M'Ndavians

The M'Ndavians are (or were) a semi-humanoid race who originated on the world they called M'Ndavi, the tenth planet from the sun in the B'lbwo star system of the Shi'ar Galaxy.^[1]

At some point in the past, after the M'Ndavians had developed into a peaceful society, they were contacted by the Charter Federation, the largest peacekeeping organization in the Local Group of galaxies, and offered membership. The M'Ndavians accepted and had been part of the Charter ever since.^[2]

M'Ndavians were renowned for their complex legal systems, known as M'Ndavian procedures, which were considered to be the most perfect legal system in existence. M'Ndavian justice is based on the use of psycho-reactive crystals that changed color to reflect the feelings and judgments and innermost beliefs of everyone present at the trials. If all of the Glow Globes turned white at any time, then the verdict was not guilty, but if the Judgment Gems all turned black, then a decision of guilty had been reached.^[3][4]

The Shi'ar Empire employed M'Ndavian justice for matters of great significance to the empire, such as the trial of Mister Fantastic for saving the life of Galactus. A yellow-skinned M'Ndavian who was present at that trial revealed to the Thing that Reed Richards had chosen to be tried by M'Ndavian procedures and explained the role that the Glow Globes would play in the trial.^[3]

A M'Ndavian present among the spectators in the stands on the planet below the finish line of the Galactic Marathon.^[5]

In recent years, a green-skinned M'Ndavian male named Mduul was chosen to be the Peacekeeper-General of the Charter. Mduul was present on the Hub, the massive star station that was the mobile headquarters of the Charter's diplomatic operations, when it came to the Solar System to offer Earth membership in the Charter. When the Earth man Quasar came to the Hub to investigate the "WE COME IN PEACE" message that had been beamed from it to Earth, he was brought to the office of Mr. Mduul who explained to him what the Charter was and why they were there. Seeing that Quasar seemed to be fatigued, Mduul brought him to a room where he could rest and then left. However, while Quasar slept, Axi-Tun agents secretly released a hybrid cosmic plague that swiftly killed all of the star station's three million inhabitants, leaving Quasar as the sole survivor. Mduul's body was the first one that Quasar found after leaving his room. Axi-Tun agents then used a faked audio-visual message from Quasar to frame him for the Charter deaths.^[2]

Later, in the next phase of their ruler's plan to commit genocide against all inferior races, those same Axi-Tun agents created a second false message, this one supposedly from Rigellian investigator Tana Nile, and sent it to the various Charter races, informing them that the Hub was secure and that they could now send detachments to bring their dead back to their home planets. Mduul's body was the first to be removed from the Hub and returned to his home planet. Once the corpse was on M'Ndavi and lying in state in the Temple of Sklarn, its skin ruptured, releasing the hybrid cosmic plague which spread around the planet at incredible speed. Within hours, every M'Ndavian on M'Ndavi had been infected, with all of them dying in agony soon after being infected. To hide their responsibility for the elimination of the M'Ndavian population, Axi-Tun agents planted evidence that attributed the deaths to a germ warfare assault by the Pheragots.^[6]

The Axi-Tun plan to commit similar genocides on the home planets of every other Charter member was thwarted when the Silver Surfer, one of the newly-formed Star Masters, was able to use his Power Cosmic to destroy every trace of the plague within the cells of the dead bodies without harming the host bodies.^[6]

Years later, M'Ndavian justice was used at a meeting of the Galactic Council on the planet Selandiar to determine if the council judged the people of Earth posed a threat to the safety of the civilized universe. On that occasion, all of the judgment gems turned black.^[4]

49 million

Representative democracy

Superior to Earth with faster than light interstellar travel

Mduul

• The fact that the M'Ndavians were said to have been eliminated once the hybrid cosmic plague had killed every M'Ndavian on their home planet suggests that few members of their race lived on planets other than their homeworld. However, their extinction has never been mentioned/confirmed in any subsequent storyline.
• Despite the apparent extinction of this race, M'Ndavian justice continued to be considered the most perfect legal system in existence.

• In Cosmic Powers Unlimited #4, the M'Ndavians were also referred to as the ""M.Ndavi" and in Cosmic Powers Unlimited #5 they were only referenced as the "Mn'davi."
• The name of the Peacekeeper-General was originally spelled "Mduul" in Star Masters #1 but was spelled as "M'Duul" in Cosmic Powers Unlimited #4.