William Stryker

Latest revision as of 05:41, 25 April 2024

William Stryker is a male comic character who features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Origin

Reverand William Stryker in X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills v1 #1.

William Stryker

He was once in Japan where his wife came to serve as a tutor to the Oyama family with Stryker knowing Yuriko Oyama since the day she was born. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #27)

While Sgt. Stryker was stationed on a nuclear testing facility, his wife, Marcy Stryker, had become pregnant. After his tour, Sgt. Stryker and his wife decided to visit her parents, in Phoenix, Arizona, but a car crash left them in the Nevada Desert. Marcy went into labor and Sgt. Stryker was forced to deliver the baby himself. At birth, the child was physically mutated and Sgt. Stryker, believing it was a monster, stabbed the newborn. When his wife woke from unconsciousness and asked if the baby was okay, Sgt. Stryker hugged her and snapped her neck. Horrified at his actions, Sgt. Stryker noticed that the car was leaking gasoline and placed his family back in the car, sat in the driver's seat, and lit a match. The car exploded, but Sgt. Stryker was thrown from the car and spared from death. After the funeral, Sgt. Stryker turned to the bottle and was ultimately honorably discharged, after his drinking caused him to lash out at his trainees. After hitting rock bottom, months after the accident, Stryker was reading a news article, written by Professor Charles Xavier and realized that his child was a mutant. Stryker became convinced that Satan had a plot to corrupt humankind, by taking over their souls while still in the womb, resulting in their mutations. Stryker further concluded that the only reason God would have allowed his son to be a mutant was to direct him to his true calling: ridding the world of mutants. That day, Stryker came to the conclusion that he was saved from the explosion to do God’s work, in destroying all the monsters that Satan created: the mutants. (Marvel Graphic Novel v1 #5)

God Loves, Man Kills

Driven by this new-found conviction, Stryker then became a popular but controversial preacher and televangelist. While his followers, including a secret paramilitary group called the Purifiers, committed hate crimes against mutants, Stryker arranged a spy to gather information about the X-Men from FBI agent, Fred Duncan. After having a televised debate with Professor X, Reverend Stryker ordered his Purifiers to kidnap Xavier, Scott Summers, and Ororo Munroe and fake their deaths. Reverend Stryker and Phillip Ramsey placed the mutants in tanks and had them hooked to machines that tortured Scott and Ororo and transferred their pain to Professor X. Professor X was hooked to a machine that attempted to turn him against mutants, with illusions of the X-Men killing him and Reverend Stryker saving him. After Professor X was brainwashed, he fired mental bolts at Scott and Ororo, seemingly killing them, and Stryker had him taken to Madison Square Garden, where he was attached to a machine that would use his brainpower to kill all living mutants. In order to stop this scheme, the X-Men were forced to join forces with their nemesis, Magneto. Protected by his psi-shielded helmet, Magneto was able to distract the Professor enough for the X-Men to destroy the machine. Cyclops entered into a televised debate with Stryker about his actions and Stryker pulled a gun, attempting to kill Ariel. Before he could fire, Stryker was shot down by a police officer. (Marvel Graphic Novel v1 #5)

Second Coming

Weapons of Mass Destruction

Reverent Stryker later returned and became involved in the resurgent Weapon X program that sought the elimination of Mutants. (Weapon X v3 #4) During this time, he had formed the Church of Human Potential and had written a book called The Mutant Problem & the Holy Solution as a means of getting recruits. (Totally Awesome Hulk v1 #20) As the director of a new incarnation of the Weapon X program, Stryker set its sights on the eradication of mutantkind with the creation of deadly Adamantium cyborgs. These cyborgs were created from regular humans Stryker lured into his cause. (Weapons of Mutant Destruction: Alpha v1 #1) As part of the process to refine their cyborgs, Weapon X targeted several mutants with special abilities of their interest, namely Logan, Sabretooth, Warpath, Domino, and Lady Deathstrike. (X-Men Prime v2 #1) Once Weapon X captured Lady Deathstrike and harvested genetic material for their cyborgs, they sent their robots after the remaining four targets. While they failed to capture Logan and Sabretooth, they acquired tissue samples. (Weapon X v3 #1) Meanwhile, he had his agents managed to capture Warpath who was successfully apprehended. (Weapon X v3 #2) By the time Weapon X's cyborgs attacked Domino, Logan and Sabretooth had joined forced to investigate their attackers, and managed to rescue her. In order to improve the resistance and strength of the cyborgs, Weapon X's scientists convinced Stryker to set his sights on the Hulk. (Weapon X v3 #3) Even though the cyborgs that attacked the Hulk managed to have a blood sample sent to their command center before being defeated and forced to self-destruct, their attack prompted Cho to investigate the situation and join forces with Weapon X's other targets. Data retrieved from a partially preserved cyborg allowed Hulk and his new allies to determine the location of one of the cyborgs' production centers. (Totally Awesome Hulk v1 #19) When said facility was raided by Hulk and the mutants, Stryker had it self-destruct, killing its employees in the process. The mutants and Hulk survived, and even managed to rescue Warpath and Lady Deathstrike from containment. (Weapon X v3 #4) With the Hulk's blood sample still in their possession, Weapon X moved to the creation of mutant-Hulk hybrids. (Weapons of Mutant Destruction: Alpha v1 #1)

He later returned in an enhanced upgraded cyborg body after he sold his soul to the Devil for the power to destroy Mutants. This saw him targeting numerous Mutants and those associated with them where he attempted to get them to kill each other in gladiatorial combat through the psychic influence of Mentallo. This saw Weapon X-Force being similarly captured but them managed to free themselves with Sabretooth gathering the freed prisoners as they attempted to kill Stryker once and for all. (Weapon X v3 #24)

Overview

Personality and attributes

Through his wife, he knew the Oyama family in Japan and had known their daughter Yuriko Oyama since the day she was born. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #27)

Powers and abilities

Whilst in the U.S. Army, he was noted to have had a history involved in clandestine operations. (X-Treme X-Men v1 #27)

Notes

• William Stryker was created by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson where he made his first appearance in X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills v1 (1982).

