There's a lot to recommend Sooraya Qadir, one of the first progressive depictions of a Muslim character in the Marvel Universe, who chose to keep her niqab rather than suit up in the traditional Xavier school yellow spandex. Discovered by the X-Men in Afghanistan, Dust first unleashed her powers when she was kidnapped by mutant slave traders who removed her headdress. Enraged, she turned into...a cloud of sand. That's right, a cloud. Dust can turn into sand, but not in the cool way that Spider-Man villain Sandman can, allowing her to transform her body into all sorts of cool configurations and become near-omnipotent when on a beach. Nope, Qadir just sort of collapses into an amorphous sandstorm, which means she's easily defeated by just blinking your eyes a lot or wearing sunglasses. Also her weakness is water. That one's not a joke.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
