MCU: 25 X-Men characters who should appear in Phase 4 (and beyond)
By Mark Lynch
12. Rev. William Stryker and the Purifiers
Who are they?
People will say that the X-Men’s deadliest enemies are villains like Magento and Mr. Sinister. While they do rank, I would vote that William Stryker may be worse than both of them. Stryker hates mutants so much that he killed his mutant child the day it was born and later killed the mother the same day.
Stryker is a fanatic who founded the Purifiers. A group of more religious followers whose only job is to kill mutants. They are some of the most disgusting people in all of comics. What makes them more dangerous is that their numbers continue to grow and they always seem to find weapons that negate mutant powers.
Why this works
You may see a theme with X-Men villains in this article. They don’t have redeemable qualities. They aren’t like Thanos and Killmonger who at least believed in something that may help people out. Stryker is just deplorable. As I mentioned in a couple of previous slides, the MCU needs villains you can hate. Villains you can relate will eventually get stale. They’ll start to make the heroes look like they’re actually the antagonists. William Stryker and the Purifiers will leave people visibly upset. Something we haven’t seen in a long time in the MCU.