Purifiers

Gallery

Official Team Name

Purifiers

Team Aliases

Others among Purity

Status

Defunct

Identity

Secret

Alignment

Bad

Universe

Earth-616

Base of Operations

Washington, D.C. (main headquarters), numerous others scattered across the United States

Affiliations

Team Leader(s)

None; formerly William Stryker and Matthew Risman, Bastion

Former Members
Jack Abrams, Anne, Bastion, Reverend Craig, Graydon Creed, Eli Bard, Gabriel, Cameron Hodge, Stephen Lang, Leper Queen, Magus, Sister Mary, Brother Paul McGuinness, Joaquin "Jake" Murrieta, Nimrod, Donald Pierce, Matthew Risman, Rocco, Benedict Ryan, Jonathan Standish, Reverent William Stryker, Bolivar Trask, Taylor

Allies

Choir, The Facility, Human Council, Lady Deathstrike, Reavers

Enemies

New X-Men, Marauders, S.H.I.E.L.D., X-Men, X-Force, the mutants in general

Origin

Origin

The Purifiers are a group of mutant "hunters" formed by William Stryker

Creators

Craig Kyle, Chris Yost, Mark Brooks

First appearance

Marvel Graphic Novel #5
(December, 1982)

History

After Stryker killed his family, he started a mission to rid the world of all mutants. Stryker knew he could not do this task on his own, so he traveled around and recruited many mutant hating people to join his mission. Stryker was later stopped and sent to prison, but his followers, now called the Purifiers, kept on going.

William Stryker later came back as a major player right at the start of M-Day, following the 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. With the help of Icarus, one of the Xavier Institute's students, he caused a bus to explode, killing about 1/4th of the depowered students from the academy. Then he planned the assassination of Wallflower, ordering one of his Purifier snipers to shoot her in the head. Next he tried to kill Dust. X-23 became suspicious and went under cover as Dust, getting shot herself. The deaths of Wallflower and Dust were the Stryker's prime objectives, as he had been informed by Nimrod that both girls would be fundamental in the destruction of the Purifiers. 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.

The Purifiers would later manage to acquire Stryker's remains from the authorities.

Messiah Complex

The Purifiers attempted the kill the first mutant baby born after M-Day. They attacked the Marauders in Cooperstown, Alaska, killing Blockbuster and Prism, but failing to kill the baby. After being infiltrated by Rictor, the group was attacked by the New X-Men, who were seeking to prove their worth to the X-Men. With the assistance of the Reavers, the New X-Men were nearly massacred, barely escaping.

Following those events, they managed to find and resurrect Bastion, who then harvested the remains of Magus and injected his remains into several living and dead known mutant killers (Donald Pierce, Leper Queen, William Stryker, Stephen Lang, Cameron Hodge, Graydon Creed, and Bolivar Trask), turning them all into Technarch/human hybrids and "resurrecting" the dead members, much to Matthew Risman's objections. These people were then made into an inner circle of leadership for the Purifiers.

Meanwhile, the Purifiers used a brainwashed Wolfsbane to attack Warren Worthington and obtain his wings, which, even though they appeared to be fully organic, were still composed of Apocalypse's techno-organic strain. Using the sample, the Purifiers employed a scientist named Adam Harkins to duplicate the strain and use it to create an elite team of Purifiers called "the Choir". After learning that Bastion was planning to remove Risman from the group's leadership, Risman led the Choir against Bastion's Purifiers in an attempt to destroy Bastion and the reanimated remains of Stryker, considering them unholy. Archangel later attacked the Purifiers in an attempt to reclaim the wings that were stolen from him, killing every member of the Choir. During that point, Matthew Risman was shot in the head by X-23 around the point where Matthew tried to kill Bastion.

Paraphernalia

Equipment: Vibranium Based weapons, Legacy Virus
Transportation: Gunship, Tanks
Weapons: Artillery, Vibranium based arms and ammunition

Notes

• No special notes.
  

Trivia

• No trivia.

See Also

• 3 Purifiers (Earth-616) Members
  
• 43 Appearances of Purifiers (Earth-616)
• 19 Images that include Purifiers (Earth-616)
• Team Gallery: Purifiers (Earth-616)
• Fan-Art Gallery: Purifiers (Earth-616)

Links and References

• None.
  

Footnotes