She was an avid comics fan, a practice supported by her parents, with particular favorites being Batman, Superman, Little Lulu, Uncle Scrooge, and Archie.

[4] Kahn was 28 years old on February 2, 1976, when she became publisher of DC Comics,[5][6] a division of Warner Bros. and home to over five thousand characters, including Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

[13] Furthermore, she moved to centralize editorial from its individual fiefdoms to place the characters in a more interactive DC Multiverse with a more systematic approval process for the artistic staff to produce fewer and commercially sounder titles.

[15] In addition, Kahn, unlike her predecessors, was impressed by Jack Kirby's seminal Fourth World titles, like The New Gods, and viewed their abrupt cancellation as a serious mistake.

This enabled Kahn to invite the now available Kirby to not only return to his characters in the first two Super Powers limited series, but also design their action figures for Kenner, earning his first royalties for his work.

[23] Kahn oversaw the launch in 1993 of the Vertigo imprint and of Milestone Media, a minority-founded and ethnically diverse line of comic books that DC published for several years and from which Static Shock, the animated show on The WB television network, was developed.

Kahn is credited with overseeing a successful period of reinvention for DC's classic characters, including the death and rebirth of Superman.

One exception to this editorial stance was Kahn cancelling an issue of Swamp Thing where the title character interacts with Jesus, which led to the writer and artist Rick Veitch quitting, citing censorship concerns.

[27] Kahn is a partner in Double Nickel Entertainment, a film production company she co-founded with Adam Richman after leaving DC Comics.

Kahn received the Library of Congress Living Legends award in the "Writers and Artists" category in April 2000 for her significant contributions to America's cultural heritage.