Collective Man
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The Collective Man (Sun, Chang, Ho, Lin, and Han Toa-Yu) is a fictional character, a Chinese superhero in the Marvel Comics universe. The Collective Man is actually an identity shared by the Tao-Yu brothers, a set of quintuplets. They possess the mutant power to merge into one body, which variously possesses the collective strength of all five men or of all of the people of China. The brothers also share a psychic and spiritual link that allows them to teleport to one another. The Collective Man first appeared in Contest of Champions #1.
[edit] Fictional character biography
The Collective Man was first seen in the Grandmaster's contest, in which various international superheroes fought one another the proxies of either the Grandmaster or his unknown opponent (actually Death). The Collective Man was teamed with Storm and Shamrock (all unknowingly proxies of Death in the conflict) in battle against the Grandmaster's proxies Captain America, Sasquatch and Blitzkrieg; their battle was ended when Shamrock claimed the prize.
Some time after the contest, the Collective Man fought the Hulk. At some point, the brothers' power decreased so that they only possessed the strength of five men as the Collective Man. Later, when their superiors in the Chinese military prevented them from visiting their dying mother, Mary, the brothers rebelled and fought the god Ho-Ti, who was apparently working with the government. The Tao-Yu brother Ho died in the battle, but remained a part of the Collective Man, and Ho-Ti willingly departed. After the brothers discovered how China had mistreated their other mutant citizens, the Collective Man was later seen as a member of the Chinese revolutionary group 3-Peace alongside the Jade Dragon and Nuwa. They teamed with X-Force to fight the Mutant Liberation Front and the nationalistic China Force.
Later, the Collective Man, now restored to full power, was mystically altered by the fallen god Marduk, who sought to use the Tao-Yu brothers' power to steal the life energy of every person in China in order to reclaim his divinity. The process of absorbing this life energy transformed the Collective Man into a dim-witted, raging, grotesque giant. Citizen V (John Watkins III) and his V-Battalion fought the Collective Man, with the Battalion agent Goldfire accidentally dying in the battle. Citizen V punctured the giant's skin, causing him to explode and apparently die. He survived, possibly thanks to the V Battalion's defeat of Marduk, and the brothers returned to their normal form, now gaining the ability to increase size when merged and to generate additional duplicate bodies. The Collective Man later fought the X-Men on behalf of the Chinese government when the mutant heroes attempted to free Shen Xorn from Chinese custody. X-Men: The 198 Files revealed that the brothers retained their power after M-Day, and classified them collectively as a high-level threat. They have since been spotted on the Xavier institute as part of the 198, where they were fighting Bishop and agents of O*N*E during the escape in Civil War: X-Men #1.
