From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dust
Publisher Marvel Comics First appearance New X-Men #133 Created by Grant Morrison (writer) Ethan Van Sciver (artist)
Characteristics Alter ego Sooraya Qadir Species Human Mutant Team affiliations New X-Men Xavier Institute The 198 Hellions Special Class Abilities Ability to turn into a cloud of sand, control direction of cloud and reform

Dust (real name Sooraya Qadir) is a fictional character, a mutant in the Marvel Universe. She is one of the student body in the Xavier Institute and a member of the former Hellions squad therein. Created by Grant Morrison and Ethan Van Sciver, she first appeared in New X-Men #133 (2002), although her character was not fully developed until the New X-Men: Academy X series written by Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir.

She maintained her powers post-M-Day and is currently training as part of the New X-Men team.

Contents 1 Character history 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Xavier Institute 1.3 Hellions Squad 1.4 House of M 1.5 William Stryker 1.6 Mercury Falling 1.7 Quest for Magik 1.8 World War Hulk 1.9 Messiah Complex 2 Powers and abilities 3 Family 4 Alternate Versions 4.1 House of M 4.2 X-Men: The End 5 Notes 6 External links

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. (dust).

Ultimately, Dust is enrolled at the Xavier Institute in Westchester County, New York. Quiet and nervous, she experiences difficulty adapting to her new surroundings - particularly after being given the loud and rebellious Surge as a roommate. Sooraya and Surge often come to disagreements over the traditional garb which Surge believes to be an affront to women's rights. Sooraya is initially placed into Xorn's Special Class and is picked on by Xorn for standing by her faith and allegedly placing its importance over the cause of mutants. Frightened, she then alerts Professor Xavier to Xorn's 'true' identity. She attempts to use her powers to do so but Xorn manages to defeat her and Xavier.

After the conclusion of New X-Men where leadership of the school goes to Emma Frost and Cyclops, Sooraya is made a member of the Hellions training squad. She opts to observe Islamic hijab rather than wear a standard training costume, though it does bear the standard 'X' insignia.

After House of M, Wanda Maximoff depowered over 90% of the mutant population, thereby reducing the population of Xavier's student body to only 27 students. The squad system has been dissolved, and the remaining students have been merged into one large group. She is also paired as roommates with X-23. She forges a friendship with Icarus. He asks her to the school dance, but she declines since the idea of the dance made her uncomfortable, though she did not feel insulted by his asking nor did Icarus feel insulted due to her rejection.

Sooraya becomes a target of William Stryker's crusade against the Xavier Institute, as he expresses his need to "eliminate the Muslim." Icarus gives her a note, which X-23 tells Sooraya not to trust, as Icarus "smells like death". Stryker wishes to eliminate her because Nimrod has a vision of an altered future in its memory banks which shows Dust defeating all the Purifiers during their future attack on the school. Just as the Purfiers kill Wallflower because of her ability to turn the tide of the fight with her hormones, Stryker seeks to kill Dust for her ability to kill them with her sand form. Upon entering the church of Reverend Stryker, she is shown being shot down, though it is later revealed to be X-23 wearing one of Sooraya's niqābs. Learning the Purifier's true intentions and that he was tricked into leading "Sooraya" to her death, Icarus is killed by Stryker. When Stryker's team infiltrates the school, Dust awakens in the bathroom, having been knocked out by X-23. She enters the fight and surprises Stryker, single-handedly defeating most of his Purifiers and severely wounding Stryker's follower, Matthew Risman.

Sooraya cries with Icarus's mother when she comes to the Institute and apologizes for not being able to do more to save her son. His mother tells her that Icarus thought she was beautiful (a significant statement, since he had never seen her without her niqāb on).

She, with the help of the rest of the New X-Men, later defeat Nimrod, Stryker's back-up plan for destroying the mutants.

While Hellion and X-23 go off to rescue Mercury from the Facility, Sooraya is left at the mansion but learns vital information from Pixie that Mercury was kidnapped by Laura's former handlers, the Facility, and that Hellion and X-23 went after her. Sooraya immediately tells Nori and David and Dust and the remaining team are about to leave the Institute, but are stopped by Shadowcat, who brings them in for the time being to tell them about the whereabouts of their teammates and friends.

The "Astonishing" team and the remaining X-Men, accompanied by the O*N*E* Sentinel, go off to the Facility and rescue Hellion, X-23, and Mercury.

