The character is identified with Nimue, the sorceress from Arthurian mythology made popular by Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.

[1] The character was designed by cover artist Michael William Kaluta at the request of editor Joe Orlando, based on Kaluta's unnamed host character (later known as Charity in the pages of Starman) from the DC Comics mystery title Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion (seen only on that title's indicia page) and the person of Cathy Ann Thiele.

[5][6] Madame Xanadu was the first DC Comics publication exclusive to the direct market but the second overall due to a Superboy Spectacular release a year earlier.

As explained by Paul Levitz: "In a further effort to find new distribution, a Superboy Spectacular was produced for Random House's in-school book club program and offered to comic shops but not newsstands".

There were several requests to reprint it in letter columns of The Spectre, but they were refused because that issue gave little background as to her character, although it did introduce Ishtar to the DC Universe, who dated Destruction.

[11][12] The series also featured art stints by Kaluta, Joëlle Jones, Marley Zarcone, Laurenn McCubbin, Chrissie Zullo, Celia Calle, and Marian Churchland.

She never met Abel in an actual story until DC Special Series #21, when she and the Phantom Stranger arrive at the House of Mystery with Christmas presents.

According to these stories, her full name was once Nimue Inwudu and she is the youngest sister of Morgana (to become Morgaine Le Fay) and Vivienne, the Lady of the Lake.

Xanadu is the same Nimue who casts an imprisoning spell on her former lover Merlin, blaming him for manipulating Camelot and the course of history for his own gain.

This, in turn, prevents Madame Xanadu from interfering, despite having foreseen the potential menace the unchecked Spectre would have brought on Earth.

It is revealed that Xanadu's later behavior stems from this earlier fault, her magic parlor being devised as a way to control the supernatural being, ultimately hoping to restrain and quell his rage.

She, however, possesses limited real magic abilities of her own, but her mastery of the mystic arts has led her to manipulate various forces to gain great power.

She is depicted in a nude love scene with the Spectre in the form of mist, although readers in the letters column did not find this clear and Xanadu's nudity gratuitous.

She also confronts Tim's companion John Constantine, whom she believes stole a magic artifact called the Wind's Egg from her.

Although Xanadu, among others, has no great love for or trust in the Phantom Stranger, she is a member of the Sentinels of Magic, a loose group of mages and mystics that are called upon to thwart Asmodel's uprising in Hell.

In Day of Vengeance #2, an Infinite Crisis tie-in, the Spectre, then unstable and believing that magic equaled evil, disabled Madame Xanadu and took her eyes.

In The New 52, Madame Xanadu has resurfaced as the result of Barry Allen's unintentional tampering with the timestream and the merging of the Vertigo, WildStorm and DC Universes.

Instead of quietly observing like she did in her core miniseries, she staunchly opposed the surrendering of Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake, and then started traveling with Jason Blood, meeting other Dark Ages–based heroes and villains as Vandal Savage and the Shining Knight.

[18] The present-day Madame Xanadu is featured in the DC Universe reboot, in Justice League Dark, resuming her role as the keystone and supporter of the magical community in the DCU.

[19][20] Xanadu assists the 'Dark League' in various incidents, such as Zatanna vanishing[21] and the House of Mystery letting loose demonic threats in Manhattan.

Madame Xanadu was intended to appear in Guillermo del Toro's adaptation of the Justice League Dark comics prior to its cancellation.