William Stryker

Reverend William Stryker
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills (1982)
Created by	Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson
In-story information
Alter ego	William Stryker
Team affiliations	Purifiers
Abilities	Robotic arm from Nimrod and has an implant capable of blocking low level telepathy

Col. William "Bill" Stryker, M.D. is a fictional comic book supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe, and enemy of the X-Men.

Rev. Stryker is a Christian fundamentalist televangelist who sees himself on a mission from God to destroy the mutant race.

In the film X2, Stryker is played by Brian Cox as a U.S. Army Colonel with a fervent desire to harvest mutants for weapons to take down potential mutant threats, such as Magneto. Danny Huston portrays Stryker in the superhero prequel movie, X-Men Origins: Wolverine in which he is the villainous leader of the Weapon X project. In 2009, Stryker was named IGN's 70th Greatest Villain of All Time.

Publication history

Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Brent Anderson, he first appeared in the 1982 graphic novel X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills.

Fictional character biography

God Loves, Man Kills

Stryker is a religious fanatic, with a military history which may have involved the Weapon X project (the same project which results in Wolverine being given his adamantium skeleton). Stryker is characterized by his unequivocal hatred of mutants. So strong is this hatred that Stryker goes so far as to kill his own wife and mutant-born son, Jason immediately after his birth in Nevada. Crazed and outraged, Stryker then makes a failed suicide attempt. As time passes, he is convinced that Satan has a plot to destroy humankind by corrupting prenatal souls, the result of this corruption being mutants. Additionally, Stryker eventually comes to see the birth of his mutant son as a sign from God, directing him to his true calling: ensuring the eradication of all mutants.

Driven by this newfound conviction, Stryker then becomes a popular but controversial preacher and televangelist. While his followers, including a secret paramilitary group called the Purifiers, commit hate crimes against mutants, Stryker arranges to have Professor Xavier kidnapped, brainwashed, and attached to a machine that, using his brainpower, will kill all living mutants. In order to stop this scheme, the X-Men are forced to join forces with their nemesis, Magneto. When the extent of his bigotry becomes obvious—he attempts to kill Kitty Pryde in front of a television audience—one of his own security guards shoots and arrests him.

God Loves, Man Kills II

Stryker, who made no appearances until this storyline in X-Treme X-Men, was assumed forgotten. This time, it was revealed that Stryker had been serving a prison sentence as a result of the events of his previous actions. Lady Deathstrike, a character with ties to the X-Men's Wolverine, makes her way onto the airplane where Stryker was being transferred. Once there, she kills his guards and rescues him, then it is revealed that the two are lovers, and he immediately begins a crusade against the X-Men, focusing on Wolverine, Cannonball, the X-Treme X-Men team, and Shadowcat, against whom he apparently keeps a grudge.

Stryker sent a group of his followers against several of the X-Men, and kidnapped Kitty Pryde. Along the way, Kitty convinced Stryker that mutants were not an abomination, and he seemed to turn over a new leaf.

Decimation

However, he came back as a major player right at the start of the Decimation following Marvel's House of M event, deeming the sudden massive reduction in number of the mutant population a sign of God, saying "He made the first step and now we have to take the next", basically rallying for genocide on TV. He was featured mostly in New X-Men as the main villain, but also appeared in other comics set during this time frame. With the help of Icarus, one of the Xavier Institute's students, he caused a bus to explode, killing about 1/4 of the de-powered students from the academy. Then he planned the assassination of Wallflower, ordering one of his snipers to shoot her in the head. Next he tried to kill Dust, though it was actually X-23. The deaths of Wallflower and Dust were Stryker's prime objectives, as he had been informed by Nimrod that both girls would destroy his army. Finally he attacked the institute with his "Purifiers," killing Quill, leaving Onyxx and Cannonball critically wounded, and hurting Bishop, Emma Frost, and other students. After Stryker's Purifiers were defeated, he was killed by the enraged boyfriend of Wallflower, Elixir, who causes catastrophic damage to Stryker's brain via the rapid growth of a tumour.

Bastion resurrected Stryker with a Technarch, to join Bastion's new Purifiers. Bastion revealed that as the founder of the Purifiers, Stryker has the second highest number of mutant kills. He is surpassed only by Bolivar Trask, the founder of the Sentinels.