Dust is shown praying to Allah before being teleported with the other students to Limbo where she is held captive by Belasco and his demons. In #39, X-23 breaks free and urges Dust and Mercury to join her in fighting Belasco. Dust is too afraid of Belasco, believing him to be the Devil, but when X-23 is seemingly killed, Dust breaks free and attacks Belasco, saying that if she is to die in battle against "the Devil", she would make Allah proud. Dust and Mercury fight with Belasco and manage to hold their own due to the fact that their transient forms give them limited resistance to Belasco's magic. When Surge and Hellion arrived, the two girls are exhausted and can only watch as Belasco tries to pull Earth into Limbo. He fends off every student of the Xavier Institute until he is slain by Pixie and the Darkchilde.

Dust is part of the New X-Men in a training session supervised by Beast that goes up against the Hulk in World War Hulk: X-Men. She attacks him in her sand form after he defeats Hellion but she too is defeated when Hulk pulls a water pipe up from the ground and sprays water at her.

Regrouping after their failed attack under the leadership of Matthew Risman, the Purifiers are keeping track of the escaped Predator X. Horribly scarred by Dust's attack, Matthew is fixated on training Predator X to seek out and kill Sooraya by using abayas and niqabs bearing some recognizable quality of hers (possibly her scent). While being trained to seek out and kill Dust, Predator X senses the mutant it was originally created to destroy (the unknown mutant featured in X-Men: Messiah Complex) and the Purifiers follow.

Dust is an Alpha-Level mutant.

Dust can transform herself into an explosive cloud of sand-like silicon particles and maintain control of her sand form (for instance scouring the flesh from her enemies' bones like a sandstorm or forming a human-shaped body), before reforming at will. However, telekinetic or similarly powered beings can take control of her sand particles. According to Jean Grey and Professor X, her dust form makes her harder to detect telepathically and according to New X-Men (2nd series) #42 somewhat resistant to magic.

Dust has also demonstrated a major weaknesses to water. Her sand form has been stopped by being doused with water several times in combat. She can also be defeated if the air she travels through is manipulated (such as during her fight with Wind Dancer). Like many transmorphs, she reverts back to her human form if exhausted or knocked unconscious.

Sooraya is still searching in hopes of being reunited with her mother, Mirah Qadir. During the Hellions miniseries, Sooraya's wish is fulfilled by the Kingmaker and she is reunited in Western Afghanistan with her mother at a refugee camp. The Kingmaker states that he can arrange for Sooraya's mother to be brought to the United States. Initially, Sooraya and her teammates agree to follow the Kingmaker's orders in return for their wishes being granted but later decide that the price (committing crimes) is too high and fight against him. Their deal with the Kingmaker broken, Sooraya tries to contact her mother at the refugee camp only to discover that her mother has been transferred and that her current whereabouts are unknown. Currently, Emma Frost has been trying to locate Mirah, but to no avail.

Sooraya appears as a member of the New Mutants in the House of M continuity. She appears to have formed a very close friendship with Jubilee and become Westernized, wearing revealing clothes and enjoying stereotypical 'mall rat' activities, although it is revealed that she may carry some reservations and resentments for trading in on her morals and beliefs for her Western behavior. Like the rest of the Hellions and New Mutants she travels to Japan to fight against Emperor Sunfire in order to close down Project Genesis.

In the alternate time line depicted in X-Men: The End, Sooraya remains at the institute as the caretaker of Cyclops and Emma Frost's children. During the attack on the Institute, Sooraya encounters Madelyne Pryor, asking if she is Jean Grey returning to the school. Madelyne lashes out and Sooraya defends herself, seemingly defeating Madelyne and escaping the Institute before it explodes. It is later revealed that the "Dust" who escaped the encounter was really Madelyne, disguised in Sooraya's abaya. Upon revealing her true identity, Cyclops states that he already knew it was her and that the real Sooraya died back at the school.

• There are some similarities between Dust's powers and the powers of Sandman, a classic Spider-Man foe. Dust's typical state while using her powers, however, is that of an airborne dust storm, while Sandman typically maintains a more ground-based solid and roughly-humanoid form. However, Sandman's appearance in the movie portrayed him with airborne sand much like Dust.
• Another mutant named Dust appeared in the Marvel 2099 book 2099 Genesis. He was a man with long gray hair, and telekinetic powers, who claimed to have almost joined the original X-Men, and was involved in the founding of X-Nation 2099. His appearance and powers were similar to Cable or Nate Grey.
• Characters in the comics refer to Dust's traditional Muslim outfit as a burqa. Actually the outfit Dust wears is an abaya with a niqab for her face, an ensemble originating in and worn mostly by Muslim women in the Persian Gulf states of the Middle East. In New X-Men (2nd series) #42 Gentle is the first to get it right while correcting fellow student Pixie.

• Dust on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki