For all the years Harley Quinn spent mooning over the Joker, she had one sidekick that completely flipped her infamous dynamic. For once, Harley had to deal with the unrequited advances of a clown criminal completely captivated by her.

When Dr. Harleen Quinzel took up a job at Arkham Asylum, she could never have imagined how her life would change once she was introduced to the Joker. With his perturbing charisma, the Clown Prince of Crime was able to charm his psychiatrist over multiple sessions, slowly but surely making her fall for him. Eventually, Quinzel abandoned her career and became Harley Quinn, the Joker’s noted partner-in-crime. In their time together, Harley was completely head over heels for her Puddin,’ even though he never seemed to reciprocate. Up until the day she swore off the villain for good, Harley harbored one of the biggest obsessions ever seen in the DC Universe.

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But as much as she was in love with the Joker, Harley Quinn got her own clown with a crush. In Harley Quinn #4 by Karl Kesel and Terry Dodson, the eponymous outlaw is trying out a villainous career of her own. To bolster her reputation as Gotham City’s newest threat, Harley Quinn forms a crew to help her accomplish her goals. One member of her crew, a man named Lester Wilde, is thrilled to be a part of Harley’s gang, as he believes his resemblance to the Joker has kept him out of work. In addition to believing he looks the Joker, Wilde is also obsessed with Harley and desperately wants to win her favor. During the gang’s mission to rescue Harley’s hyenas, Lester gets separated from the crew and is shot, but dies happy knowing he helped his love succeed.

Lester obviously has a very skewed perspective. He thinks he looks like the Joker when he doesn’t. He thinks he’s killed because others thought he was the Joker, when he wasn’t. And he honestly thinks he helped save Harley’s life when the crew barely noticed he was missing. But Lester’s brief role in Harley’s life flipped her infamous dynamic with the Joker and may have inadvertently proved that Harley was making steps in the right direction.

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It should be noted that Lester came into Harley’s life right after she broke up with the Joker. The fact that one of the first people Harley Quinn hires for her crew was a romance-obsessed ‘Joker’ is hardly a coincidence. Lester Wilde represents everything wrong with Harley’s pre-solo period. His perception of the world around him, his misplaced love, even his Joker imagery are all elements of Harley’s terrible past with the villain. It’s no wonder Harley never took to Wilde, he reminded her too much of the person she used to be when she was a doormat for Joker. By introducing Harley Quinn to someone like Lester, she could see she was right in her decision to split with the Joker for good.