Dust (comics)

Dust
Cover art for New X-Men: Hellions #2. Art by Clayton Henry.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	New X-Men #133 (December 2002)
Created by	Grant Morrison Frank Quitely Ethan Van Sciver
In-story information
Alter ego	Sooraya Qadir
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	Hellions training squad New X-Men Xavier Institute X-Men-In-Training Young X-Men Jean Grey School Students
Abilities	Able to transform into and control a malleable sand form

Dust (real name Sooraya Qadir), is a fictional character, a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character usually appears in X-Men-related comic books. Sooraya is a mutant with the ability to transform her body into a malleable cloud of dust. The X-Men travel to Afghanistan to rescue Sooraya, whose abilities have made her the target of slavers.

Born in Afghanistan, Sooraya is attacked by a slave trader attempting to remove her traditional niqāb; almost instinctively, she lashes out with her powers and flays him alive with her sand-like dust. The X-Men, hearing of the situation, travel to Afghanistan and rescue her, where she is brought to the USA and becomes a student of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. After the actions of the Scarlet Witch (in which millions of mutants lost their powers), Sooraya remains one of the few mutants to keep their powers. She is currently a member of the Young X-Men team.

Dust was created by author Grant Morrison and artist Ethan Van Sciver in New X-Men #133 (December 2002), although her character was not fully developed until the New X-Men: Academy X series written by Christina Weir and Nunzio DeFilippis.

Dust is an adolescent Sunni Muslim girl who possesses the mutant power to turn herself into a sand-like substance. Born in Afghanistan, Sooraya is kidnapped by a slave-trading ring after she is separated from her mother. While one of her slavers tries to remove her niqāb, she instinctively lashes out with her powers and flays them all alive with her dust form before passing out. She is subsequently discovered and rescued by Wolverine and Fantomex. Wolverine takes her to the X-Corps base in India. Sooraya hides herself from the X-Men stationed there by turning into sand and spreading herself around the complex. Phoenix senses Sooraya's presence and telepathically convinces her to reveal herself to everyone present. Sooraya reforms and announces her presence by speaking a single word: Turaab (Arabic for dust/sand).