One of the more heartbreaking moves DC made last year was the official shuttering the fan-favorite Vertigo Comics publishing imprint in favor of publishing the vast majority of its titles under its main brand. Launched in 1993, the imprint featured the company's more mature stories, including universally acclaimed titles like The Sandman, Preacher and many more. As the imprint declined over the past several years, DC has leaned more towards pop-up imprints including Gerard Way's Young Animal, Neil Gaiman's The Sandman Universe and Joe Hill's Hill House Comics.

Published under DC's new mature readers publishing imprint DC Black Label, the new wave of titles continue to push past the conventional boundaries of the medium, very much like the titles that defined Vertigo, and they also reflect their respective banner's thematically linked stories. Now, here are the best DC comic book stories recent or ongoing that carry on the spirit of Vertigo, even if they don't have the venerable publishing imprint's name.

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Green Lantern: Far Sector

Green Lantern Far Sector Jo Mullein

The latest Young Animal title takes the imprint to the Green Lantern mythology with Green Lantern: Far Sector. Created by acclaimed sci-fi novelist N.K. Jemisin and fan-favorite artist Jamal Campbell, the new maxi-series debuted in November with a darker, more procedural and political take on the Green Lantern Corps' regular DC Universe activities.

The series follows recent Green Lantern recruit Jo Mullein, who's tasked with protecting a world where violent crime has been absent for centuries following the elimination of citizen's emotions. Rocked by a murder, Jo investigates the homicide while unraveling the fragile world and dark secrets she has been assigned to oversee. With its social commentary and more mature take on the mythos, Far Sector is a prime example of an iconic DC property being effectively reimagined for new and old audiences with surprising depth and bold vision.

The Dreaming

The flagship title of The Sandman Universe is The Dreaming, following the eponymous Lord of Dreams himself, Daniel, who succeeded Morpheus' role among the Endless at the end of the previous series. With the saga's co-creator Neil Gaiman personally overseeing the line and handpicking creators for its various titles, The Dreaming stands as a natural continuation of Dream's story as he acclimates to his powerful, new role.

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The initial volume, launched in 2018, comes to an end this April, and the new creative team in G. Willow Wilson and Nick Robles at the helm and relaunching it as a 12-issue maxi-series starting this May as Daniel comes to terms with the responsibility of crafting nightmares.

The Low, Low Woods

Just in before Halloween, prolific horror writer Joe Hill launched his own horror imprint through DC Black Label under the moniker Hill House Comics. Featuring a mix of established comic creators and writers and artists who are new to the medium, the imprint has delivered a whole line of miniseries running the gamut of the horror genre while taking advantage of the creative freedom through Black Label.

One of the most emotionally gripping titles under the Hill House imprint is The Low, Low Woods by acclaimed prose horror writer Carmen Maria Machado in her comic debut and Dani. Set in the 1990s, the tale takes place in the heart of coal country as a small town's mine has unearthed evil that has plagued its residents for decades. This series blends coming-of-age drama with unnerving body horror to haunting effect.

Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds

Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds

With the previous volume of Doom Patrol serving as the flagship title in Gerard Way's Young Animal imprint, Way, co-writer Jeremy Lambert and artist James Harvey launched a new miniseries this past July in Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds. As much an ode to Grant Morrison and Richard Case's Vertigo series as a celebration to the entire history of the team of delightful misfits, Weight of the Worlds saw the ensemble go cosmic for a new set of psychedelic, wonderfully weird adventures.

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From the return of characters created by Morrison and Case to a bizarre crossover with an alternate incarnation of the Justice League, the punk rock spirit of Doom Patrol's subversion of superhero tropes is alive and well in Young Animal. While Weight of the Worlds ended this past December, it is only a matter of time before the team reassembles for a new set of misadventures, playing with the possibilities of the comic book medium to the delight of fans everywhere.

The Last God

DC Last God

Not all Black Label books fall directly under a pop-up imprint or as an extension of DC Comics' superhero line, with a prime example being The Last God. The dark fantasy series by Philip K. Johnson and Riccardo Federici tells the tale of a group of heroes set 30 years apart. As they set out to kill an evil deity in their younger years, they find that they must also reunite to finish the job when insidious armies arise again decades later.

RELATED: DC's Black Label Series The Last God Is Getting a D&D Sourcebook

A masterclass in fantasy world-building, the Black Label series offers a fresh take on the tried-and-true genre while proving that Black Label can publish titles outside of a thematic imprint or based on an existing property, not unlike what Preacher or Transmetropolitan did with Vertigo years ago. And The Last God has been hailed by fans of high fantasy and newcomers to the genre alike.

Plunge

In addition to overseeing the line, Joe Hill has also contributed to the Hill House Comics imprint personally, with his latest title Plunge bringing award-winning artist Stuart Immonen out of his self-imposed temporary retirement from comics. As an aquatic team scrambles to salvage wreckage from deep within the Bering Strait in the series, they quickly discover an unexpected evil from the ocean's depths.

Whereas The Low, Low Woods is a fantastic example of the Hill House imprint bringing new creative voices to the medium in a major way, Plunge is the imprint's showcase for two established veteran creators teaming up to prove they still can deliver the scares themselves, with both Hill and Immonen still very much at the height of their creative powers.

John Constantine: Hellblazer

In a lot of ways, the shuttering of Vertigo was presaged by the end of Hellblazer. A title that had predated the imprint's launch before being grandfathered into Vertigo fitting its more mature sensibilities, the original volume of Hellblazer ran from 300 issues before coming to an end in 2013 as a younger incarnation of John Constantine debuted in the DC Universe shortly before the New 52 era.

While there is still a version of Constantine active in the DCU in Justice League Dark during the DC Rebirth era, The Sandman Universe debuted a more familiar, grizzled Constantine as part of its line, and the seasoned occultist received his own title with John Constantine: Hellblazer from Simon Spurrier and Aaron Campbell this past November. As much of a rakish, profane lout as ever, the new series is very much a continuation of the original Hellblazer, capturing the spirit of Vertigo with the line's signature antihero, even if the imprint itself is no longer in operation.

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