Slam Bradley. John Jones. Matches Malone.

Ezra Cain.

These are the names of some of the hard-boiled gumshoe detectives drawn from throughout the long history of the DC Universe. However, one is not like the other. You’ll find Bradley, Jones and Malone popping up in flashy superhero comics these days. Heck, two of the three are flashy superheroes themselves. Ezra Cain, on the other hand, is every bit as human, vulnerable and violent as the best of the crime noir stories that inspired him. Wrapped up in a mystery involving Nazis and Greek history, Cain is suddenly the one man who can tie everything together…if he survives the Peril of the Brutal Dark.

And what is the Peril of the Brutal Dark? That’s up for Cain to find out, and us along with him in the new Chris Condon and Jacob Phillips DC Vertigo series. In issue #1’s opening scene, we witness a team of archaeologists as they discover the legendary Anvil of Hephaestus during an archeological dig in 1913. It’s no ordinary discovery, which becomes immediately clear when the lead archeologist John Morris is soon attacked by moving automatons wearing Grecian armor. Yes, Condon and Phillips aren’t afraid to throw in a dash of Indiana Jones, incorporating magical realism with suspense and horror.

Twenty-eight years later, we’re introduced to our lead, Ezra Cain, engaging in a violent mission of recovery. The scene of tommy-gunplay, racing down fire escapes and bloody car crashes would feel right at home in the popular noir fiction of old, in addition to classic Vertigo titles from the past such as 100 Bullets. It’s a harrowing, almost disturbing sequence, but Cain treats his brush with death as simply a part of the job. Throughout his interactions with his clients, his neighbors and a few old friends, we learn that Cain is a simple man-of-action from the times. Living alone in WWII-era New York, his easy humor and casual nature belie someone who’s been in the thick of it more often than not, and much worse trouble than a late-night shootout on the streets.

The Peril of the Brutal Dark is a mystery in many ways, but not least of which is the main man himself. In Cain’s apartment, we see framed photos of his past, later explained as remnants of his history dogfighting in the skies during the first World War. However, one picture stands notably different from the others—a single image of Cain and a woman with the glass cracked twice down the middle. For a moment, Cain lays in his room surrounded by his past life before the ring of a telephone interrupts his downtime. He’s quick to answer, and despite little information given, also quick to jump into a new mystery with no thought of the potential danger. This scene has the least amount of dialogue but speaks volumes as an introduction to our thrill-seeking protagonist.

The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery, is exactly the kind of dark intrigue from the past readers should now expect from the likes of Condon and Phillips. The two have worked together on previous comics such as Image’s That Texas Blood and its follow-up The Enfield Gang Massacre. Stories from the 20^th century, charged with dark secrets and revelations-turned-bloody are right within this duo’s wheelhouse. This can also be found in Condon’s most recent work with DC, namely his concluding run on the now-wrapped Green Arrow.

A gritty, grounded crime thriller akin to Mike Grell’s famous The Longbow Hunters, Condon’s run was a perfect blend of everything we associate with classic Oliver Queen, while also tipping its hat to Ollie’s Golden Age adventures, his troubled relationship with his partner Roy Harper, and his legacy with the Star City police and Justice League. Mixing the past with the fantastic is something that Chris Condon excels at, and with this first issue, The Peril of the Brutal Dark gives readers precisely the kind of suspense and high quality that they can expect from a Condon-penned adventure.

Anyone who doubts the importance of detective fiction to DC need only look at the publisher’s name. It has been a fixture of the company for the entirety of its existence. With The Peril of the Brutal Dark, Condon and Phillips dig further into the trademark motifs of those old pulps, building out the mystery behind the man Ezra Cain along with the mystery he’s diving into. With an attention-grabbing first issue and action lighting right off the page, The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery debuts as a reminder that what makes certain stories classic also makes them timeless reading.
 

The Peril of the Brutal Dark: An Ezra Cain Mystery #1 is now available in print and as a digital comic book. For more, read Condon’s introduction to the series in our “On the Ledge” guest column.

Donovan Morgan Grant writes about comics, graphic novels and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Bluesky at @donomark and X at @donoDMG1.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Donovan Morgan Grant and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.