DC’s First Harley Quinn was In Love with Batman, Not Joker
While Harley Quinn is perhaps the most interesting and unique post-Golden Age character added to DC’s lineup in recent memory, the Joker had an original second in command who shares enough similarities with Harley to loosely be considered as DC’s first iteration of the character–though this villain’s origin is different from Harley’s in one key way: she was in love with Batman, not Joker.
Harleen Quinzel became Harley Quinn after she was seduced by the Joker into giving up her life as a renowned psychiatrist and join him in his life of villainy. After undergoing the same acid-induced transformation as the Joker, Harleen officially became Harley Quinn and terrorized Gotham City as Joker’s main accomplice. While Harley Quinn's relationship with the Joker was toxic as he never passed up an opportunity to belittle and abuse Harley, she remained absolutely infatuated with him for years upon her debut as she found herself completely and utterly in love with him no matter what kind of horrors he put her through.
In Batman #5 by Bill Finger and Bob Kane, the Joker finds himself floating in the Gotham Harbor, clinging to life, before he is rescued by a group of villains led by a woman named Queenie who saved him so that he could take over as the new leader of the team and lead them to riches beyond their imaginations. Given the Joker’s established brilliance and ruthlessness when it comes to thievery, he was the perfect choice to help this team of criminals become absurdly wealthy, and he immediately accepted their offer. Once he became the new leader, the Joker did a little rebranding and gave everyone on the crew new codenames that played off of his ‘Joker’ playing card schtick, including the former leader and his second in command, Queenie, who became the Black Queen.
The team’s first job under Joker’s leadership was to rob a gambling ship in international waters, though little did they know Bruce Wayne was on that very vessel. Black Queen was tasked by the Joker to seduce any potential targets, which obviously included billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne. While getting close to him, Black Queen started getting real feelings towards Bruce, and later when Bruce Wayne confronted the entire team as Batman, Queenie figured out that Bruce and Batman were one and the same, which made her love him even more. In fact, Black Queen found herself so infatuated with Batman that she betrayed the rest of her team to help him, which resulted in one of her goons shooting her in the back. Before Black Queen died in Batman’s arms, she asked him for one last kiss so she could meet her end kissing the man she had hoped to truly know and love. While Harley Quinn’s original identity was a play on the Joker’s clown persona, Black Queen tied more into his name’s reference to playing cards. However, both were given their villainous monikers by the Joker and based on his brand and both were his second in command on their respective crews.
Black Queen filled the role of Harley Quinn decades before Harley took DC Comics by storm, and while the two are similar enough to draw a loose comparison, the main difference between them is that Black Queen was in love with Batman, not the Joker.
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