Kingdom Come is an Elseworlds tale. Civil War is regular continuity.
Kingdom Come deals with classic and iconic heroes dealing with their morals being challenged by newer and more-likely-to-go-to-extremes heroes. Civil War deals with a registration act that forces superheroes to either work for the government and reveal their identities or disband and quit their vigilantism.
Both, however, have very strong influences from Watchmen. If you've never read that, you might want to do that.
Otherwise, if you are into stories like this, a couple I could suggest would be:
- Incognito & Incognito: Bad Influences: Written by Ed Brubaker, the story focuses on Zack Overkill, a former supervillain that was placed in the Witness Protection Program after laws were made to stop vigilantism. In turn, he now works at an organization that rehabilitates former supervillains, but eventually, he starts going out at night and helping people rather than terrorizing them. Great reads. The first volume is available in trade format, while the second one is currently being released in single issues.
- Irredeemable & Incorruptible: Companion series written by Mark Waid (writer of Kingdom Come). Irredeemable focuses on The Plutonian (the greatest superhero to ever live) and his former allies after the Plutonian loses his sanity and begins a worldwide rampage of murder and mayhem. Incorruptible focuses on Max Damage (the greatest supervillain to ever live) and his former colleague Jailbait having to change their tune and be good guys after The Plutonian's rage has happened. They both take place in the same universe, but they tell separate stories. Great pieces.
- Black Summer, No Hero, & Supergod: Three stories told by Warren Ellis. These are super mature stories (LOTS of blood and gore) about three different scenarios of how superheroes can end up being a bad thing for the planet overall. Black Summer uses the perspective of a post-9/11 world and how superheroes that are meant to save people from corruption and evil can maybe take that too far. No Hero is about a drug that is created to give people superhuman abilities, but at a cost...and how that can go very very wrong. Supergod is about how world powers like the United States, Russia, and others can cause world devastation by trying to create their own superheroes.
As for good Vertigo books, the best place to start would be on past stories so you can get used to the type of material that the label does. Preacher, Transmetropolitan, Daytripper, 100 Bullets and Y: The Last Man are mandatory reads. If you want to get into some of the current ongoing stuff, American Vampire and Sweet Tooth are two primary examples of great books with a unique twist to them. If you want to get into some seriously wild stuff, Sandman and Hellblazer are the places to go for that. Otherwise, you just have to kind of feel around in the Vertigo stuff and see what your thing is. Personally, I would also recommend Northlanders and Scalped...ESPECIALLY Scalped. Jason Aaron is a FANTASTIC writer that has been unfolding a truly amazing story.
Hope that all helps out a bit.
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