Holly plays a small but significant role in the story when she encounters a disguised Bruce Wayne during one of his early attempts at crimefighting and stabs him in the leg. Wounded by this attack and a subsequent battle, Wayne escapes back to his home, brooding on the fact that his enemies do not fear him.
This encounter is an impetus for his creation of the Batman persona. As such, Holly plays an indirect role in the Dark Knight's origin. Holly also appeared in the Catwoman mini-series by Mindy Newell and J. In this story, Catwoman leaves Holly at a convent where Selina's sister Maggie is a nun. Holly next appeared in Action Comics Weekly , having married a successful businessman. Unfortunately, her new husband was secretly a corrupt mobster and had Holly killed off in his quest to reclaim a valuable piece of jewelry that Catwoman stole from one of his safehouses.
Catwoman could not link Holly's death to her husband in order for him to be arrested for the crime, so she murdered two corrupt security guards in his employment and framed Holly's husband for their murder. This death was ultimately overturned years later, when writer Ed Brubaker ignored this storyline in order to incorporate Holly into the cast of the Catwoman series. Brubaker admitted in an interview that he hadn't been aware of Holly's death until after he had reintroduced the character.
He addressed this issue in Catwoman Secret Files and Origins 1 with a two page story titled "Why Holly Isn't Dead", in which the fourth wall is broken as Holly contemplates her own resurrection. It is implied that the Action Comics Weekly story may have been erased from continuity as a result of Zero Hour.
As established by Brubaker, Holly had run away from a bad home as a child, ending up on the streets. She and Selina had met when Selina rescued Holly from a cop who was trying to hustle her. However, when Selina became Catwoman, she left Holly behind. Holly had joined Selina's sister, Maggie, at her convent. However she never felt entirely a part of that world, and a few years afterwards she left the convent, parting ways with Maggie.
