Top Ten Vertigo Series Most Ripe for TV or Movie Treatment

I know superhero comic book movies are all the rage now, but with so many streaming services looking to develop original material, I figure there's no time like the present to mine the glory of Vertigo's primo series that defy the superhero tropes and gimmicks. So, here is my list of the top ten Vertigo series that should become TV series or movies.  

Transmetropolitan

This mind-warping series from Warren Ellis broke brains all over the reading public with its prophetic look at the role renegade journalism needs to play in standing up to the powers that be. Information as currency. Narratives as truth. Facts as malleable. It's scary how prescient Ellis was with this one. 

Punk Rock Jesus

What if scientists cloned Jesus Christ and created a reality show around the idea? What if the new Jesus wanted to be more than a patsy or symbol for his corporate owners? What if he really identified with the punk aesthetic?

The Invisibles

Everything is a conspiracy. Grant Morrison perfectly captured the post-postmodern zeitgeist in this one. 

American Virgin

A beautifully irreverent story of how belief can be a problem, a solution, and something that changes as humans grow into better people. 

Coffin Hill

Cops and horror. A classic combination. Throw in some Gothic family secrets and this one could be the next season of Hill House or Bly Manor... easily. 

The Crusades

This one totally deconstructs the idea of a costumed antihero by putting an actual armored knight in the urban blight and having him dish out Batman and Punisher style justice. But is he crazy?

Death: The High Cost of Living

There's really nothing more that can be said about this one. Death takes the day off to appreciate the joys of life. Neil Gaiman's magnum opus, this one. 

House of Secrets

Perhaps my favorite work by Steve Seagle. I love how this series updated the old horror anthology book by exploring the idea of secrets and how they affect the intrinsic sense of justice and our own ideas about justice. And can even the ultimate judges be biased? Plus it has one of the coolest art styles I've ever seen. 

Angeltown

Black detective drama (both racially and tonally) that pretends to be hard-boiled but comes off far more noir than at first glance. Some of Gary Phillips finest work. 

Effigy

A former child star is disgraced over a sex tape. She becomes a cop, but her past won't stop following her. Then people start to die and it looks like it ties into the series she starred in all those years ago. 

The Best Graphic Novels Ever #20 -- Punk Rock Jesus

20. Punk Rock Jesus
by Sean Murphy
Published by Vertigo Comics

Okay. We're finally breaching the top 20. Yep. Finally here. 

Yes. I know I'm cheating with this one. Because, no, it hasn't been collected yet into a single volume. But it was conceived and written as a single story with a beginning, middle, and end and NOT part of an ongoing, endless graphically told serial. And, for the record, the trade is coming out shortly. So there.

What can I say about this amazing book that hasn't already been said by people way smarter and better connected than me? Not a lot. It's a fantastic story about faith and faithlessness, and how even faithlessness is itself a way to faith (clear as mud, right?). It's a tale of falling and being redeemed. It's a tale of being a son of man and a son of God. It's all that and more. With violence. And with foul language. It's kind of like going to a church re-envisioned by Quentin Tarantino. In a good way.

Sure, the idea of making a clone from the Shroud of Turin is old hat and derivative. But it's what you do with the idea of a story to make it something real, something out of this world, and what Sean Murphy does with that overly trite clone idea is just that -- something real and amazing. The characters are fully rounded, from the bit player to the starring roles, and with one or two minor exceptions, the voices are spot on. It's really hard to find anything not to like about this one, at least in my book.