#ystin

[yumepeachy]

Midnight thoughts because I can't sleep.

If I could wish for a dumb, slice of life, very spin off/alternative universe stuff from a very specific part of the dc universe, I would ask for a story following the seven soldiers end, with Zatanna having to deal with the fact that now there's two powerfull kids in the world with nowhere to go (Misty and Ystin) and she is the only adult left at the scene.

She takes them to the league so they are asking question about the whole situation so they can think about what to do with then until Z says "actually it's three children, but I lost the third one" and everyone is like "how you lost a child???" until Etrigan enters the room with a very upset Klarion being hold like a cat and Z says "ohhh, you found the third one!". In the end they make false documents so they "aways existed", put them on school payed by the league (bruce'd credit card) and Misty starts living with Cassandra and helping at the store (with Zatanna visiting her to help with her magic lessons), while Klarion and Ystin go live with Jason Blood (who is not happy with it at first). Vanguard is being well taken care of on the Wayne mansion barn and just flies to Ystin when he needs him, he also can visit whenever he wants.

The rest is just then interacting at school + the weird situations involving magic in their daily lives and dc everyday stuff.

I'm going to make it clear that Ystin and Jason come from the same Camelot, I don't like the more then one Camelot thing, it's confusing and takes the opportunity to more complex and fun character connections. I also would use the first design for Ystin, long black hair Ystin >>>>>>>> short blond hair Ystin, but I would use the name Ystin/Ystina because it's easier to differentiate the two Shining Knights that way.

I also want little scenes of Klarion visiting Limbo town from time to time to bring his people gifts from the Blue Rafters. Beula says she wants nothing to do with it, but she keeps his gifts on a box down her bed. His mom likes the books he brings.

I also don't care about what is canon now, the canon is the friends we made along the way.

Going to sleep now, maybe I will talk about it more later.

[dcdreamblog]

The All-Star Squadron included heroes who came from a wide array of professions, social/economic classes, regional cultures (which was a much bigger deal back then) and ethnic backgrounds. And while most of them were cishet white men, some of them weren't. Likewise, many of them held religious/philosophical beliefs other than "mainline" Protestantism. Now, they were all heroes, dedicated to the common goal of fighting for justice, and etc. so I have absolutely no doubt that all of them were able to get over any prejudices they may have had and do the job, but we are talking about people who were mostly white cishet American men who were born in the first half of the 20th Century; I cannot imagine that none of them had prejudices, and that these prejudices caused friction. Can we talk about that?

You're right and I wish I had better answers to give you. But a few factors keep me from offering up a lot of clear or worthwhile examples.

The Squadron's members were really opaque, and their actual thoughts came AFTER the war through Tarantula's book "Altered Egos". He's one of the few heroes where we have a distinct and purposefully kept war journal of his thoughts and the thoughts of some of his comrades during and after the war. Most of the other heroes were really concerned with their secret identities and didn't write these things down for posterity, especially not their own bigotries and stumbling blocks.

The War gave everybody an incentive to face front and close ranks. Public schisms in the Squadron's membership basically didn't happen and arguments that occurred behind closed doors stayed there.

The Squadron was, for its age, a deeply, RADICALLY liberal organization.

(A propaganda poster of Will Everett Sr, The Amazing Man, punching Hitler in the face. Circa 1943)

It accepted a black man into its ranks without a single public disagreement. From its FOUNDATION a large chunk of its membership were women. The Squadron even intervened in the Detroit Race Riots in 1943 where Amazing Man publically eviscerated an android supervillain calling himself "The Real American".

I could sit here until the sun came up rattling off all the times that Squadron teams or its individual members smashed pockets of the Klan or the American Nazi Party, or the German American Bund and then dragged their ass in front of the papers to call bigotry and intolerance UnAmerican and damaging to the war effort. The Young All Stars publically celebrated a Japanese American member during the era of internment.

Any bigotry in the organization was imposed upon it from the outside. The biggest example I can think of is that Wonder Woman spent the war years officially listed as the JSA's "secretary" because the Society's membership was more heavily scrutinized and it wasn't possible for her to take what was technically a military position in what was technically a combat role.

What stumbling we do have evidence for is very, VERY slight. The Sandman voices some homophobic opinions during a case that lead up to his confrontation with the Phantom of the Fair. But by the end of that case file we read about Dodds going through an active epiphany about homosexuality because of that case.

The widest spread "bigotry" that seemed to be present in the Squadron was patriarchal language directed at its female members who were always in a position to safely and openly give as good as they got. We have a collection here at the Perisphere that is JUST photos of Liberty Belle elbowing Johnny Quick in the ribs!