Alternate Versions

Stryker as Prophet in Age of Apocalypse v1 #14.

• In Age of Apocalypse (2005), an alternate version of William Stryker was shown in the Age of Apocalypse set on Earth-295 in the Multiverse. He was shown to had been raised by a preacher who cared for him and other children after Mutants slaughtered most of their town with his own father killed by other surviving humans. As a result, Stryker grew up to learn to live in hiding and accepted kindness from both humans as well as Mutants. By his adulthood, he took on the identity of Prophet and worked alongside a group of human survivors known as the X-Terminated that sought to avenge mankind. Among his acts was breaking into the apartment of a Mutant named Krakken that built ovens to incinerate humans and though he killed his target he did not harm the person's family. before killing Krakken, Prophet revealled he previously destroyed one of Krakken's eyes and then finished the job by cutting off his head. William studied the Sentinels and mutants hunt of humans in order to refine his skills in taking them down. He claimed that he had learned their weaknesses and despite their powers, his will and skill was more powerful. With ease, Prophet made his way up an attacking Sentinel, cut into its head and flipped away as the robot was destroyed from the damage. He said his talents were obtained by watching the slaughter of thousands and his victories honored them. As Weapon X led his final attack on the last surviving City of Men, Prophet allowed them to escape by throwing an explosive at Weapon X. He then leads his team out of the city. Once clear, the city was destroyed by Weapon X.
• In Ultimate X-Men v1 #98 (2009), a version of the character was shown to reside in the Ultimate Marvel universe set on Earth-1610 where he was known as William Stryker, Jr. He was the son of Admiral William Stryker, Snr. where he married a woman named Kate with the pair having a son named John. William became a reverend who lived with his family in Manhattan when the Ultimatum Wave struck New York. This event saw the death of his family with William being the only survivor. In the aftermath, he attempted to lead a congregation in prayer but was unable to do so as he was still in grief. During this time, he learnt from a group that the Mutant Magneto was responsible for the Ultimatum Wave and they encouraged Stryker's hatred in all Mutants. They later led him to a cache of armaments from destroyed Sentinels which William Stryker used to create an anti-Mutant militia.

In other media

Films

• In X2, William Stryker appeared as an antagonist in the live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Brian Cox. This version is a U.S. Army Colonel with a fervent desire to harvest mutants for weapons to take down potential mutant threats, and is a military scientist who has gone into defense contracting to eradicate mutant threats. His son Jason tortured Stryker and his wife by planting telepathic illusions in their minds until Jason's mother committed suicide by drilling into her own brain after Stryker sent Jason to Professor X's school in the hopes of having his son cured, as Stryker regarded his son's mutation as a disease. Previously, Xavier's position that mutation was not a disease to be cured angered Stryker. Stryker then gave his son a lobotomy to make him more docile, and derived a chemical substance from Jason's brain that can be used to control mutants such as his aide, Yuriko/Lady Deathstrike. After Stryker uses Nightcrawler brainwashed to make an assassination attempt on the President of the United States, the President authorizes Stryker to attack the X-Mansion. He kidnaps some of the school's students, and elsewhere kidnaps Cyclops and Professor X, whom he has Jason brainwash into using a reproduction of Cerebro to kill all mutants, though this plan is foiled when the X-Men and Magneto's mutants attack Stryker's Alkali Lake compound and rescue their kidnapped students. He attempts to have Wolverine killed by unleashing Deathstrike on him. When this fails and Wolverine confronts him, he reveals that Wolverine had actually in fact volunteered for the experiment in which Stryker bonded adamantium to his skeleton. Magneto also turned Stryker's makeshift Cerebro against him and the human race, to which Stryker is horrified. Stryker is left chained up while Magneto, Mystique and Pyro steal his helicopter. He tries to get Wolverine to rejoin him as he can reveal the man's past. After Wolverine chooses to stay with the X-Men, Stryker bellows that one day someone else will finish his work. The dam soon bursts from the resulting battle causing the whole valley to flood which kills Stryker. The X-Men later give the President evidence of Stryker's crimes.
• In X-Men: Days of Future's Past, William Stryker appeared as a minor antagonist in the live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Josh Helman.
• In X-Men: Apocalypse, William Stryker returned in the sequel film as a minor antagonist where he was once again portrayed by actor Josh Helman.

Video games

• In X-Men Legends, a character named General William Kincaid seemingly based on William Stryker appeared in the setting of the video game. He was largely based on the X-Men film series incarnation of William Stryker and similar human villains Bolivar Trask and Steven Lang. Under his campaign Operation Vigilance, General Kincaid planned to use the Graviton metal to crash Asteroid M into New York in order to blame the deaths and destruction on mutants for revenge. He was later arrested after a fight in his Master Mold Armor hidden inside Asteroid M.
• In Marvel Heroes, William Stryker appeared as an antagonist in the MMORPG video game where he was voiced by actor Jim Conner. He paid M.O.D.O.K. to create weapons for the Purifiers to use in their war against the Mutants and gave the Mutant genetic material to Mister Sinister.

Appearances

• X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills v1: (1982)
• X-Treme X-Men v1:
• Age of Apocalypse v1:
• Totally Awesome Hulk v1:
• Weapon X v3:

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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