Vertigo Comics

As the Dark Age moved on, DC Comics noticed they were publishing several series that weren't just dark, they were mature -- with complex, thinky, often philosophical stories and deep, complicated characters, by names like Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and Neil Gaiman. Thus, to separate these from the "normal" DCU fare, they created the Vertigo Comics imprint.

Many of these were remakes of old DCU properties, given new life through clever writing. The Sandman, Animal Man, Doom Patrol, and Swamp Thing are probably the exemplars here. It seemed the rule was "The more obscure, the better"; series like Brother Power: The Geek, a two-issue Totally Radical attempt from the '60s to appeal to the "hippie" market, were brought back as dark, edgy romps.

This had the knock-on effect of pretty much excising certain characters from the main DCU, for fear that a John Constantine and Batman crossover would encourage little kids to pick up Hellblazer. This means that certain comics, though still technically part of the DCU, are unable to do "proper" crossovers or acknowledge that connection directly. This is relaxed occasionally for one-panel cameos (Constantine in Hitman), characters whose comics have ended (Daniel from The Sandman appeared in JLA, while Animal Man and the Doom Patrol have come back to The DCU full-time) and characters who have always straddled the divide between the two (The Phantom Stranger, Zatanna, et al). DC's 2011 partial Continuity Reboot brought several characters like Constantine and Swamp Thing back into the main DC continuity fold. The Vertigo-only Hellblazer will still continue to be published separately.

These days, the number of DCU-connected titles is fairly low, and Vertigo's output is mostly creator-owned original works. These are often horror, fantasy, or a combination of the two.

Some of the best-known series published by Vertigo include:


 * One Hundred Bullets
 * American Splendor (2006-2008)
 * American Vampire
 * Animal Man
 * Books of Magic
 * DMZ
 * Doom Patrol
 * Fables
 * The Filth
 * Flex Mentallo
 * Hellblazer
 * House of Mystery
 * The Invisibles
 * I Zombie
 * The Losers
 * Lucifer
 * Madame Xanadu
 * Preacher
 * Pride of Baghdad
 * The Sandman
 * Scalped
 * Seaguy
 * Shade the Changing Man
 * Swamp Thing
 * Transmetropolitan
 * Unknown Soldier
 * The Unwritten
 * V for Vendetta
 * WE 3
 * Y the Last Man

Some Vertigo series are technically part of The DCU, due to using DCU characters, and Word of God says the shared universe titles like Hellblazer and The Sandman ARE part of the mainstream DCU. However, not all of them are always Canon for the DCU characters, and some of them effectively take place in a world of their own. These include:


 * Animal Man
 * Angel and The Ape
 * Black Orchid
 * Books of Magic and spin-offs
 * Doom Patrol and spin-offs
 * Hellblazer and spin-offs
 * Swamp Thing and spin-offs
 * Congo Bill
 * El Diablo
 * Some of the stories in the anthology Gangland
 * Heartland
 * Three Jonah Hex miniseries
 * Kid Eternity
 * Madame Xanadu
 * Scarab
 * The Sandman and spin-offs
 * Sandman Mystery Theatre
 * Sgt Rock: Between Hell and a Hard Place
 * Skin Graft: The Adventures Of A Tattooed Man
 * The Trenchcoat Brigade
 * Totems
 * Unknown Soldier
 * Zatanna: Everyday Magic

Many other Vertigo series feature re-imagined DCU characters and concepts in a context outside the DC Universe itself. These include:
 * Beware The Creeper
 * Deadman
 * House Of Secrets
 * The Human Target
 * The Losers
 * Uncle Sam
 * Vertigo Visions, a series of one-shots, each re-imagining a different character.
 * The Witching Hour

Vertigo comics which are not associated with the DC Universe at all include:
 * One Hundred Bullets
 * American Splendor
 * American Vampire
 * American Virgin
 * DMZ
 * Fables
 * The Filth
 * The Invisibles
 * Loveless
 * Northlanders
 * Preacher
 * Pride of Baghdad
 * Scalped
 * Seaguy
 * Transmetropolitan (not published originally under the Vertigo name, but later collected editions are)
 * The Unwritten
 * V for Vendetta
 * WE 3
 * Y the Last Man