Vertigo is apparently a native of the Savage Land, a tropical jungle on the Antarctic continent. It appears that Brainchild, one of the superhuman beings known as the Savage Land Mutates, used advanced genetic engineering techniques to endow her with superhuman powers. (It is even possible that Vertigo originally had a much different physical appearance, which was also altered by Brainchild’s artificial mutation techniques.) It was as a member of the Savage Land Mutates that Vertigo first battled the team of mutant adventurers known as the X-Men.
It has not been revealed how Vertigo came to join the Marauders, a band of mutants who worked as assassins in the employ of the enigmatic mastermind known as Mr. Sinister. Sinister sent the Marauders to murder the entire population of the Morlocks, a community of mutants living underground in the New York City area. Vertigo and her partners succeeded in this task, killing the vast majority of the Morlocks. In the course of this "mutant massacre," the Marauders first clashed with the mutant teams of adventurers known as the X-Men and X-Factor.
Subsequently, the X-Men thwarted the Marauders’ attempt to carry out Sinister’s order to murder his former pawn, Madelyne Pryor, in San Francisco. Later, Sinister sent the Marauders to battle the X-Men during the time of the demonic invasion of New York City known as the "Inferno."
Note: Vertigo is not to be confused with the deceased member of Salem’s Seven who bore the same alias.
