Collector (comics)
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The Collector is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics Universe.
[edit] Fictional character biography
Taneleer Tivan is one of the Elders of the Universe and is close to his fellow Elder En Dwi Gast (the Grandmaster). He is an enormously powerful being who wielded the Power Primordial, though at first he took the appearance of an old human his true form is a powerful alien.
Eons ago, the Collector lived on an unknown world with his wife and child, spending his days in thought and contemplation. He was also blessed, or maybe cursed, with the gift of foresight. One day during his musings, he foresaw the rise of a being who would have enough unimaginable power to pose a threat to the Elders. This being would be named Thanos and would seek universal death. To protect life in the universe, the Collector continued to do what his name implied and created a massive museum of countless life forms to keep them safe from Thanos. Eventually, his obession reached such heights he collected anything he considered rare or valuable often just for the sake of collecting. As such, he has a wide variety of rare or unique items at his disposle. He once possessed one of the six Infinity Gems, unaware of its true power, until Thanos took it.
At some point over his billions of years of life he came into contact with other beings who like him are the sole survivors of the first species in the universe. He often refers to these fellow elders as brothers though they usually only work together if they have a common goal.
[edit] The Korvac Saga
Continuing to look to the future, the Collector saw another terrible force, this time it would be Korvac the Machine Man, a cyborg monstrosity from the year 3000, taking the form of a man named Michael in 20th century New York. The Avengers were also aware of a new threat but did not know who it was. In an attempt to help protect them, the Collector added some of them to his collection and was probably planning to enlist their aid, when a second group of Avengers appeared and defeated him in combat.
Sensing that his end was at hand, the Collector revealed that having learned of Korvac, he had made his own daughter, Carina, into a living weapon to use against the Machine Man, imbuing her with the Power Primordial. Just as he was about to tell the heroes who their enemy was, Michael learned of his duplicity and used his cosmic powers to blast the Collector into atoms, proving the prediction of the aged scholar's own end to be correct.
Some time later, the Elder known as the Grandmaster played a game called the Contest of Champions with Death to resurrect his fellow elder.
The Collector also assisted his fellow elders in a plot to kill Galactus, however he was eaten by him. However because the Elders cannot die they caused Galactus to have "cosmic" indigestion and eventually they were freed.
The Collector has re-appeared again in "The Avengers" when they fought Thane-Ector and the brethren, who were noted to have escaped from the Collector's collection. It was then noted later that The Collector had planned all of this, it was at this point he had shown his true form and was noted to be very powerful. Enough to subdue Thane-ector, however he was eventually thwarted by The Avengers.
[edit] Other version
The Collector appears in The Avengers: United They Stand #6-7. He chooses to preserve a good population of Earth as he feels it's on the verge of ending. Although The Avengers escape, some citizens on Earth prefer to stay with The Collector.
