GALAXY NGC 205

Official Name: NGC 205 (Earth designation)
Aliases: Messier 110, M110, Edward Young Star (also Earth designations)
   Satellite galaxy NGC 205 (Skrull designation)
   Sub-galaxy NGC 205 (Kree designation);

Nature: Dwarf elliptical galaxy (one of sixteen satellite galaxies orbiting the Andromeda Galaxy)
Distance from Earth: 2.69 million light-years
Number of Stars: 10 billion (estimated)
Diameter: 17,000 light-years

Major Galactic Powers: Unrevealed. May be under the domination of either the Skrull Empire or the Kree Empire

Minor Galactic Powers: Unrevealed, possibly inapplicable

Other Species: Unrevealed

Population(s): Unrevealed

Capital(s): Unrevealed

Government(s): Unrevealed

Major Languages: Unrevealed

Planetary Defense(s): Unrevealed

Places of Interest: None specified

Visitors: Captain Mar-Vell; other members of the intergalactic Kree fleet whose identities have not been revealed; various Skrull warriors whose identities have not been revealed

First Mentioned: Captain Marvel I#2 (June, 1968)

History:
(Captain Marvel I#2 (fb) - BTS) - Years ago, the Kree and the Skrulls fought a war for control of the satellite galaxy NGC 205. The Skrull war-annals recorded how fiercely and how valorously an officer of the intergalactic Kree fleet named Captain Mar-Vell had fought against them. The Skrulls believed that he must have been a battle-hero to the Kree.

(Untold Legend of Captain Marvel#1 (fb) - BTS) - Mar-Vell was decorated for his actions in sub-galaxy NGC 205 and received a Star Cluster, making him a genuine war hero.

(Untold Legend of Captain Marvel#1 - BTS) - Some time later, after his mission to extract an Intelligence Matrix from the planet Tarsis failed when he chose to save the life of a fellow soldier instead, Captain Mar-Vell was reprimanded by Colonel Hez-Tarr at Regional Command on the planet Kree-Lar. During his lecture, Hez-Tarr spoke of Mar-Vell's exceptional battle record, noting that he had been decorated three times and was a Star Cluster recipient for his actions in sub-galaxy NGC 205. However, the colonel also mentioned that Mar-Vell's record showed that every few months or so there was a incident like the failure of the Tarsis mission which Hez-Tarr considered a lapse of judgment.

(Untold Legend of Captain Marvel#1 - BTS) - Later, after Mar-Vell had reported for duty aboard the Imperial Starcruiser Pama, he was greeted by Colonel Yon-Rogg who soon introduced him to Medic Una as "The great Mar-Vell, the People's Hero of the battle at NGC 205!"

(Marvel Super-Heroes II#12 - BTS/Untold Legend of Captain Marvel#1 - BTS) - Captain Mar-Vell was assigned to a mission to infiltrate and study the humans of the planet Earth in order to determine if they were a threat to the Kree.

(Captain Marvel I#2 - BTS) - Soon afterwards, the Skrull emperor learned that the Kree had recently sent an emissary to Earth, a "puny globe" that the Skrulls believed was too insignificant to be of interest to either them or the Kree. Upon learning from reports sent by his observers that the Kree warrior had defeated one of his own race's Sentries in order to protect Earth's primitive rockets, the Skrull ruler became convinced that the Kree must have discovered some new, strategic use for Earth. Determined to know how Earth might affect the intergalactic rivalry between his race and the Kree, the ruler summoned the Super-Skrull (Kl'rt) back from exile and ordered him to discover why a man of the Kree had landed on Earth and to then destroy him. When the Super-Skrull asked why his majesty was so concerned about one lone Kree, the ruler revealed that the Kree was Captain Mar-Vell, an officer in the intergalactic Kree fleet whose fierceness and valor in fighting against the Skrulls in the war for control of the satellite galaxy NGC 205 had been recorded in their war-annals. The ruler then stated his belief that sending a battle-hero such as Mar-Vell to Earth must mean that the planet was of vast importance to the Kree and that the Skrulls must learn why Earth was so important.

And those are the only times that "Galaxy NGC 205" has ever been mentioned in the Marvel Universe!

Comments: Created by Introduced into the Marvel Universe by Roy Thomas, Gene Colan and Vince Colletta.

