William Stryker

It is later revealed that Stryker did not actually murder his son Jason Stryker, and had in fact raised the boy in secret, alleviating his son's apparently debilitating mutation with the help of A.I.M. After Stryker's death, Jason continues his father's work by joining the Purifiers.^[10][11]

Behind the Weapon X Project

During the "Weapons of Mutant Destruction" storyline, Stryker made his presence known (after being restored to life as a cyborg) and has formed the

Believing that God no longer supported his crusade against mutants, Stryker and the Church of Human Potential turn to Satanism and dark magic rituals to achieve the power needed to destroy mutantkind.^[21] Stryker recruits Mentallo as a follower and has him use his powers to force mutants to join his cult to be used as Stryker's sacrifices.^[22]

Mentallo captures M and uses her as bait to lure Weapon X-Force. Weapon X Force rescues M, destroys the Church and kills Stryker, but Stryker reveals with his dying breath that he planned for this to happen so that Mentallo could summon him from Hell. X-Force splits itself up between fighting Stryker in Hell and Mentallo on Earth; Sabretooth falls into Mentallo's sacrifice pit, which is needed to complete Stryker's ritual. However as he ascends from Hell, Sabretooth decapitates him, destroying Stryker's soul and uses the sacrifice to revive his son Graydon Creed.^[23]

Reception

• In 2017, WhatCulture ranked William Stryker 5th in their "10 Most Evil X-Men Villains" list.^[24]

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

In the alternate timeline seen in the 2005 Age of Apocalypse storyline, William Stryker was raised by a preacher father who cared for him and other children from their town after most were slaughtered by mutants. However, in a horrible stroke of irony his father was later killed by other surviving humans. As such he had to live in hiding, learning to depend on the kindness of both humans and mutants, making this version a far more tolerant person than his 616 universe counterpart.^[25] He takes the Prophet guise and begins to avenge humanity along with X-Terminated. He breaks into the apartment of Krakken, an engineer who built ovens to incinerate humans, and murders him but not his family. Before killing Krakken, Prophet reveals he previously destroyed one of Krakken's eyes and then finished the job by cutting off his head. William studies the Sentinels and mutants hunt of humans in order to refine his skills in taking them down. He says he has learned their weaknesses and despite their powers, his will and skill is more powerful. With ease, Prophet makes his way up an attacking Sentinel, cuts into its head and flips away as the robot is destroyed from the damage. He says his talents were obtained by watching the slaughter of thousands and his victories honor them. As Weapon X leads his final attack on the last surviving City of Men, Prophet allows them to escape by throwing an explosive at Weapon X. He then leads his team out of the city. Once clear the city is destroyed by Weapon X.^[26]

Ultimate Marvel

The Ultimate Marvel reality has two different versions of William Stryker.

William Stryker Sr.

This iteration is an

Brian Cox as Colonel William Stryker in X2: X-Men United

Danny Huston as Major William Stryker in X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Josh Helman as Major Bill Stryker in X-Men: Days of Future Past, and X-Men: Apocalypse

• Scottish actor
  Mystique and Pyro
  steal his helicopter. He tries to get Wolverine to rejoin him as he can reveal the man's past. After Wolverine chooses to stay with the X-Men, Stryker bellows that one day someone else will finish his work. The dam soon bursts from the resulting battle causing the whole valley to flood which kills Stryker. The X-Men later give the President evidence of Stryker's crimes.
• Three Mile Island lab. Stryker shoots adamantium bullets in Logan's head, causing long-term amnesia
  , Stryker attempts to shoot Kayla but the mutant's telepathic abilities force Stryker to "walk until [his] feet bleed—and keep walking", which Stryker does. He is eventually picked up by the military police and brought in for questioning about his connection with General Munson who tried to shut Weapon XI down after learning about his son's mutant status and whom Stryker murdered.
• CIA agent discussing the existence of mutants with Charles Xavier. Like his son, he has anti-mutant beliefs. Xavier reads his mind and mentions that he was thinking of his son to prove he was a mutant. Stryker works out a deal with the Soviet forces off Cuba's coast to join U.S. naval forces in attacking the X-Men at the film's climax, which disastrously fails due to Magneto's incredible mutant command over electromagnetism. Though Stryker's intentions are to protect the human race from mutant threats, his own actions effectively serve as part of the catalyst of Magneto's animosity towards humans and the foundation of both the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants
  , which will eventually clash with his son more than once.
• Beast, Eric Lensherr and Xavier attempt to prevent Mystique's assassination of Trask; Stryker's presence causes Wolverine's intense flashbacks of Stryker's future actions, causing a brief but crucial distraction that allows Lensherr to try to kill Mystique to change the future. Stryker is also present with Trask during the Sentinels
  ' demonstration at Washington before Magneto launches a counterattack.
• Helman reprised his role in the 2016 film
  Quicksilver and Moira MacTaggert to investigate the telepathic broadcast, unaware that his helicopter is infiltrated by Scott Summers, Jean Grey
  and Kurt Wagner; Kurt had teleported the three into the helicopter while Jean telepathically convinces the guards not to see the three. At some point in the past decade, Stryker was able to capture and mentally program Logan after infusing the adamantium to Logan's skeleton. When Jean is able to find and release Logan, Stryker is forced to flee his base as Logan tears through his soldiers before Jean restores a few of Logan's memories. In a deleted scene, Moira has Stryker arrested for kidnapping a federal officer and his wrongdoings on minors. Before being taken away, Stryker warns Moira about mutants being untrustworthy.