Universe
Marvel Universe

Real Name
Michael Pointer

Aliases
The Collective, Guardian

Identity
Secret (known to authorities)

Citizenship
U.S.A.

Place of Birth
North Pole, Alaska

First Appearance
(Unidentified) New Avengers #16 (2006); (identified) New Avengers #17 (2006); (as Collective) New Avengers #19 (2006) (as Guardian) Omega Flight #2 (2007); (as Omega) Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia, 2009)

Origin
New Avengers #18-19 (2006)

The Collective is the unified energy signatures of all the mutants depowered after "M-Day". It is unknown whether or not the Collective was sentient after it united, or whether certain energies were sentient and they ruled over the others, but what is known is that the power hurled towards the Earth as one and landed in a city in Alaska, obliterating the town of North Pole.

The Collective bonded to a mailman named Michael Pointer and set off through Canada towards the United States, seemingly killing the Canadian super-team Alpha Flight when they opposed him. He was confronted by the Avengers, who managed to calm him down. Ms. Marvel, unaware of the developments, interrupted the situation and attacked the Collective. After battling Ms. Marvel, the Collective was driven into space by the Sentry, during which time Spider-Man discovered the Collective's true nature. When Iron Man and the Sentry let the Collective be, he made his way to Genosha.

Once The Collective reached Genosha, he went after Magneto in an attempt to give him back the powers he had lost after House of M. The Collective took control of Magneto's body and a battle ensued between Magneto and the Avengers. At this point it was revealed that The Collective itself had been controlled by Xorn the whole time and Michael Pointer was released froms Xorn's control when The Collective was passed on to Magneto. Pointer was then sent to a maximum security facility.

Recently the United States government had recreated a new Omega Flight team to help with the recent migration of criminals and unlicensed heroes to Canada due to the Superhuman Registration Act. Seeing Michael as an excellent recruit Agent Jeff Brown of C.S.I.S inducted him into the new Omega Flight program as the new Guardian.

After Norman Osborn rose to power following the Skrull invasion and decided to tackle the "mutant problem" head on, he assembled a group of mutants to act as his version of the X-Men. Pointer was tricked onto the team, but once there, Dark Beast created a device to feed Pointer mutant powers to keep his siphoning abilities in check. Pointer started to become like an addict, craving more and more power. Some of the X-Men (Osborn's team) were there under false pretenses, and when the time was right they revolted against Osborn, leaving the group. Pointer was not one of these individuals and stayed.