Golden Age
Julie Madison is a socialite/actress and she was Bruce Wayne‘s first love, debuting four issues after Batman’s first appearance. She and Bruce was engaged to be married but she didn’t want to since Bruce didn’t have a serious career. Later, however, she became a actress under the name of Portia Storm, however she ran into trouble when she signed for a movie which was a remake of an old classic, the previous actor, Basil Karlo, got jealous that the movie was being remade and dresses as the movie’s monster, Clayface. As Clayface, Basil went to kill the people involved in the movie. Batman arrives to stop Clayface, Julie comes to Batman’s aid and dresses as a female Robin to confuse Clayface. Years later she appeared as a ruler of a country called Moldacia. That part of the character life is supposedly modeled after Grace Kelly.
Modern Age
After the post-Crisis DCU, Julie Madison makes two appearances, both of which were written by Matt Wagner.
Julie Madison appears as a law student, whose father has had dealings with gangster Sal Maroni, who in the near future will scar Harvey Dent. Julie Madison’s father is an industrialist in these tales and owns Madison Industries, however with the fear the constant fear of Batman stalking him and his dealings with Sal Maroni, he is pushed towards alcoholism.
Julie Madison is law student and is also Bruce’s first love interest. She is portrayed as a sharp and intelligent character and as Wagner described, notices things that only those closest to Bruce will notice. Like his constant disappearances and notices what he always eats.
This story takes place after Batman: Year One, Batman is still optimistic that Gotham City can be safe and that one day when its done he can settle down with Julie. However, a new supervillain named the Monk and his assistant Dala surfaces over Gotham City. The monk in this story is a vampire who lives in a castle with his many followers. He is a true vampire that feeds on people’s blood. Batman investigates into the Monks case and discovers that many of the Monks victims include young people. Julie becomes a victim and the Monk uses his hypnotic powers to bring Julie to his lair and he drains her blood constantly. She returns to her home safely, Batman comes to her room to see her asleep. Because of his injuries Batman almost falls out of the window. Madison sees Batman and thinks Batman is stalking him like always. He finally goes to Sal Maroni to kill him with the delusion that Batman might finally stop stalking him. He first gives a dizzy and woozy, Julie his files and passwords to his company and leaves. Under the hypnotic powers of the Monk, Julie brings him the files and passwords. She is lays down on the table so that Dala can drain her blood and become a true Vampire. Just as Dala was about to bite her an injured Batman attacks the castle. He frees Julie and goes to battle the Monk. Batman defeats the Monk when a lightning strikes a roof they were fighting on and he fall off the roof. Dala tries to drain Julies blood but she beats her with a piece of wood. Julie gets afraid by Batman’s figure and he reveals his identity to her. She gets surprised and recalls what his father told her and she tells the Batman to save him. However it was too late and Madison was dead.
Afterwards Bruce gets a letter form Julie telling him that she is gone with the Peace Corps to Africa, because of her father’s death.
In recent issues of Batman some pre-crisis aspects were re-introduced including Julie leaving Gotham and Bruce for Hollywood. She apparently made a strong impact on Bruce as it is shown he is reluctant to pursue serious relationships because of how much her leaving really had an effect on him.