The monster is mighty, indeed! Yet he is but one against five - who are backed by the power of a nation! 
- —Collective Man[src]
History
Identical quintuplets from a Chinese farming family, the brothers Tao-Yu were taken into government custody for study after their mutant nature manifested. In order to guaranty their loyalty only to the government, they were told what their mother had abandoned them and had not wanted to see them ever again. The brothers were trained to control their power for twenty years and eventually became government agents as the Collective Man.[1]
The brothers were among the heroes of Earth gathered to partake in a "Contest of Champions" between the Grandmaster and Death herself.[2] As an unwitting agent of Death, the Collective Man exhausted himself defeating Sasquatch.[6]
The brothers later learned that their mother was dying as well as the truth what she never abandoned them; they were forcefully taken away by the government while Mary always wanted to see them again. Determined to visit her, they took a helicopter, forcing the government to send Ho-Ti, the Chinese God of Happiness, to reclaim them. The brothers opposed Ho-Ti, who relented after sensing the happiness that the brothers' mother felt on seeing her sons for the first time in twenty years before she died.[1]
The brothers subsequently returned to government service; however, their growing disdain over the government's mistreatment of other mutants led them to join the Jade Dragon and Nuwa in forming 3Peace. Allying themselves with Reignfire's Mutant Liberation Front to free captive Chinese mutants, 3Peace were ultimately betrayed by Reignfire to the government-sponsored China Force team, but they were able to escape.[5]
The brothers were then unwittingly drawn into a plot by the fallen god Marduk, who boosted their power to enable them to permanently absorb their countrymen’s collective life force and transfer it into the Genesis Well, thus allowing Marduk to re-empower himself. Opposed by Citizen V and the V-Battalion, the brothers combined and grew to giant size, liquefying V-Battalion council member Goldfire with a simple turn of their head. The brothers were seemingly killed when Citizen V used his Adamantium-coated sword to burst their engorged form, after which the V-Battalion gathered their remains in order to reverse-engineer their powers, allowing them to put the entire population of Rumekistan into a slumber so as to oppose Marduk's plan.[7]
As a byproduct of their enhanced power, the brothers were eventually able to reform and returned to serving the Chinese government. When the X-Men traveled to China to investigate the mutant Shen Xorn, they were confronted by the brothers, who used their increased power to create a veritable army of Collective Men to oppose them.[8]
M-Day & After[]
After M-Day mutants all over the world lost their powers. Collective Man however was one of the few mutants who retained them and was seen on the Xavier Compound with other mutants, forming the 198.[4][9]
He was later leading the People's Defense Force, fighting The Unspoken alongside Ban Luck, who was a member of G.R.A.M.P.A; the Mighty Avengers; the Young Avengers; the New Avengers; and the Avengers Resistance.[3]
He was later seen in San Francisco, taking over the criminal lead of the Chinese community during Wolverine's absence (sick of the mutant flu HX-N1). He beat up Lobe's "New X-Men", but was finally defeated by the Utopian X-Men and left in custody of the authorities.[10]Attributes
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Powers
Tao-Yu brothers are five identical mutants with following powers:
- Hive Mind: Their minds are connected and they can mentally speak with each other across the distance. Because of it they are often speak like one person, finishing each other's sentences.[1][5]
- Self-Teleportation: Each of them can teleport himself to position of any of his brothers.[1]
- Lifeform Fusion: Tao-Yu brothers can mentally alter the synchronization of their bodies' atoms, enabling them to merge into a single being that look exactly as any of them.[11] They can merge and separate instantly. Normally all five of them are merging together, as it is their strongest form, but any number of brothers can merge with each other and any of them can individually separate from the merged form at any moment.[1]
- Superhuman Attributes: Individually each of them possess normal intelligence, strength, speed, etc., of a well-trained man. Their combined form gets combined characteristics of the merged brothers:[11]
- Nation Empowerment: When all five brothers are merged they become connected to all people in China and can draw power from any number of these people to further increase their physical characteristics.[6][13][14] Power of 10000 people grants them enough physical strength to battle with Sasquatch.[6]
- Life-Force Absorption and Biological Transformation: This ability was later modified by Marduk and they were now able to drain life from entire Chinese population. However, they had no control over this power and could not stop it.[7] After they almost died from absorbing life force of so many people, this ability evolved again and the brothers are now able to physically transform other Chinese people into identical copies of themselves and merge with them. They were shown to be able to transform at least several dozens of people.[8]
- Size Increase: Unlike their normal merging, when they merge with additional people their collective form greatly grows in size and mass. When they were absorbing life force, their body transformed into monstrous mass of flesh.[7] With evolved version of this power their body was now more cohesive and they retained full control over it.[8]
- Life-Force Absorption and Biological Transformation: This ability was later modified by Marduk and they were now able to drain life from entire Chinese population. However, they had no control over this power and could not stop it.[7] After they almost died from absorbing life force of so many people, this ability evolved again and the brothers are now able to physically transform other Chinese people into identical copies of themselves and merge with them. They were shown to be able to transform at least several dozens of people.[8]
Abilities
See Also
- 28 appearance(s) of Han, Chang, Lin, Sun, and Ho Tao-Yu (Earth-616)
- 4 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Han, Chang, Lin, Sun, and Ho Tao-Yu (Earth-616)
- 1 minor appearance(s) of Han, Chang, Lin, Sun, and Ho Tao-Yu (Earth-616)
- 2 mention(s) of Han, Chang, Lin, Sun, and Ho Tao-Yu (Earth-616)
- 2 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Han, Chang, Lin, Sun, and Ho Tao-Yu (Earth-616)
- 12 image(s) of Han, Chang, Lin, Sun, and Ho Tao-Yu (Earth-616)
- 3 quotation(s) by or about Han, Chang, Lin, Sun, and Ho Tao-Yu (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Marvel Comics Presents #55
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions #1
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Mighty Avengers #27–31
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 X-Men (Vol. 2) #183
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 X-Force Annual #3
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions #3
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Citizen V and the V-Battalion: The Everlasting #2
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 X-Men (Vol. 2) #159–160
- ↑ Civil War: X-Men #1
- ↑ Uncanny X-Men #529–532
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #2
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 X-Men: The 198 Files #1
- ↑ Mighty Avengers #28
- ↑ All-New Inhumans #5
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #2
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 2