William Stryker

Origin

William Stryker was a soldier in the U.S. military with a connection to the Weapon X program and the Adamantium process that created Wolverine, among others. Some time after his retirement from the military, Stryker had what some may call an epiphany regarding his role and purpose in the world. When his son was born different Stryker knew immediately that his child was a mutant. Distraught, he killed his son, his wife, and attempted to take his own life as well. His suicide attempt failed and he concluded that God must have prevented him from taking his own life so that he could serve God on Earth. Stryker's belief was that God allowed his son to be born a mutant so that he would be guided towards his true calling, to lead the war against all mutants. His hatred of mutants being based on a belief that they represented the Devil's corrupting influence on the world, and in order to save the world, mutants must die.

Creation

William Styker first appeared in Marvel Graphic Novel #5 "God Loves Man Kills" by Chris Claremont and Brent Eric Anderson.

Mayor Story Arcs

God Loves, Man Kills

William Stryker became a preacher and Christian televangelist in order to spread his hatred of mutants. He also founded a secret paramilitary group called the Purifiers which carried out violent acts against the mutant population. at one point, the Purifiers managed to capture Professor X and kill several mutant children. After nearly killing Kitty Pryde, Stryker was shot and subdued by the authorities. He was imprisoned and his followers disbanded.

Purifiers

After being released from prison Stryker discovered the whereabouts of Nimrod, a Sentinel from the alternate future time-line chronicled in Days of Future Past. Stryker used the Sentinel's memory system to learn of the affects of M-Day months before it even happened. With this knowledge of the future, Stryker began to rescue human beings from events that history had recorded as having caused their deaths. One of these individuals was the elite sniper, Matthew Risman. With this new base of support, Stryker re-started the Purifiers and continued his assault on mutants and their kind.

The Purifiers believe that God did his part on M-Day by wiping out most of the mutant population, and that it is their job to finish his work by any means necessary. In pursuit of that ultimate goal the Purifiers massacred many mutants, including Wallflower and Icarus of the New X-Men. In revenge, Elixir managed to kill William Stryker. In the wake of his death, Matthew Risman has taken over leadership of the Purifiers who regard Stryker as not just as man who started a movement, but a martyr in a holy war.

He is one of the Humans that Bastion revived with the Techno-organic virus. Risman saw this as an obination. After Rismans death, Stryker has most likely taken over the Purifiers.

Second Coming

Stryker is working with Bastion and fellow Anti-Mutant leaders, Graydon Creed, Bolivar Trask, and Steven Lang. He has re-assumed control of The Purifiers (now forged with the Sapien League). When Bastion locates Hope and Cable, he dispatches the Reverend and his Purifiers to eliminate them. They are intercepted by a group of X-Men. With the help of a "weaponized ritual" weapon, he is able to take Illyana Rasputin out of the fight, her whereabouts unknown. He also temporarily neutralizes Nightcrawlers' teleportation. With the X-Men unable to teleport at will, they are surrounded by the Purifiers. Sensing the battle has shifted and no longer in their favor, Wolverine instructs Angel to transform into his Archangel persona. He is able to quickly dispatch of the Purifiers, and kill William Stryker by slicing him in half.

Alternate Universes

Earth-295 (Age of Apocalypse)

William Stryker's father was a preacher and William believed he would follow in his footsteps. The arrival of Apocalypse halted all of that when their hometown was destroyed and William's family were forced to become refugees. Ironically, William's parents and two sisters were killed by human scavengers.

Growing up a wanderer; never trusting but always observing, William came to know exactly what to expect of someone before approaching them. Having seen cruelty and hopelessness on both sides, he also saw acts of kindness and heroism on both sides. Putting his faith in the universal goodness of man, William began to realize that the way against Apocalypse could be won.

William became the human freedom fighter known as Prophet (also known in certain circles as Blood Prophet or Red Prophet). Prophet began targeting and murdering allies of Apocalypse such as Krakken, an engineer who built ovens to incinerate humans. He became a rumor and myth among humans and mutants alike. Sometime later he formed a group of like-minded resistance members called the X-Terminated.

Later, following Weapon X becoming the heir to Apocalypse, Prophet and the X-Terminated continue their fight against his similarly tyrannical rule over humanity. After "Weapon Omega" murders most of the remaining members of Magneto's X-Men, Prophet welcomes a depowered Jean Grey and Sabretooth into the Human Resistance, although Sabretooth is forced to face penance for his past crimes as a servant to Apocalypse.

Prophet led the X-Terminated into Hell's Kitchen to save the reporter Harper Simmons from Omega's Hounds for revolutionary crimes. Prophet fought against the leader of the Hounds, Keeper Murdock, as the rest of the team ushered Simmons to safety.

Shortly afterwards, the X-Terminated investigated one of Henry McCoy's abandoned labs where they encountered a resurrected Prelate Summers, formerly one of Apocalypse's most trust lieutenants - now working for Omega. In the fight, Summers and his team of followers captured the X-Terminated's Deadeye while Fiend managed to hide within a computer mainframe being moved to McCoy's new lab. After Goodnight and Horror Show freed Deadeye from Omega's forces, Prophet and the team discovered from Fiend that McCoy and Sugar Man were preparing to bring some of the most powerful mutants who ever lived back from the dead to serve Omega. Prophet led them on an assault on McCoy's lab to halt his plans to revive the dead mutants. As the team destroyed the lab and captured Sugar Man, Prophet stayed behind to ensure that the dead mutants bodies were obliterated but secretly revived the mutant known as M.

Prophet also had Jean Grey train alongside Henry Gyrich so that she could join the X-Terminated. Whether it was because she'd once being the most powerful mutant mind in the world or because she'd been the wife of Weapon Omega, Prophet nevertheless had big plans for her. Prophet and Jean subsequently attempted to recruit Quentin Quire and his Overmind to their cause which failed as Quire was mentally unstable and Jean was too concerned with trying to "save him".

Later, the revived M surfaced, now calling herself Penance, and began gathering her own political following. Prophet, gambling that if Penance rose to power she would be the lesser of two evils, forged an uneasy alliance with Penance. After offering their captive Sugar Man to Penance as a sign of good faith, Prophet convinced eventually managed to convince Penance to agree to designate a safe haven for humans when she ascends to power.

The X-Terminated next went in search of the lost journals of Reed Richards' which took them to the home of Doctor Doom in Latveria. Prophet and Deadeye discovered that Doom possessed a machine capable of capturing the Death Seed (the source of Omega's power) and redirecting it to a new host. The catch was that Doom intended to redirect the power to himself. Through a series of manipulations and double crosses, Prophet had Deadeye fake allegiance to Doom as a means to get close to the dictator and kill him so that the X-Terminated could gain access to his technology anyway.

Earth-1610 (Ultimate Universe)

William Stryker first appeared in Ultimate X-Men #98. A preacher and father, he was raising his family in New York City at the time the Ultimatum Wave hit. His family was killed and William was stricken with grief. He began preaching to those in similar situations when men who had served with his father, Admiral Stryker approached him to join their cause in taking revenge to the mutants. Armed with discarded Sentinel tech, they lead an assault on Xavier's School. William shoots and kills Syndicate on the front lawn.

They continue their attack, knocking out Firestar and Toad when Rogue, Juggernaut, Sabretooth and John Wraith arrive to take on Stryker and his men. Stryker is able to gain the upper hand against Wraith and his men kill the Juggernaut. Rogue is able to get a hand on him, draining his energy but also seeing the fate of his family.

William Stryker returns in Ultimate Comics X-men #2 leading the Purifiers in rounding up remaining mutants. He interrogates a woman names Elise Cartwright who harbored mutants after Magneto's attack. After she does not repent to Stryker for this he kills her. Stryker orders his Purifiers to take out all the cops in New York City. The Purifiers unload shipping containers full of mutants as Stryker begins healing them of their powers and killing them if they do not repent their sins. Jimmy Hudson, Iceman, Human Torch and Rogue show up to stop him when Stryker reveals he had Rogue working as a double agent to bring them all to him. Rogue admits it's true when Kitty arrives to stop Stryker. Kitty phases through Stryker's suit, killing him, however it is revealed that he too was a mutant who is able to control technology and machinery. Stryker transfers himself into a wave of oncoming Nimrod Sentinels sent by the government. The Sentinels lose control and begin killing mutants and any human mutant-sympathizers. As the Nimrods ravage across America they begin to construct a Master Mold somewhere in the Arizona desert.

In Other Media

X-Men Two

A slightly different Stryker appears here. He is the one that is credited with giving Wolverine his adamantium skeleton. He also has a son named Jason. In the movie he is trying to eradicate the world of mutants using Xavier.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

A younger version of Stryker is present here. He is using mutants as weapons and trying to create a perfect mutant weapon.