages

A private eye learns that some mysteries are better off buried in The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery #1 on shelves and digital platforms on February 25, 2026, from DC Comics Vertigo.

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