The Collector
Real name: Taneleer Tivan
First appearance: Avengers 28
Died in: Avengers 174
Got Better In: Marvel Super-Heroes Contest of Champions 3
What's His Problem? The Collector is an Elder of the Universe, one of a handful of beings who have lived since shortly after the Big Bang and are the last known survivors of their respective races.. The Elders sustain their lives through their monomaniacal obsessions with certain things -- in Tivan's case, collecting. He has been repeatedly frustrated in his attempts to add the Avengers, Earth's greatest super-heroes, to his collection.
Abilities: As an Elder, Tivan has a potentially indefinite life span so long as he sustains the will to live. The Collector, like most Elders, also has the ill-defined ability to manipulate "cosmic energy" for a variety of effects, such as matter restructuring, concussive force and energy constructs. An ability unique to the Collector is his power of prophecy, allowing him to foresee potential disasters. The Collector originally appeared in the form of a frail, elderly humanoid but is capable of assuming a more alien (and more physically powerful) guise which is apparently his true form.
Weapons: The Collector owns a near-infinite variety of earthly and alien weapons, devices and living creatures that comprise an unlimited arsenal at his disposal. Notable items include the Temporal Assimilator, which allows time travel, a cloak of levitation and exotic teleportation technology. He once used the latter device to covertly beam almost all of the past and present Avengers into his specimen tubes over a period of days before the remaining heroes realized what was happening and confronted him.
Favorite Quote: "There is no dishonour in accepting the inevitable! Submit! It would be a shame if I accidentally damaged you beyond repair while subduing you!" (Avengers 174. An exasperated Collector's plea to a defiant Hawkeye after "subduing" all of the other Avengers. Against all odds, Hawkeye cleaned the pompous old cosmic duffer's clock.)
Heroes He Kept Running Into: The Collector has tried to collect the Avengers many times over, always without success (given the humble state of my back issues, I know how he feels).
People Who Think He's Not So Bad: Collector's wife Matani and daughter Carina liked 'im well enough, but Matani lacked her hubby's drive and finally just up and died. As for Carina, Tivan used her as curvaceous bait to entice the potential cosmic conqueror Korvac, a plan that went awry when she fell in love with Korvac and ditched her pop (she did cry when Korvac blasted daddy dearest to dust, though). Collector's only other friends are his fellow Elders, most notably the Grandmaster, who once forfeited his life to resurrect the Collector in a game with Death.
Most Despicable Act: The Collector's finest hour would be the storyline concluding in Avengers 174, where he succeeded in covertly abducting more Avengers than ever before or since. However, his most truly despicable act would be his employment of the alien Brethren race as an unwitting biological weapon with which he intended to devastate the Earth, salvaging the few survivors for his collection (thereby ensuring their uniqueness). The scheme backfired when Avengers member Sersi turned the Brethern against him.
by Sean McQuaid
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