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

May 23rd - Dust

Sooraya Qadir is a young Mutant who was born in Kandahar, Afghanistan.  She discovered in her youth that she possesses the X-gene and was bestowed the ability to transform her body into a pliable cloud of dust-like particles.  She can control these particles with great precision, allowing her a degree of shapeshifting, a great resilience to injury and the capability to generate waves of dust that have both defensive and offensive capacities.  

One day the young woman was accosted by a would-be slave trader who attempted to abduct her and tore off her traditional niqāb.  Instinctively, Sooraya lashed out with her powers, creating a torrent of sand-like dust that effectively flayed her attacker.  

Accused of murder, Sooraya was rescued by the X-Men who were alerted to her plight by way of Cerebro.  Not seeing much choice in the matter, Sooraya accepted the X-Men’s offer for her to relocate to the United States and enroll in the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters.  She took on the alias of Dust and trained to better control her powers alongside her fellow young Mutants.  It took her some time to adjust to the very new world of super heroes; she was especially taken aback by the immodest nature of her colleagues’ tight-fitting costumes.  Still, her fellow students came to accept her regardless of her differences and so too did she become accepting of them.  

After numerous adventures alongside the X-Men, Dust decided not to become a citizen of the Mutant nation of Krakoa, choosing instead to act as a member of the young superhero team known as The Champions.  

Dust first appeared in the pages of New X-Men Vol. 1 #133 (2002).  

Rockslide (Santo Vaccarro) tells his story to the bored Anole (Victor Borkowski) and Match (Ben Hamill). 

- New X-Men v2 #32, 2007