It sounds absurd. It sounds too good to be true. It SOUNDS like a lot of things. But there it is, in black and white.

If you want me to undercut your heroes from the past, I would for the sake of intellectual honesty. But I can't.

The JSA are the superhero community's North Star.

Not just because they were the first. But because they have always been like that.

The only time I have ever even heard a RUMOR of UNCLE SAM cursing is a couple years ago when the modern Ray came out as gay and people started talking bad about him online.

The modern Shining Knight started identifying as Bigender and Sir Justin has gotten into fist fights over it.

Please just. For your own sake. Believe in them, they are maybe the only figures I can't bring myself to mistrust these days.

[kryptonian-kara]

What crack ships do have that will never happen or have a single fan?

Because I ship Ystin(a) and Kara Zor-El solely because of a pitch for a new Seven Soldiers of Victory with them in it. (I forget the author but it was over a decade ago)

Kara, the last daughter of krypton— a child of science, with Ystin(a), a knight from the days of old.

Supergirl dragging Shining Knight in cliche sci-fi adventures.

Shining Knight dragging Supergirl into the world of magic.

[legomocfodder]

Pride Month 2024

Ystin a.k.a Shining Knight

[newlabdakos]

LGBTQIA+ characters in Comics

These are characters who have first appeared or been revealed as LGBTQIA+ over the last year, or whom I’ve recently learned about or whom I hadn’t mentioned in previous posts of this type (that is, on my old blog). Needless to say, this list is just as highly arbitrary and incomplete as the others. (Yeah, I know DC Comics isn't the only game in town, but for the time being it's the only one I regularly read, so...)

DC Comics

Shining Knight (Ystin) - non-binary

Tremor (Roshanna Chatterji) - asexual

Sylvan "Syl" Ortega - gay

the Aerie - non-binary & Wink - queer

Image Comics

The Old Guard

Yusuf "Joe" Al-Kaysani - gay

Nicolò "Nicky" di Genova - gay

Noriko - unspecified

Andromache of Scythia - unspecified, probably bisexual

Continuing the tradition from my old blog (which has been unceremoniously deleted by tumblr without much of an explanation why) I’m doing daily posts during June to celebrate LGBTQIA+ pride by showcasing openly LGBTQIA+ celebrities and various content about or created by LGBTQIA+ people such as music videos, characters on TV shows, movie trailers, …

[theartofthecover]

Shining Knight commission (2022)

Art by: Benjamin Dewey

[docgold13]

365 DC Comics Paper Cut-Out SuperHeroes - One Hero, Every Day, All Year…

June 21st - Sir Ystin the Shining Knight 

Ystin heralds from a medieval Camelot of a different dimension.  This Camelot was being besieged by a hoard of demon-like creatures called The Sheeda. With the kingdom about to fall, Sir Galahad knighted a young squire named Ystin as part of a final stand against The Sheeda.  

Ystin managed to sneak into the Sheeda’s floating fortress to in order to steal back the sword Excalibur.   He did not realize that the Sheeda fortress exists in multiple dimensions and multiple timelines all at once.  Ystin succeeded in re-obtaining the mystical sword along with a winged horse name Vanguard; yet when he attempted to escape he arrived not in medieval Camelot but rather modern day Los Angeles, California.  

Ystin struggled to make sense of this strange new world while also evading a Sheeda agent dispatched to regain Excalibur.  He did not realize it at the time, but he was part of a secretive team of superheroes that was the second iteration of The Seven Soldiers of Victory.  These heroes work separately but in concert and by doing so were ultimately able to defeat the dreaded Sheeda. 

Marooned in the modern world, Ystin chose to use Vanguard and Excalibur to act as a superhero, battling supernatural threats.  The Teen Titans attempted to recruit Ystin yet made the mistake of sending Kid Devil as their emissary.  Yestin mistook the horned hero as a demonic villain and attempted to slay him.  Kid Devil escaped and the Titans ultimately decided the young knight was likely not a good fit for their team.  

Some time later, Ystin was later made a member of The Demon Knights in their quest to discover Avalon and destroy the vampire known as Cain.  

Many have assumed that Ystin is a young man, while others have assumed he is was born assigned female yet identifies as male.  While he does prefer male pronouns, Ystin stated that he is intersex, possessing both male and female sexual characteristics.  He sees himself as neither man nor woman but rather both.  The hero first appeared in the pages of Seven Soldiers: Shining Knight #1 (2005).    

[lordsmaf]

Thinking about him