STARDUST

1st Appearance: Stormbreaker - The Saga of Beta Ray Bill #1

Location and Status: Mobile throughout the universe; planet of origin unknown
Indictments: Promoting genocide
Quadrant of Crimes: The known universe
Threat Level: Universal.  As Galactus� herald, Stardust not only facilitates Galactus� devouring of planets with sentient populations, but Stardust tracks down and slaughters any who escape this destruction as well as destroying all evidence of their civilization.
Containment/Rehabilitation Procedure:  The Worldmind recommends capture, or possibly termination.  Stardust must be punished for assisting the world devourer, though Stardust�s energy form renders destruction highly difficult.  Stardust has survived entry into a black hole, as well as planetary explosions.
Natural Abilities:  Stardust appears to be composed of cosmic energy.  Though able to be struck, pained, and even torn to pieces, Stardust can reform at will.  It is unknown whether Stardust can truly be destroyed.  Stardust can project devastating eye and hand-blasts, open dimensional portals, create black holes, survive unaided in the vacuum of space, and does not need air, food, water, etc.  Stardust is immune to aging and conventional disease.
Weapons:  Stardust sometimes forces her energy blasts through a staff with an axe-like blade at one end and a curved spear at the other.

Background:  Little is known of Stardust before becoming the herald of Galactus.  Stardust claims to be a cosmic being, to have seen the creation and destruction of worlds, and to have �seen the face of god and torn off his mask.�  Stardust succeeded Jonathan Storm [Terran] as herald to Galactus, serving him with a nigh-religions fervor extending to a desire to utterly obliterate all evidence of any being that opposed Galactus in any form.  Stardust led Galactus to devour New Korbin, home to the Korbinites that had survived near genocide at the hands of the Axi-Tun.  When the Korbinite warrior Beta Ray Bill attempted to drive off Galactus, the world devourer summoned Stardust to slay him, though Bill survived.  Stardust further pursued and slaughtered the remainder of the Korbinite fleet, as well as retrieving the Korbinite construct Alpha Ray and delivering it to Galactus.  Stardust then located anew Beta Ray Bill, threatening to destroy the Meta-Orb that contained the souls of the last remaining Korbinites.  Bill preserved the Meta-Orb and attacked Stardust savagely, destroying her form.  Stardust swiftly re-formed and fought back, the battle escalating until Stardust opened a portal into a hellish realm, intending to banish Bill to that realm.  Instead, Bill severed the tendril that extended from that realm.  Too late, Stardust shut the portal, but the tendril swiftly coalesced into the form of the demon Asteroth.  Stardust forced Bill to realize that Asteroth would rapidly grow in power and destroy the entire universe, and Bill reluctantly joined forces with Stardust against the demon.  When Asteroth survived a planetary explosion, Stardust opened a black hole to slay the demon.  Asteroth redirected the gravity well back at Stardust and Bill, who were pulled into the demon�s grasp.  As they struggled against Asteroth, Alpha Ray, imbued with the power cosmic by Galactus and sent to aid Stardust, smashed into the demon, sending itself, Asteroth, and Stardust into the black hole, which closed; Beta Ray Bill was knocked to safety by the impact.

Stardust eventually returned to Galactus� service, but when the Annihilation Wave struck, Galactus sent Stardust to join the remaining former heralds � Firelord and Red Shift � in opposing Annihilus� Seekers, while sending the Surfer to Galactus� side.  Stardust remains as a vital line of defense in the resistance�s battle against the Annihilation Wave.