William Stryker
William Stryker is a male comic character who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
William Stryker
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)
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
Powers and abilities
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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
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