It should be no surprise to anyone that knows me for more than five minutes that I live and breathe the X-Men. My youth was set primarily to the 90s animated series and my for the first six or so years that I collected comics, 80% of my pull featured the letter “X” in the title. That said, this week’s Friday Recommendation takes us way back to 1982 to one of the first long-form X-Men stories that would end up becoming one of the most prolific, important, unnerving and symbolic stories featuring Marvel’s Merry Mutants. Penned by X-All-Father Chris Claremont with distinctly 80s pencil work by Brent Anderson, God Loves, Man Kills not only paid tribute to the history of the characters prior to its release, but laid the ground work for ideas that are, even now, still paying off within the current Utopia-era of the X-Men.
The first thing that must be said about this book is that, yes, a lot of the themes, characters and ideas contained within it were used as the spiritual basis for the move X-Men 2, but fundamentally that story and this one are world’s apart in terms of symbolism and direct approach. Despite this, the primary antagonist of both remains the same: Reverend William Stryker.
Stryker, a televangelist in this story, is an archetype seen plenty of times before within the history of the human race (both fictional and, tragically, real). The misguided soul who, following a “revelation” decides that one race of people deserved to live and one deserved to die as they were an affront to God. The only crime mutants committed, in his mind, were being born, and that was enough to earn a death sentence. As such, the book opens with Stryker’s men executing two mutant children and leaving them strung up on a swing set in a stunningly Matthew Shepherd-esque fashion (though of course this book predated that tragedy.) After their bodies are cut down by Magneto, a victim of similar persecution due to his Jewish lineage, who swears revenge, the story kicks into its primary plot.
As a batch of the 1982 X-Men (Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus and Kitty Pryde, still going by Ariel at this point, along with a still non-powered Illyana Rasputin) engage in a throwaway training session, Professor Xavier, accompanied by Storm and Cyclops, engaging Stryker in a debate on live television. Stunningly, Stryker’s charisma won the day, leaving the three morally debased. As it turns out, this letting down of their guard was what Stryker was counting on as he attacks their car, kidnaps them and stages their deaths.
As Wolverine, Colossus and Cyclops investigate the apparent deaths of their friends, Stryker’s Purifiers invade the Xavier Mansion to kidnap Illyana and in the process, take Kitty as well. However, right before her death sentence was enacted, Kitty manages to phase away with the help of some INCREDIBLY stereotypical street toughs. As the Purifiers catch up to her, however, she is ultimately rescued by her fellow X-Men and their stunning new ally, Magneto.
It is at this point that we learn of Stryker’s ultimate plan: to brainwash Xavier into murdering the entire mutant race using a facsimile of Cerebro. The first apparent victims of this were Storm and Cyclops themselves. However, as their bodies are liberated by their fellow mutants, it is revealed that Xavier has merely sent them into deep stasis as some part of his subconscious was resisting Stryker’s conditioning.
All of this, of course, leads to the inevitable showdown (with the President present, to boot) between the X-Men and Stryker which ends not with uber-violence, but with words as Cyclops takes the podium with Stryker to plead the case for mutants. While this debate at BEST ends with a draw, the immediate threat of Styker is put to an end (although avid modern X-Fans know that this is NOT the last we’d see of the horrors of William Stryker). It was this scene, and the one following it as Magneto takes his leave, that sent up red flag after red flag in my head. For anyone that doubts the current era of the X-Men, one that features Cyclops as the leader of the mutant race and Magneto as one of his trusted advisors, MUST read this graphic novel. It is, without any shadow of a doubt, the missing link between teenage mutant in training and virile leader of an entire race. The flashpoint, if you will, of Scott Summer’s journey into adulthood and into his potential and, frankly, makes me like the character a LOT more than I ever have.
Marvel released a fantastic prestige hardcover of this book around the time X2 was released, chock full of bonus pages and reflections on its story for on $20. Ultimately, if you claim to be a fan of the X-Men, are a fan of highly “real world” influenced super hero stories, or are simply curious what it looked like when Chris Claremont still knew how to write compelling comic books, you could do no worse than tracking down this baby.