Bastion charges Stryker to locate Hope and Cable, following their return from the future in the Second Coming event. His Purifiers, in conjunction with Cameron Hodge's Right footsoldiers, engage the X-Men and New Mutants. The Purifiers take out Magik with a weaponized ritual, Illyana is abducted by demons through one her own stepping discs. They also disrupt Nightcrawler's teleportation with a sonic attack, disorientating him. The battle culminates when Wolverine orders Archangel to take out Stryker. Warren shifts to his "Death" persona and slices Stryker in half at the waist with his wings.

Other versions

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel reality, Beast reveals that the leader of the anti-mutant conspiracy within the U.S. government that operated was an Admiral named Stryker, who is also linked to the creation of the Ultimate Marvel Universe's version of the Legacy Virus. Stryker's son Reverend William Stryker, Jr. later appears in Ultimatum as a leader of an anti-mutant coalition armed with Sentinel tech. probably stolen from SHIELD. He has Sentinel-Tech body armor, and resembles Ahab from the mainstream Marvel Universe and various alternate realities. His wife and son (Kate and John) are killed during the events of Ultimatum who leads his hatred against mutants. Stryker's forces ("The Purifers" wearing almost Crusader-esque type outfits) later attack Juggernaut and Rogue. He is later seen with the advanced Sentinel units, NIMROD. When he attacks Times Square, executing mutants in public, the X-Men appear and the Shroud kills him by phasing her arm through his abdomen. However it's revealed that he's also a mutant with the power of Technopathy. His father used medication in order to suppress his abilities, but with his last breath his powers manifest and manipulate a wave of Nimord Sentinels to kill every mutant on the planet. It is revealed that Stryker's last act left his brain-patterns imprinted on the Nimrod Model Sentinels, and have built a base based on Stryker's image, Master Mold who continues to be a threat to the X-Men. William Stryker Sr. recently reappeared in flashbacks under the pressure of God to kill mutants, another trait he passed on to his son.

Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse reality, William Stryker's father was raised by a preacher who cared for him and other children from their town after most were slaughtered by mutants. However, in a horrible stroke of irony his father was later killed by other surviving humans. As such he had to live in hiding, learning to depend on the kindness of both humans and mutants, somewhat ironically making this Stryker a far more tolerant person than his 616 universe coutnerpart. He takes the guise of Prophet and begins to avenge humanity along with X-Terminated. He breaks into the apartment of Krakken, an engineer who built ovens to incinerate humans, and murders him but not his family. Before killing Krakken, Prophet reveals he previously destroyed one of Krakken's eyes and then finished the job by cutting off his head. William studies the Sentinels and mutants hunt of humans in order to refine his skills in taking them down. He says he's learned their weaknesses and despite their powers, his will and skill is more powerful. With ease, Prophet made his way up an attacking Sentinel, cuts into its head and flips away as the robot is destroyed from the damage. He says his talents were obtained by watching the slaughter of thousands and his victories honor them. As Weapon X leads his final attack on the last surviving City of Men, Prophet allows them to escape by throwing an explosive at Weapon X. He then leads his team out of the city. Once clear the city is destroyed by Weapon X.

In other media

Film

Brian Cox as Colonel William Stryker in X2.

• The story prior to his recent reappearing formed the partial basis for the film, X2. Stryker is the main antagonist, and he is played by Scottish actor Brian Cox. His military background from the comics is expanded in the film, Stryker is said to be a military scientist who has gone into defense contracting, but in a reference to his comics' counterpart, several lines of his hint at a belief that he destined to eradicate "mutant threats" and that he has been ordained by God to do so. His connection to Wolverine is made more explicit, as is his motivation regarding his son. Also, rather than having killed his son, Jason (who himself is partially modeled after Mastermind), at birth, Stryker sent him to Xavier's school in hopes of curing him, regarding mutation as a disease that must be cured. Xavier had no interest or belief in 'curing' mutants, which angered Stryker. Additionally, Jason continued to grow angry, resentful, and vindictive towards his parents; he tortured them by planting illusions in their brains until his mother committed suicide by drilling into her own brain in order to "bore the images out". Stryker then gave his son a lobotomy to make him more docile, making him Mutant 143. He attacks the X-Mansion learning the information from brainwashing Magneto. He kidnaps Cyclops and Professor Xavier and brainwashes them both. Jason, under his father's direction brainwashes Xavier- after Xavier learns that Stryker is the mastermind behind an assassination attempt on the President by a brainwashed Nightcrawler- into using a reproduction of Cerebro to kill all mutants, while Cyclops is left to confront the attacking X-Men. Magneto, wearing a helmet designed to shield against telepathic attacks, is able to reach Xavier while the X-Men are incapacitated by the psychic assault, but then has Jason make Xavier use Cerebro II to kill ordinary humans. Which Stryker is shocked that Cerebro II is turned against him. At his direction, Mystique impersonates Stryker and instructs Jason of a change in plans, which Jason then communicates to the brainwashed Xavier. Magneto and Mystique escape, and soon thereafter Storm and Nightcrawler enter Cerebro II and disrupt Jason's illusion, allowing Xavier to break free from his control before any humans or mutants are killed. Stryker attempts to escape, but his attempts are foiled by Wolverine and Magneto, who chains William to a large block of debris. In his last moments, he confronts Wolverine about how he apparently volunteered to have the adamantium put in his skeleton, and asks him whether he would actually side with mutants. Looking at the young mutant he was carrying to safety, a young boy with a lizard-like tongue (Artie Maddicks), Wolverine informs Stryker that he would "take his chances with him" and left him to die. As Wolverine walks away, Stryker bellows after him that "one day someone will finish what I've started. One day!" Given his immobilised status, Stryker presumably dies when the nearby dam bursts. Later, Xavier and the X-Men gave the President the files from Stryker's office containing the evidence of Stryker's crimes.

