William Stryker was a sergeant in the army and may have been involved the Weapon X Program, which resulted in Logan being given his Adamantium skeleton. 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 ultimately got removed from the military, with an honorable discharge, after his drinking caused him to lash out on his trainees.

After hitting rock bottom, months after the accident, Stryker was reading a news article, written by Professor Charles Xavier and, in it, realized that his child was a mutant. Styker 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 realization that he was saved from the explosion to do God’s work, in destroying all the monsters that Satan created: Mutants.

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 F.B.I. agent, Fred Duncan. After having a televised debate, with Professor X, Reverend Stryker ordered his Purifiers to kidnap him, 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 Gardens, where he was attached to a machine that, using his brainpower, would kill all living mutants. In order to stop this scheme, the X-Men were forced to join forces with their nemesis, Magneto, and Magneto, with his psi-shielded helmet, was able to distract the Professor enough for the X-Men to destroy the machine. Televised, Cyclops entered into a debate with Stryker about his actions and Stryker pulled a gun, attempting to kill Ariel. Before he could fire, Styker was shot-down, by a police officer.

God Loves, Man Kills II

Stryker had been serving a prison sentence as a result of the events of his previous actions. Lady Deathstrike, Stryker's lover and a villain with ties to the X-Men's Wolverine, made her way onto the airplane where Stryker was being transferred. Once there, she killed his guards and rescued him, and he immediately began a crusade against the X-Men, focusing on Wolverine, Cannonball, the X-treme X-Men team, and Shadowcat, who he apparently had a grudge against.

Stryker sent a group of 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

He returned following M-Day, 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 snipers to shoot her in the head. Next he tried to kill Dust, though X-23 foiled the attempt by dressing in Sooraya's cloths and taking the bullet herself. The deaths of Wallflower and Dust were Stryker's prime objectives, as he had been informed by Nimrod that both girls would be fundamental in the destruction of 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 Elixir.

Stryker was later resurrected by the Purifiers using Technarch technology and controlled by Bastion. He was sliced in half and killed by Archangel when he and his team of Purifiers attacked Hope Summers.

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Powers

Power Grid ^[1]

Abilities

Skilled soldier and military unit leader

Strength level

Average

ParaphernaliaEdit

Equipment

Implant capable of blocking Telepathy.

Weapons

Cybernetic right forearm, taken from a Nimrod Sentinel.

TriviaEdit

X2: X-Men United: Col. William Stryker, played by Brian Cox, was the head of the Government agency that coated Wolverine's skeleton in adamantium at a facility in Alkali Lake and is loosely based on William Stryker.
It was revealed in X-Force Vol 3 #3, that Stryker's "mutants killed" count is 414 (including Wallflower and Icarus).

LinksEdit

Discover and Discuss

Search this site for: Reverend William Stryker · William Stryker · William Stryker (Earth-616)
Search the Forums for: Reverend William Stryker · William Stryker · William Stryker (Earth-616)
Discuss this and other characters on the forums

Footnotes

↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z hardcover Vol. 11

Retrieved from "http://marvel.wikia.com/William_Stryker_(Earth-616)"

Wikia

William Stryker (Earth-616)

Contents

HistoryEdit

Origin