If a good first single has to be totally representative of the album which it's off of (and I don't think it does at all), then I guess "Vertigo" wasn't really the way to go.
I think that a good first single should be catchy ("Vertigo" is), exciting (it is), well-performed and written (again, it is), and attention-grabbing (yet again...it is); based on my criteria, "Vertigo" is a KILLER first single. I will admit, though, that it is not in ANY way indicative of whatever it is that this album, as a whole, is supposed to be about. I think that the album is perhaps a bit too muddled and uncohesive for ANY song to be truly representative...