A unique Marvel Comics character, the Collective Man was one of the first costumed heroes hailing from the People's Republic of China and probably the last, seeing how Marvel has always perceived China to be an enemy, most notably during the rise of Communism.
First appearing in the pages of the Contest of Champions, the small-sized Ho Tao-Yu was partnered with Ireland's Shamrock and the X-Men's leader Storm in a "treasure hunt" a la The Amazing Race against the team of Captain America, then-West Germany's Blitzkrieg and Alpha Flight's Sasquatch.
First, he revealed himself to be able to split into 5 identical beings, much to the amazement of his teammates, which made searching for the prize more effective. Soon, one of the copies encountered the gigantic Sasquatch and was no match for the Canadian monster.
He then recalled the other 4 duplicates into himself, hoping that the strength of 5 men would be sufficient to take down the beast. It wasn't, and as a last resort, Collective Man used his unique power to summon the strength of ten thousand of his countrymen and with his newfound super-strength defeated Sasquatch with a single blow. However, ths strain of utilising the power forces the Chinese hero into unconciousness.
Collective Man went on to make a cameo appearance in the pages of The Incredible Hulk, and was last seen in the 55th issue of Marvel Comics Presents.
Of particular irony is Sasquatch's initial reaction upon seeing the smaller Chinese superhero. His exact thought was, "It appears to be Red China's answer to Bruce Lee!" Bruce Lee is, of course, the famous native of Hong Kong (then a British colony) who went to the US and became a martial arts cult icon.
It is also interesting to note that a villian took on the moniker of the Collective Man and confronted the mutant heroes known as X-Force in X-Force Annual #3. It is a given that due to the obvious physical differences with Ho Tao-Yu, this is not the same Collective Man that participated in the Contest of Champions. To this day, there has been no explanation why there are two versions of this costumed vigilante.