The Collector (Taneleer Tivan) is a fictional comic book character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Debuting in the Silver Age of Comic Books, the character has been featured in nearly five decades of Marvel continuity.

The Collector appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, portrayed by Benicio del Toro, in a cameo in the mid-credits scene of the 2013's Thor: The Dark World, and Del Toro reprises the role in 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy.

Biography

Taneleer Tivan is one of the Elders of the Universe and is close to his fellow Elder En Dwi Gast (the Grandmaster). He apparently came to self-awareness billions of years ago, on the planet Cygnus X-1. He is an enormously powerful being who wielded the Power Primordial and, though at first he took the appearance of an old human, his true form is a powerful alien.

For millions of years, the Collector lived on an unknown world with his wife and child, spending his days in thought and contemplation. Over three billion years ago, when his wife, Matani Tivan, lost the will to live and relinquished her immortality, the Collector realized he would need a hobby to maintain his own sanity, and began collecting interesting artifacts and life forms from around the universe. Eventually, his obsession 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 disposal.

The Collector also had the power of prophecy, allowing him to foresee the rise of a being powerful enough to pose a threat to the Elders: Thanos. To protect life in the universe, the Collector created a massive museum of countless life forms to keep them safe from Thanos. For a time, he even 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.

In the modern era, the Collector eventually traveled to Earth. He captured the Wasp and sought to "collect" the other Avengers with help from the Beetle, but was defeated by them. He later enslaved Thor, then captured the Wasp and the other Avengers. He restored Goliath's size-change powers, but was then defeated by the Avengers again. He next compelled Iron Man to serve as his pawn against the warrior Val-Larr. He attempted to "collect" the Avengers once more, in Rutland, Vermont.

In The Incredible Hulk issues #197 ("...And Man-Thing makes three!") and #198 ("The Shangri-La syndrome!"), the Collector uses the previously captured Man-Thing and the Glob to capture the Hulk. After capturing the Hulk, the Collector muses on capturing the rest of the original Avengers. The Hulk escapes freeing several of the Collectors exhibits. The newly free exhibits die from old age because they are no longer artificially preserved by the power of the Collector's ship. Man-Thing also escapes disappearing into the Swamp. The Glob remains aboard the ship and though it is not shown, it is suggested that the Glob kills the Collector. The lines from the comic book are "What the Glob wants here is quite simple: He wants the Collectors life! The Collector's anguished scream fades long before it can filter thru the museum-ships long corridors. For several seconds silence reigns both within the ship and without--"


The Korvac Saga
After Thanos was defeated by Earth's superheroes, the Collector foresaw a second major threat; Korvac the Machine Man, a cyborg monstrosity from the 31st century of a divergent timeline, 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 his identity. In an attempt to 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. After the defeat, the Collector remained in seclusion until a human named Peter Tran of Avondale summoned him to Earth.

Sensing that his end was at hand, the Collector revealed that having learned of Korvac, he had made his own daughter, Carina, into a spy and 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.


Subsequent activities
In the 1982 miniseries Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions, the Elder known as the Grandmaster plays a game called the Contest of Champions with Death, which resulted in Death resurrecting his fellow Elder the Collector. The Collector captured Marrina, then battled Alpha Flight and Spider-Man. He aided the Grandmaster by tricking the Avengers into entering Death's realm.

The Collector also assisted his fellow elders in a plot to kill Galactus and recreate the universe, but he was thwarted by the Silver Surfer and consumed by Galactus. Since Death had vowed that the Elders could no longer die, they caused Galactus to have "cosmic indigestion" until they were forced out of him by Master Order and Lord Chaos. The Collector was one of the four Elders who aided the Silver Surfer and Nova in helping Galactus to defeat the In-Betweener. Once the battle was over the five Elders used their Infinity Gems to instantaneously travel very far away from Galactus and his vengeance. He later gave his Infinity Gem to Thanos in exchange for the Runner, who Thanos was holding captive. The Runner beat the Collector up upon his release.

The Collector re-appeared when the Avengers 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, intending the Brethren to lay waste to the Earth so that he could "collect" the surviving humans. It was at this point he showed his true form to the Avengers and was noted to be very powerful; enough to subdue Thane Ector. The Collector was eventually thwarted by the Avengers, and the Brethren's Uni-Mind.

The Collector next used the Collection Agency and the Silver Surfer as pawns to capture a virus that caused insanity.

The Collector has become involved with Galactus once again when the latter entity wished to devour one of the worlds that held many of the entities the Collector had taken. Among them were the Starjammers and Wolverine.

The Collector later makes a bet with the Grandmaster who sets his team of Defenders (Hulk, Doctor Strange, Namor, and the Silver Surfer) against the Collector's team of Offenders (which comprises the Red Hulk, Baron Mordo, Tiger Shark, and Terrax). The game results in Hulk claiming victory and the Collector complies with the terms of the game, giving the Hulk the lifeless body of Jarella.

Best films