Madame Zodiac is first introduced as a "crime broker" for two Gotham City criminals in Batman Family #17; in the story she sells her services to Poison Ivy and Catwoman, in a role similar to that of the Calculator (Noah Kuttler).

Madame Zodiac promises both the criminals that they will come into conflict with the Earth-Two Huntress (Helena Wayne), Batwoman (Kathy Kane), and Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), while in the commission of their crimes, but they would succeed.

At the end of the story Poison Ivy and Catwoman are defeated but Madame Zodiac evades capture after stealing a powerful mystical artifact; this apparently had been her plan all along.

Zatanna loses control the moment she touches the coins, and mentions a "dark cloud" before eventually lapsing into a coma.

Everywhere the cloud appears it inspires hate crimes, including the defilement of a Jewish synagogue, and the near lynching of Lucius Fox.

In Gotham City, shadow minions sent by Madame Zodiac are able to capture Batman while her master attacks his mind; he is brought through a portal to her hidden location.

[6] Finally in issue #288, on Paradise Island in the Bermuda Triangle, Zatanna reveals that touching the Zodiac Coins transported her astrally to the dark cloud's location where the other-dimensional demon nearly killed her.

Doctor Zodiac runs away after witnessing this tableau, finally determined to release the mysterious prisoner, but is unable to do so due to his total lack of magical ability.

Superman discovers that the clones will self-destruct after extreme physical exertion, and Batman uses the Zodiac Idol to destroy the master's containment sphere, apparently dispersing it.

The story has the Riddler (Edward Nigma) consulting with Madame Zodiac in order to uncover the secret behind a pattern of mysterious thefts; while there an antique gargoyle from Castle Branek (home of Morgaine le Fey) comes to life and attempts to kill him.

[10] In the Batman newspaper strip in 1967, an earlier Madame Zodiac was introduced in the story "Cheap gunman" where Pretty Boy Floy employs his sister Flo to impersonate Madame Zodiac, the personal astrologer to a billionaire industrialist Tyrone Koom, in order to convince the businessman to turn his company over to Pretty Boy.