There is a subplot concerning Vincenzo the Undying Don, the leader of the Los Angeles underworld, who acquires Vanguard from the police. With tears in her eyes, Ystin vows to come after Gloriana and exact revenge. With one mighty strike, Ystin kills Galahad. Ystin pleads with Galahad one last time, before resolving that her mentor and the man she loves is truly gone. Gloriana then leaves Galahad to torture Ystin into joining the Sheeda side. Just then, the Queen gets a whiff of Ystin's menstrual blood and reveals that Ystin is really a girl. Ystin attempts to reason with Galahad, but he is beyond her reach and mercilessly attacks her. For the Sheeda-Queen's twisted amusement, Ystin and Galahad are made to duel each other. Suddenly, as the clock strikes midnight, Friday reveals that she is really the Sheeda-Queen, and promptly incapacitates Ystin before poisoning Helligan.īack at Castle Revolving, Gloriana reveals that Ystin is not the last of the Knights: in the final days of the Age of Camelot, the Sheeda kidnapped Galahad and broke his spirit, remaking him as a degenerate brute. With Friday's uncanny grasp of ancient Welsh, they learn of Ystin's predicament. The police contact two women: Agent Helen Helligan, a metahuman specialist for the FBI, and Doctor Gloria Friday, an expert on pre-Atlantean civilization. Ystin, newly enlightened, seeks out the police. When Ystin saves a homeless man (implied to be Ali Ka-Zoom), from some thugs, Guilt evaporates. Guilt taunts Ystin, saying that if Ystin had not run away, the war might have been won. Without the goodness of Camelot to inspire them, the kingdoms of Avalon (which took up all the world) committed suicide. Guilt informs her that the Sheeda broke Camelot and created a nightmare kingdom in its place, ruled by the undead King Mordredd. There, she is confronted by Guilt, a Sheeda Mood 7 Mind Destroyer, who 'kills with words'. Ystin breaks free, steals Excalibur, and escapes from the Castle - only to fall to earth in modern Los Angeles, some 10,000 years later. Gloriana casually informs the young knight that she has stolen the sword Excalibur, one of the Seven Imperishable Treasures. Ystin and her winged horse Vanguard confront Gloriana Tenebrae, the Sheeda-Queen, who takes them to Castle Revolving, the floating fortress of the Sheeda. Unbeknownst to Galahad, Ystin is actually a girl who is in love with him. Ystin, a long-haired 'schoolboy' of Camelot, is knighted and dubbed the Shining Knight by Sir Galahad, just before the fall of Camelot. Ystin comes from about 8,000 BC, long before the 6th century Camelot of Sir Justin. The story explains that Camelot is a recurring archetype. Ystin is clearly a Celtic mythology version of the original Shining Knight (who was based more on the quasi-medieval setting of Sir Thomas Malory). This new Shining Knight is also named Sir Justin (in the story, the knights of Camelot speak Welsh, so sometimes the Welsh equivalent "Ystin" is used) and has a winged horse but is much more out of place in the modern age. This new DC Comics version is a creation of Grant Morrison and Simone Bianchi, based on Flessel's Golden Age Shining Knight. In 2005, a new Shining Knight debuted in Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers megaseries. Fictional character biographies Seven Soldiers Why shut down any of the possibilities?" Ystin's torture in Hell was to be forced to publicly display his gender. Cornell later called Ystin transgender on social media and asked for more detail by Newsarama, Cornell said: "I think that's down to what each individual reader wants from that exchange, or most identifies with. Demon Knights writer Paul Cornell was deliberately ambiguous about the character's gender until the fourteenth issue, where Ystin says "I'm both. When writing about The New 52 version of the character in Demon Knights, Paul Cornell admitted to Newsarama, "he wants the reader to make up their own mind on Ystin" but also noting that "in the case of something as fundamental as identity, I think some level of clarity is essential, especially if it’s a marginalized identity where the average reader might not know what conclusion they’re jumping to, or any attendant misconceptions about sex and gender they may have". Ystin was originally created by Grant Morrison and Simone Bianchi as a modern female version of the original Golden Age Sir Justin within the Seven Soldiers miniseries.