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:
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:
Many other Vertigo series feature re-imagined DCU characters and concepts in a context outside the DC Universe itself. These include:
Vertigo comics which are not associated with the DC Universe at all include:
