Deneb IV (Planet; Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) story)

Nature: Extraterrestrial planet, Deneb star system (see comments), apparently either the Milky Way Galaxy or the Greater Magellanic Cloud (Kree galaxy)

Gravity: Unrevealed (but Mar-Vell did not note it as significant, so presumably not extremely stronger or weaker than that of Earth, Hala, etc.)

Atmosphere: An unspecified combination of gases (presumably mostly nitrogen and oxygen since it could be breathed by humans)

Population: Unrevealed; we saw only one city with a few corpses in it, in addition to the Underground and the Null-Trons;
the natives/residents were apparently exterminated, and the Underground may have perished as well

Planetary Defense: Unrevealed;
the Null-Trons were apparently sent there by the Supreme Intelligence;
the Underground was recruited by unrevealed parties to oppose the Null-Trons, but has apparently been exterminated

First Appearance: (Mentioned) Captain Marvel I#42 (January, 1976);
(moon seen) Captain Marvel I#43 (March, 1976);
(planet seen and identified) Captain Marvel I#44 (May, 1976) denebiv-cm44pg13pan5

History:
(Captain Marvel I#45 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, the Mind Gem (see comments) was located on Deneb IV. Encased within a large sphere of unidentified origins and materials, it was buried just below the surface of Deneb IV.

(Captain Marvel I#42 (fb) - BTS) - After driving the Skrulls off of Deneb IV, the Kree took over allegedly (according to Shabby Dayes) a hundred asteroids in that region (including the one that would become the OK Space Station) .

(Captain Marvel I#44 (fb) - BTS) - Kree Null-Trons devastated the Kree frontier outpost Deneb IV, progressively wiping out most of the population as well as scorching most of the soil.

(Captain Marvel I#45 (fb) - BTS) - Rambu and others -- the man who would become their General -- were dispatched to Deneb IV to fight against the Null-Trons.

(Captain Marvel I#45 (fb) - BTS) - The Underground was formed on Deneb IV to rid their world of the Null-Trons.

(Captain Marvel I#45 (fb) - BTS) - While the Underground's members were once fully human, over time they gradually lost their mortal limbs and had them replaced with cybernetics.
Eventually they were mostly machine. Their General existed only as a head and neck grafted to the body of a Null-Tron.

(Captain Marvel I#45 (fb) - BTS) - Seeking to absorb the Destiny Force (as it was later called) from the human Rick Jones, the Supreme Intelligence engineered a convoluted plot, involving arranging for the General to obtain the Mind Gem (see comments) and use it to condition Jones and Mar-Vell for this purpose. .

(Captain Marvel I#41) - The Supreme Intelligence transported Mar-Vell and Jones to the asteroid that was home to the OK Space Station.

(Captain Marvel I#41 - BTS / Captain Marvel I#45 (fb) - BTS) - The Supreme Intelligence also increased the power to the Null-Trons to make their danger to Deneb IV more acute. denebiv-rambu-kickmindgem

(Captain Marvel I#41 / Captain Marvel I#45 (fb) - BTS) - Rambu tripped on loose soil, uncovering the Mind Gem (see comments).

(Captain Marvel I#45 (fb) - BTS) - Rambu showed the gem to the General, who said its strange power would be their salvation: No more new limbs, no more watching themselves becoming more and more machine.

(Captain Marvel I#42 - BTS) - Shabby Dayes provided atmospheric helmets to Mar-Vell and Jones, brought them into the OK Space Station, and told them of how the Kree had driven the Skrulls from Deneb IV.

Shabby provided his robotic mule, Rusty Paint, to which Mar-Vell made some adjustments, enabling the steed to carry them to Deneb IV (see comments). denebiv-underground-cmi45pg1

(Captain Marvel I#43 - BTS) - The Supreme Intelligence caused Rusty to malfunction in the vicinity of Deneb IV's moon, forcing Captain Marvel and Jones to land there. The Supreme Intelligence further manipulated Drax the Destroyer into traveling there and attacking Captain Marvel.

Meanwhile, Rick encountered Fawn -- a manifestation of his own subconsciousness created via his connection to the Nega-Bands -- who convinced him to remove his atmospheric helmet. Although hard to breathe but not poisonous to Mar-Vell, Rick collapsed (due to being weakened by Mar-Vell's drawing on the Nega-Bands' power, as well as perhaps due to his mind adjusting to his mental union with Mar-Vell).

(Captain Marvel I#44 - BTS) - As Marvel drew on the Nega-Band's power to allow him to defeat Drax, the Supreme Intelligence restored Rusty's functions to facilitate his own timetable. Ultimately, Fawn granted Drax knowledge of Thanos' location, to which he departed, and she made Mar-Vell aware of Rick's current state. after which Mar-Vell discovered the fallen and seemingly dying Rick, restored some of the energies he had drained and then had Rusty transport himself and Rick to Deneb IV.

(Captain Marvel I#44) - As Captain Marvel arrived with Rick on Deneb IV and found it to have been destroyed and its people slaughtered, Rusty malfunctioned again and crashed. Flying Rick to a safe landing, Mar-Vell located the central medical facility and placed Rick within one of its standardized life-support chambers.

Surveying the city and finding no other living beings, Mar-Vell then discovered the Null-Trons, realized them to be the cause of the devastation, and fled when they attacked him.

(Captain Marvel I#44 (fb) - BTS) - Members of the Underground took Rick to the General.

(Captain Marvel I#44) - After finding Rick missing, Mar-Vell was assaulted and subdued by members of the Underground -- presumably including a helmeted Rambu -- who brought him before the Head of the Underground, where Rick was being held. The General told Marvel that he wanted them both to not only join but to lead the Underground and in exchange, he would cure them of the disease he had discovered in Rick's brain as Rick and Mar-Vell's minds were merging into one.

(Captain Marvel I#45) - After Mar-Vell agreed to the General's offer, Rambu and other members of the Underground physically hurled Jones into the Mind Gem, and then Mar-Vell followed the General's instructions to follow him in or forfeit all hope.

Within the Mind Gem, Rick and Mar-Vell battled to preserve their own identities, and -- and, as the General had planned -- the Mind Gem transmitted the energies of their fight to the Underground who then assaulted the Null-Trons.

After learning that the General cared not whether the Underground or Null-Trons won, as long as the fighting ended with one side destroyed, Rambu was guided by Fawn into the Mind Gem

Fawn and Rambu stopped Mar-Vell and Jones from fighting, after which she granted Mar-Vell understanding that he and Jones were merely evolving rather than merging.

Fawn then led Rick Jones, Mar-Vell, and Rambu with her to escape "this jewel of madness and death."

(Captain Marvel I#46 (fb) - BTS) - The quartet departed the Mind Gem and Deneb IV, traveling to confront the Supreme Intelligence.

    So, the General and the Mind Gem, the Millennia Bloom, and Fawn were all major sub-plots during the Supreme Intelligence's way overly-convoluted plot where -- as far as I can tell -- his goal was to absorb Rick Jones' Destiny Force power. The involvement with the Mind Gem was affecting the bond between Marvel and Rick, presumably facilitating the Supreme Intelligence's ability to control Jones.
    With the Supreme Intelligence's timetable involving the precise moment of the Millennia Bloom's blooming, it arranged both delays and assistance in their journey/efforts as needed.
    Fawn was a random factor for which the Supreme Intelligence had accounted, as was the involvement of Rambu.
    Profiles on the Underground of Deneb IV and the moon of Deneb IV are nearly done and should be posted within the week. Fawn will get a profile within the next month or so.

Who are/were the natives of Deneb IV? And what was their fate?
(italics by Donald Campbell; regular (and bold) text by Snood)

The inhabitants of Deneb IV only appeared (as a pile of corpses) in Captain Marvel I#44. In the single panel in which they appeared, all of these Denebians had pinkish-white skin, like Mar-Vell and Rick Jones. The organic head of the General was also depicted as being pink-skinned in that issue but was changed to having yellow skin in Captain Marvel I#45.

The cyborg Rambu was shown to be yellow-skinned in Captain Marvel I#45 and this led to him being identified as a member of the Aakon race by the OHotMU. However, in the stories themselves, he only refers to himself and his comrades as being "human" which, I presume, is meant to be shorthand for "organic humanoid" and not literally a member of Homo sapiens from Earth. The fact that he spoke of how the cyborgs had been dispatched to Deneb IV to fight against the Kree Null-Trons indicates that they did not originally live on Deneb IV. denebiv-cm8-aakon

It's not just Rambu's skin color, but also his solid white eyes, nares/nostrils without an external nose, black hair, and general appearance and build that makes him a match for the Aakon. The General/Head is also yellow, but he has not been designated as one of the Aakon because he is not identical to them as Rambu is.
See the image to the right, from pg. 1 of Captain Marvel I#8.

I am unsure as to who the original inhabitants of Deneb IV were meant to be. On the one hand, it could be that they and Rambu were meant of be members of the same species and the pile of corpses were, like the General's organic head, miscolored in Captain Marvel I#44. This would mean that Deneb IV had been populated by Aakon colonists.

On the other hand, given the fact that the Aakon were an enemy of the Kree Empire, it seems unlikely that the Kree would have driven the Skrulls away from Deneb IV and then allowed the Aakon to colonize that planet.
See my notes above, but Aakon aren't just yellow humans, so I don't think the population of Deneb IV being Aakon is a consideration. I think Rambu is just one mercenary/warrior in the Underground.

    In my opinion, those original "Denebians" were either members of a pink-skinned humanoid race who had evolved on the planet and had been there since before the Skrulls claimed/conquered the planet; or they were members of an unspecified pink-skinned humanoid race who had colonized the planet, either before the Skrull conquest or after the Kree had driven the Skrulls out. Who knows, maybe they were Pink Kree or Quists or Wilameanis?
    Or Zenn-Lavians, or Sirusites, etc.
    I think they were either there and under domain of the Skrulls and then the Kree or that they were Kree living there.

    Rambu and the General/Head discuss being dispatched to Deneb IV. Rambu says "we," so it is at least Rambu and the General, but it is not clear how many others were sent. I would think it likely that SOME of the Underground were residents of Deneb IV and that some were dispatched to aid them, but that is not confirmed.
     When Rambu's assault on the Mind Gem was transmitted through it via Jones and Mar-Vell's connection to those fighting, the Null-Trons noted that the Denebians were toppling as were they. That would SEEM to indicate that many of Underground members were Denebians.
    That being said, the Null-Trons hated all life equally, and they may not have just considered any at-least-partially organic beings as Denebians.

    Captain Marvel I#46 describes Rambu as "last of vanquished cyborg army."
        The General was last "seen" crying out in futile protest as Rambu and Fawn entered the Mind Gem.
        We did not see the Underground army after the last scene with Rambu striking the Mind Gem, but I wonder if this is meant to indicate that when the fight between Rick and Mar-Vell ceased (or when they departed the Mind Gem) that the cyborg army was caught unawares and wiped out by the Null-Trons?

    Only one city was seen when Mar-Vell proclaimed Deneb IV has been destroyed.

It is a common plot/point in comics to show only one location but to have the assumption that the whole planet was similarly affected.
But we don't know that. Perhaps there was one or perhaps many cities not devastated by the Null-Trons.

Deneb IV really needs a prequel/sequel story to clarify who lived there, when the Null-Trons arrived, who sent Rambu and the others there (although that was probably the Supreme Intelligence), and what was the fate of those left behind after Captain Marvel and company departed, etc.?

The Soul Gem first appeared in Marvel Premiere#1 (1972), in which the High Evolutionary gifted it to Him, who adopted the name Adam Warlock.

Circa Captain Marvel I#41-45 (1976), the Supreme Intelligence manipulated Rambu and the General to obtain another "Soul Gem," which was later defined as the Mind Gem. While Warlock's gem was small, perhaps an inch long, this one was a much larger sphere, and the gem was later defined as having been contained within an unidentified sphere.
The General confirms the Soul Gem he possesses to be "one of the fabled six soul gems, strewn across the stars! Though each of the six has a different power, they are all equally effective -- on the mind!"

At the time of Marvel Team-Up I#55 (1977), the Elder of the Universe known as the Gardner (Ord Zyonz) possessed another "Soul Gem," which was later defined as the Time Gem, and the Stranger also possessed a Soul Gem, which was later defined as the Power Gem. Both the Gardener and Stranger had possessed their gems for an extended period of time.

In Avengers Annual#7, Thanos gathered all six "Soul Gems," obtaining what would later be known as the Reality and Space Gems from an alien civilization’s prison satellite and by slaying a monster named Xiambor; it is unrevealed which gem he obtained from which target.

    As far as I know, the Infinity Gems (and later the Infinity Stones, because of the movies) were first called by that name in Thanos Quest#1. As he sought the "Soul Gems," Thanos obtained the first from the In-Betweener and then the second "soul gem" from the Champion. He then considered that as only the one he obtained from the In-Betweener had power over the soul, a better name for the group would be the "Infinity Gems," and he identified the one from the Champion as the "gem of power."
    Thereafter, the gems were referred to as Infinity Gems...until the movies called them the Infinity Stones..
    ...and...courtesy of David A Zuckerman:

Deneb IV was first mentioned by Shabby Dayes in Captain Marvel I#42 when he stated that " them Kree fellas" had taken over of the O.K. Space Station and a hundred other asteroids when they rode the Skrulls out of Deneb IV.
There was no specific time referenced but I presume that it occurred some time in Shabby's lifetime.

The moon where the Supreme Intelligence forced Rusty the robot mule and its riders Mar-Vell and Rick Jones to crash (so that Mar-Vell could battle Drax the Destroyer) only appeared in Captain Marvel I#43-44. It had an atmosphere that Mar-Vell found to be hard to breathe but not poisonous, and vegetation grew on its surface. It was never named but it was specifically referenced as being "Deneb's moon" by Mar-Vell in Captain Marvel I#45.

In the real world, the star known as "Deneb" is a blue-white supergiant star which means that its total lifespan will be too short for life, let alone intelligent life, to have evolved on any planets that might be in orbit around it. Of course, there are limits to how "realistic" the Marvel Universe has to be.

As Mar-Vell suggested, if Rick and he merged, Mar-Vell could have flown them through space without Rusty. However, Rick was not keen on the merger, preferring to remain a separate being, although he was not powerful enough to fly interplanetary distances on his own.

It is not clear to me why Mar-Vell wanted to go to Deneb IV after leaving the OK Space Station; perhaps it was the nearest planet and he wished to obtain a ship or some communication equipment?

images: (without ads)
Captain Marvel I, #41, pg. 18, panel 5 (foot kicking the Mind Gem);
    #44, pg. 12, panel 6 (Deneb IV from orbit;
        panel 7 (Deneb devastated);
       pg. 13, panel 3 (Deneb city);
          panel 4 (central medical facility);
          panel 5 (Deneb city skyline);
    #45, pg. 1 (Marv and General in Underground base with Rick in stasis);
       last page, last panel (Marv, Rick, Rambu, and Fawn departing Deneb IV and flying through space);
Avengers Annual#7, pg. 11, panel 4 (Thanos recovering Mind Gem)

Appearances:
Captain Marvel I#41 (November, 1975) - Steve Englehart (plot/script), Al Milgrom (plot/pencils), Bernie Wrightson, Craig Russell, Bob McLeod, Terry Austin & Al Milgrom (inks), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Captain Marvel I#42 (January, 1976) - Steve Englehart (plot/script), Al Milgrom (plot/pencils), Frank Giacoia, Mike Esposito & Bernie Wrightson (inks), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Captain Marvel I#43 (March, 1976) - Steve Englehart (plot/script), Al Milgrom (plot/pencils/inks), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Captain Marvel I#44 (May, 1976) - Steve Englehart (writer), Al Milgrom (artist), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Captain Marvel I#45 (July, 1976) - Steve Englehart (writer), Al Milgrom (artist), Terry Austin (finishes), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Captain Marvel I#46 (September, 1976) - Chris Claremont (script), Steve Englehart (co-plot), Al Milgrom (co-plot/breakdowns), Terry Austin (finishes), Archie Goodwin (editor)

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