Julie Madison - Modern Version

Modern Version

The six issue mini-series Batman and the Monster Men by Matt Wagner, published in 2006, is set early in (the current post-Crisis version of) Batman's career, and re-introduces Julie Madison. This version of the character is a law student, and the daughter of Norman Madison, a failing businessman who borrows money from mobster Sal Maroni. Bruce Wayne cares deeply for Julie, but is reluctant to tell her the secret of his nighttime activities. However, Julie herself suspects that Bruce is hiding something from her.

Julie takes on further importance in Wagner's follow-up mini-series Batman and the Mad Monk. Like Monster Men, this series retells an early story from Batman's publishing history, his conflict with the vampiric villain, The Monk. As in the original, Julie sleepwalks into the Monk's lair where she is bitten by the vampire, becoming his thrall. The Monk attempts to manipulate Julie into signing over her father's finances to his supernatural cult. In the end, Batman saves Julie, but her father is killed by Maroni's thugs, driven partly insane by his fear of Batman. Distraught, she leaves Bruce and Gotham and goes to Africa as a volunteer member of the Peace Corps.

In the Batman: Family miniseries, paparazzi ask Bruce Wayne if he is the "father of Julie Madison's baby."

Julie later makes a flashback appearance in Batman #682 as Darkseid's minions invade Batman's mind and distort his memories. In Batman's early days, she tells Alfred to inform Bruce she is leaving for Hollywood to try and make it as an actress; Batman later does not realize or recall that she has left.

She appears in a bathtub towards the end of Red Robin #11 as one of Ra's Al Ghul's targets, identified as Bruce's first love, until she was rescued by Man-Bat, which shocks and scares her.