   The reason why I believe that NGC 205 deserved its own profile is because it is, as far as I know, the only mention of Mar-Vell's pre-Earth military career that was ever made in the original series. Furthermore, "the battle at NGC 205" is one of only four missions which Captain Mar-Vell is known to have undertaken before he was assigned to infiltrate and investigate Earth. Of the other three missions, the failed Tarsis operation and the mission to Absolom Sector to rescue (or eliminate) the missing Kree Grand Admiral Devros were both recounted in the 1997 Untold Legend of Captain Marvel miniseries, and the part that Mar-Vell played in the invasion (and eventual destruction) of the Satori homeworld was first revealed in Captain Marvel IX#3 (May, 2016).

NGC 205 in the real world
   In an astronomical context, "NGC 205" refers to the 205th deep-sky object listed in the New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars that was compiled by Danish/British astronomer John Louis Emil Dreyer in 1888. Similarly, "Messier 110" refers to a deep-sky object that was assigned a Messier number in 1967 because modern astronomers found evidence that French astronomer Charles Messier knew of it even though he did not include it in any version of his Catalogue des Nébuleuses et des Amas d'Étoiles that he published in the late 18th century.

   NGC 205 is the fifth largest galaxy in the Local Group, making it smaller than the Large Magellanic Cloud but larger than the Small Magellanic Cloud. All three of these galaxies are significantly smaller than the Milky Way, with the Large Magellanic Cloud being roughly one one-hundredth as massive as the Milky Way. More information about this galaxy can be found here on Wikipedia or here at a website for Messier Objects.

   I have mixed feelings about "NGC 205" being part of the Marvel Universe. On the one hand, it makes sense that the war between the Kree and the Skrulls would not be limited to just their home galaxies and the Milky Way, and using an actual galaxy's name adds to the "realism" of Mar-Vell's back-story. On the other hand, the fact that the Skrulls and the Kree both referred to that galaxy by its Earth designation is distracting. Yes, I know that none of the alien characters were actually speaking about "NGC 205" any more than they were speaking English instead of Skrullian or Kree, but it still rattled my suspension of disbelief a bit. Personally, I think it would have read better if both the Skrull and Kree characters had referred to the galaxy by the same alien name (like "the Krovar galaxy") and there was a footnote to explain that that was the galaxy known as "NGC 205" by Earth astronomers.
   Actually, now that writing this comment has caused me to think about it some more, it would have been even better if the Kree and Skrull characters had used their own, different names to refer to NGC 205. After all, it's not like the Kree and the Skrulls would ever cooperate in naming the various stellar phenomena, any more than various human cultures throughout history gave the constellations they saw the same names. With that in mind, the name by which the Milky Way is known to the Kree is undoubtedly NOT the same name by which it is known to the Skrulls, and that would be true for EVERY stellar object, including NGC 205.

Timeline of revelations about the Skrulls and the Kree
1. Fantastic Four I#2 (January, 1962) - First appearance of the alien Skrulls.
2. Fantastic Four I#18 (September, 1963) - First appearance of the Super-Skrull and the revelation that the "home planet" of the Skrulls was located in the Fifth Quadrant of the Andromeda Galaxy.
3. Fantastic Four I#64 (July, 1967) - First appearance of Inter-Galactic Sentry 459 and the first mention of the alien Kree race.
4. Fantastic Four I#65 (August, 1967) - First appearance of the Supreme Intelligence of the Kree and first appearance of a Kree (Ronan the Accuser).
5. Marvel Super-Heroes II#12 (December, 1967) - According to the Omniscient Narrative, the Kree starship that had brought Mar-Vell to Earth had "traversed half the universe...from the far-off galaxy ruled by the mysterious Kree."
6. Captain Marvel I#1 (May, 1968) - Colonel Yon-Rogg contacted "the home planet" that was located in "a certain swirling galaxy" that was "far beyond the ken of the mightiest of man's telescopes."

