# X-Men 2 -- Stryker and His Son (possible spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 16, 2003, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-men-2-stryker-and-his-son-possible-spoilers/182245 "2003-06-16T16:57:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr.Sexchange](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@Dr.Sexchange](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Sexchange)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-men-2-stryker-and-his-son-possible-spoilers/182245/1 "2003-06-16T16:57:39Z")
How much of it is based in the comics? I stopped buying them about 7 years ago or more and I never had what one would call a complete collection, but I don’t recall a William Stryker, or his Illusionist son Jason. Did they exist before the movie? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-men-2-stryker-and-his-son-possible-spoilers/182245/2 "2003-06-16T19:17:09Z")
X-Men 2 is loosely based on the comic book “God Loves, Man Kills”, where a televangelist, Rev. Stryker, who’s violently anti-mutant, kidnaps Cyclops, Storm, and Professor X, and forces Professor X to identify and kill mutants using a version of Cerebro. The other X-Men have to team up with Magneto to find them and stop Stryker’s group. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-men-2-stryker-and-his-son-possible-spoilers/182245/3 "2003-06-16T19:27:18Z")
William Stryker was originally from the X-Men graphic novel, _God Loves, Man Kills._ [spoiler]In the GN, Stryker was a former military man who worked around military tests with radioactive materials. His wife ended up giving birth to a mutant, and he killed both her and the child out of disgust. He tried to kill himself as well, but failed, and took that as a “sign from god” to become an evangelist and preach the dangers of mutantkind to the rest of the populace. The plot idea of using Professor X to mentally kill all mutants in the world wa salso from the graphic novel, but instead of using a mind-controlled mutant to do the job, Stryker used a sensory depravation gizmo to trick Xavier into accepting God as his savior and killing mutants as doing God’s will. The William Stryker of the grphic novel was fiercely anti-mutant, to the point where he killed his personal assistant – on national television – when they both discovered she was a latent mutant. He wouldn’t have used Deathstrike or Nightcrawler as he did in the movie.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Linus\_Van\_Pelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@Linus\_Van\_Pelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linus_Van_Pelt)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-men-2-stryker-and-his-son-possible-spoilers/182245/4 "2003-06-16T19:34:30Z")
And the character of Jason (well, his powers) most likely come from the character of Mastermind, one of the earliest of the X-Men’s opponents, who masqueraded as “Jason Wyngard” during the “Dark Phoenix” saga. He was not Stryker’s son in the comic. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-men-2-stryker-and-his-son-possible-spoilers/182245/5 "2003-06-16T21:09:28Z")
Speaking of Dark Phoenix… Was I the only one who was expecting a Byrne-esque “Phoenix rising from the waters” shot at the end of the movie? ---
**Author:** ![Daniel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Daniel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daniel)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-men-2-stryker-and-his-son-possible-spoilers/182245/6 "2003-06-16T21:23:12Z")
if I can add a question to this thread - who, in the comics, was in charge of the experiment that manipulated Wolferine, if it wasn’t Stryker? ---
**Author:** ![Linus\_Van\_Pelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ebca7d/32.png) [@Linus\_Van\_Pelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linus_Van_Pelt)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2003, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-men-2-stryker-and-his-son-possible-spoilers/182245/7 "2003-06-16T21:27:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rjung \* > \*\*Speaking of Dark Phoenix… > > Was I the only one who was expecting a Byrne-esque “Phoenix rising from the waters” shot at the end of the movie? \*\* Nope - I was expecting the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Lok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e8c25b/32.png) [@Lok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lok)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-men-2-stryker-and-his-son-possible-spoilers/182245/8 "2003-06-17T04:29:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by rjung \* > \*\*Speaking of Dark Phoenix… > > Was I the only one who was expecting a Byrne-esque “Phoenix rising from the waters” shot at the end of the movie? \*\* You are too early. That is how the _next_ movies _starts_. At least that is what I expect. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-men-2-stryker-and-his-son-possible-spoilers/182245/9 "2003-06-17T12:39:07Z")
> [@](#): > > if I can add a question to this thread - who, in the comics, was in charge of the experiment that manipulated Wolferine, if it wasn’t Stryker? I don’t think it was ever revealed. ---
**Author:** ![Skip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@Skip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skip)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-men-2-stryker-and-his-son-possible-spoilers/182245/10 "2003-06-17T12:47:25Z")
I thought it was the Canadian Govt who experimented on Wolverine as part of their Weapon X program? ---
**Author:** ![Bakhesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Bakhesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bakhesh)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-men-2-stryker-and-his-son-possible-spoilers/182245/11 "2003-06-17T13:23:09Z")
Wasn’t the Weapon X story revealed in Marvel Comics Presents? The scientist in charge was called Dr. Cornelius, who logan killed in Xmen 8 or 9 I think. I don;t know if they ever revealed who was behind it all though. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-men-2-stryker-and-his-son-possible-spoilers/182245/12 "2003-06-17T18:30:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bakhesh \* > Wasn’t the Weapon X story revealed in Marvel Comics Presents? The scientist in charge was called Dr. Cornelius, who logan killed in Xmen 8 or 9 I think. I don;t know if they ever revealed who was behind it all though. They’re slowly starting to drop more hints, though. In a fairly recent _New X-Men_, they introduced a character called Fantomex, some sort of super-ninja-assassin type. He told Prof. X and Jean Grey that Wolverine was not the end result of the Weapon X project, merely the tenth version, hence the X. Fantomex claims to be the thirteenth version, thus making him Weapon XIII, and the project is still ongoing. But he wears telepath-resistant headgear, and he doesn’t seem particularly trustworthy, so how much of that is true is unknown. ---
**Author:** ![Nichol\_storm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Nichol\_storm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nichol_storm)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2003, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/x-men-2-stryker-and-his-son-possible-spoilers/182245/13 "2003-06-17T18:36:38Z")
As for William and Jason Stryker, I posted my thoughts on them in [another X-Men thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=181278&highlight=stryker+AND+mastermind) which I will summarize here: > [@](#): > > I think Jason Stryker is an amalgamation of several different characters, including: > > 1. Jason Wyngarde, aka Mastermind, who lent his first name and powers. > > 2. In “God Loves, Man Kills”, the graphic novel the movie is loosely based off of, Rev. William Stryker murders his newborn son when he discovers the baby is a mutant. The movie transformed him from a bigoted preacher into a bigoted colonel and his son into Jason Stryker. > > 3. In the comics, the original creator of the Sentinels (mutant-hunting robots) hated mutants but secretly had a mutant son. Sound familiar? > > 4. Legion, Prof. X’s immensely powerful autistic son with MPD. Some physical traits were borrowed (namely the differently-colored eyes) and the failed parental relationship between Xavier and Jason. .:Nichol:.