By Martijn Form  Hi Vertigolovers, Sometimes I ask myself if Vertigo is a universe. DC and Marvel present universes where stories are set and dramas unfold. I know Vertigo is separate from the parent DC universe. We will never see any DMZ or 100 Bullets character wondering around Gotham or Metropolis. Several Vertigo senior editors said so during convention panels. DC characters, on the other hand, can get a Vertigo treatment, like Animal Man or Madame Xanadu. The latter is a new Vertigo ongoing that will be in stores June 25. This Vertigo fan can't wait to get his hands on this new book. A preview of this series has appeared in the back of all of last month's Vertigo titles. This seems to be Vertigo's new marketing approach and allow me to give a big salute to Vertigo for giving us readers more teasers of upcoming new series. It whets the appetite in a big way. And if Vertigo ever decides to bring back the letter pages, they would be deserving of a Pulitzer. But let's get back to my initial fantasy: a crossover between the regular DC universe and Vertigo. Wouldn't it be nice? In the past we have seen Batman and Spawn sharing the same pages of a comic book. And we've been treated to DC's heroes encountering their Marvel Comics counterparts. But imagine: A demon lurking around Gotham. Its objective is to gather as many souls from common folks to transform them into Goblins, to build an army against all that is good in Gotham City. Batman is the best crime fighter there is, but the supernatural is a bit out of his league. Luckily, a stranger crosses the Dark Knight's path. It's none other than John Constantine, offering his services to the Batman. But are they even capable of working together? Or what about this one: In Metropolis a group of Native Americans have left the Scalped pages and are unleashing their crime wave to Superman's streets. Lois Lane and Clark Kent write about this new group of thieves, who are making quite a name for themselves. Clark digs deep into this story, and gets an unpleasant visit from Dash Bad Horse, Scalped's undercover FBI agent. But wait, there is more; a mysterious man is handing out a suitcase with 100 bullets to Jimmy Olsen. Let the mayhem begin.  Ohh boy, I would definitely buy those kinds of books. For me Vertigo is just not a brilliant imprint of DC, it's a universe by itself. For me, all its titles are connected, one way or another, even though the stories never intertwine in any way.Why do I imagine that all Vertigo books are connected? Because I have nothing better to do with my precious time, you say? Not quite true, but close. All kidding aside, I think it's just fun to imagine the possibilities. Let's analyze some Vertigo titles--Grant Morrison style. Vinyl Undergound #8 is played out in London. Young Liars #3 takes place in New York, and in Hellblazer #244 Constantine goes to the Vatican City. I like the idea that all these stories happened around the same time, during May 2008. Okay, the timeline isn't that accurate, I know, but let's call it reading between the lines, or in this case between the different books. I can tell you one thing: it sure enhances my reading experience, even if it's all in my head. HA! Taking a look at Vertigo's May titles, let's try to create a shared Vertigo universe, instead of letting every book being a separate one universe onto itself. Vertigo's May titles can be classified according to their stories' Time and Place. Doing this the Stephen Hawking's way:
 The books which are set in the present day, in our Timeline, in our Reality are: American Splendor Season Two #2 (OF 4) Crossing Midnight #18 The Exterminators #29 House of Mystery #1 The Vinyl Underground #8 100 Bullets #91 Young Liars #3 Hellblazer #244 Scalped #17 Fables #73  The books that are set in a different era are:DMZ #31 The Un-Men #10 Loveless #24 Northlanders #6 The stories from the first category of books can, in theory, all play out at the same time, and most of them in the same place, since they reflect our universe, our reality. It's like reading the headlines of a newspaper. One piece of news is from New York, while the other is from Burma or Iraq. But they all are printed on the same front page. The second group of stories can't really be connected into a grander scope. (Just so you all know, my brain is starting to swell from all this.)  Moving on to matters of Place, there are Vertigo books set in places that are as real as you and me. And if you allow me to create a bridge between our reality and that of Vertigo's, you can see that these stories can easily intertwine with current news affairs:American Splendor Season Two #2 (OF 4) The Exterminators #29 The Vinyl Underground #8 100 Bullets #91 DMZ #31 The Un-Men #10 Young Liars #3 Loveless #24 Scalped #17 Northlanders #6 Other Vertigo books take place in a land of fantasy, or at least we haven't discovered those realities yet. I know some books have a strong base in our universe, but my brain is starting to hurt already! Crossing Midnight #18 House of Mystery #1 Hellblazer #244 Fables #73 So what have we learned from this column? Your choices are:
It's time for me to leave, take a Paracetamol, and look for some other conspiracies. Keep reading "Vertigo Spotlight," because over the next month, we'll be providing some extra special Vertigo insights for you. No, I'm not giving you any teasers… ahgh, stop twisting my arm… Okay, okay, a little cryptic teaser then:
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