7. Captain Marvel I#2 (June, 1968) - Revelation that the Skrulls and the Kree were "age-old enemies" who had once fought a "war for control of the satellite galaxy NGC 205!"
8. Captain Marvel I#15 (August, 1969) - Revelation that Captain Mar-Vell's home planet was named "Kree-Lar" and that it was the "capital of the Kree Galaxy" and "the cradle of Kree civilization."
9. Captain Marvel I#16 (September, 1969) - Revelation that the planet Hala, which orbited the giant star Pama a significant distance from Kree-Lar and was where the Supreme Intelligence was located, was the "headquarters planet of the galaxy-spanning Kree" where "uncounted millennia ago, the spark of life kindled in (the Kree) race."
10. Avengers I#96 (February, 1972) - Ronan told a captive Rick Jones that "Earth lies almost midway between the Andromeda Galaxy--and our great cosmos" (i.e., the Kree Empire).
11. Avengers I#133 (March, 1975)/Captain Marvel I#38 (May, 1975) - Via a Synchro-Staff that had been provided by Immortus, three Avengers (Iron Man, Thor and Hawkeye) and Mantis traveled back in time to the planet Hala in the Kree Year Zero to witness the origin of the Kree-Skrull War as the blue-skinned Kree barbarians slaughtered the Cotati plant-beings with whom they had shared their homeworld and the then-peaceful Skrull representatives who had made first contact with them.
12. The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#6 (June, 1983) - The Kree entry revealed that they ruled "a vast empire in the Greater Magellanic Cloud."
13. The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe I#10 (October, 1983) - The Skrulls entry revealed that they "began on the planet Skrullos in the Drox System" of the Andromeda Galaxy.
14. Silver Surfer III#4 (October, 1987) - First in-story reference to the fact that the Kree Empire existed within the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Here's a list of galaxies in the Marvel Universe that have either been visited by humans from Earth or have been specifically referenced as being the home galaxies of certain races or individuals in various stories and/or Official Handbook entries:
1. Milky Way - location of the planet Earth (so it's clearly the MOST IMPORTANT galaxy in the whole universe)
2. Andromeda (M31) - location of the Skrull Empire
3. Triangulum (M33) - believed to be the location of the Shi'ar Imperium - Why has this never been confirmed?
4. Greater (or Large) Magellanic Cloud (LMC) - location of the Kree Empire
5. Fornax Dwarf - location of the homeworld of the Xartans and the planet Sakaar
6. Draco Dwarf - location of the homeworld of the Yrds
7. Some of the Elders of the Universe presumably originated in certain unspecified galaxies that are different from those mentioned above

The galaxies on this second list may not actually have any counterparts in the real world:
1. "Black Galaxy" (bioverse) - alleged place of origin for Ego the Living Planet
2. "Burning Galaxy" - origin galaxy of the Korbinites that was allegedly caused to explode by the elemental demon Surtur
3. "Galaxy-7" - the home of the Vintar, giant beasts who once threatened the Kree home planet until they were destroyed by giant X-Ray cannons
4. "Shi'ar galaxy" - but only if the Shi'ar Empire is not located in the Triangulum galaxy after all
5. Point of origin of the mechanical Therhin race which is "several galaxies" from Earth
6. Uni-Lord's cosmos - said to be on "the other side of the universe" from where the Silver Surfer normally soars through space
7. Walker's lifeless galaxy - the far-off galaxy where all sentient beings worshipped a single (death) god, He-Who-Walks-Across-The-Worlds-Of-Life-And-Death-Like-A-Colossus, until he killed them all in order to give their souls to Mistress Death

Note: According to the second volume of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, the Axi-Tun race originated on the planet Tun in the S'vihn-Hoont star system in the galaxy known as "Ring Nebulae M-57." However, M57 is the Messier designation for the Ring Nebula, a planetary nebula (also known as NGC 6822) that is located within the Milky Way and is NOT itself a galaxy.

Profile by Donald Campbell.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Galaxy NGC 205 has no known connections to:


images: (without ads)
Captain Marvel I#2, page 2 (main image)


Mentioned in:
Captain Marvel I#2 (June, 1968) - Roy Thomas (writer), Gene Colan (artist), Vince Colletta (inker), Stan Lee (editor)
The Untold Legend of Captain Marvel#1 (April, 1997) - Tom Brevoort with Mike Kanterovich (story), Scott Kolins (pencils), John Lowe (inks), Mark Bernardo (editor)


First Posted: 06/17/2022
Last updated: 06/17/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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