Danny Huston as Major William Stryker in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

• Stryker returns in the film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, again as the main antagonist, set roughly twenty years before X-Men, portrayed by Danny Huston. This is a younger version of Stryker. Huston liked the complex Stryker, who "both loves and hates mutants because his son was a mutant and drove his wife to suicide. So he understands what they're going through, but despises their [destructive] force." He compared the character to a racehorse breeder, who rears his mutant experiments like children but abandons them when something goes wrong. In the film, Stryker starts off as a Major trying to recruit Victor Creed and James Howlett to join Weapon X. While searching for a mysterious rock, Stryker threatens to kill civilians to garner information, causing James Howlett to leave the team. Through the years Stryker begins working with Creed and using Wade Wilson as Weapon XI. He tells Creed to kill all the other members of the team and to have Logan's girlfriend (Kayla Silver Fox) - an agent of Stryker's keeping an eye on Logan- fake her death. After Logan is left for dead by Victor, Col. Stryker persuades Logan to become Wolverine. The process is successful, and Stryker wants to use Logan's DNA for the XI, but Logan hears this and escapes. After General Munson tries to shut Weapon X down, learning of Stryker's son and believing that he is too emotionally close to the situation, Stryker kills him. Also Stryker kidnaps mutants, including a younger Cyclops in order to pass their abilities into Weapon XI. The others escape with Kayla while Logan and Victor battle Weapon XI. Weapon XI is defeated, but Stryker shoots adamantium bullets in Logan's head, causing amnesia as a result of the damage done to his brain; although the physical injury heal, his memories seem to be permanently gone. Stryker attempts to shoot a dying Kayla, but using her power of persuasion, Kayla forces Stryker to "walk until [his] feet bleed - and keep walking". Stryker unwillingly does so. As he is walking down the road in a scene during the credits, he is picked up by the military police who arrived to bring him in for questioning about his connection with General Munson's murder. In this scene, he is seen to have gained weight and has more rugged features, reminiscent of Brian Cox's performance of the character in X2.

• William Stryker Sr. plays a minor role in X-Men: First Class played by Don Creech. He appears as a CIA agent set in the 1960s discussing the existence of mutants with Charles Xavier. Stryker Sr., like his son, has anti mutant beliefs. Xavier reads his mind and mentions that he was thinking of his son William to prove he was a mutant. His bigotry is also apparent; he manages to work out a deal with the Soviet forces off of Cuba's coast to join U.S naval forces in attacking the X-Men at the film's climax, which disastrously fails due to Magneto's incredible mutant command over electromagnetism.

Video games

• The game-exclusive master villain in X-Men Legends named Gen. William Kincaid (voiced by John DiMaggio) is largely based on the film series incarnation of Stryker and similar human X-Men villains such as Bolivar Trask and Dr. Steven Lang.
• William Stryker is referenced several times in X-Men: The Official Game. It's revealed that his son Jason Stryker survived and is using his father's secret program Master Mold to kill the X-Men. It's also revealed that HYDRA and Kenuichio Harada funded it with him, and gave Harada's apprentice, Yuriko Oyama to him as a "gift".
• Capt./Major Stryker appears in a major role in X-Men Origins: Wolverine voiced by David Florek.

External links

• William Stryker at Marvel.com