X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (April 2008)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

God Loves, Man Kills (more fully, Marvel Graphic Novel #5: X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills) is a graphic novel published in 1982 by Marvel Comics, starring their popular superhero team the X-Men. It was written by Chris Claremont and illustrated by Brent Anderson. It is considered by many fans to be one of the best X-men stories.

The novel concerned a minister, the Reverend William Stryker, stirring up religious anti-mutant fervor and kidnapping Professor X in an attempt to eradicate all mutants. It is one of the most clear-cut examples of X-Men comics using mutant relations as a metaphor for race relations. Another notable feature is that the heroes do not fight any costumed super-villains in the story; although Magneto was featured in the Graphic Novel, he is not the X-men's foe in this story, but rather forms an alliance with them against William Stryker. The X-men members featured in this story are Professor X, Cyclops, Storm, Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Shadowcat. Other characters who appear are Colossus' sister, Illyana Rasputin (after she is aged by Belasco, but before she adopts the identity of Magik and/or joins the New Mutants) and Stevie Hunter .

Several elements of the novel's plot — most notably the name of the villain, William Stryker; the fact that the X-men team-up with Magneto, their arch-rival; and the use of Professor X to kill mutants — were used in the second X-Men film, X2. The main difference between the two is that, in the movie, William Stryker was a military scientist rather than a minister (although, in both versions, he has a mutant child). These elements came from screenwriter Zak Penn, who was hired to write drafts of the film.

There was also a semi-sequel to it in X-Treme X-Men in which Stryker returned. Prior to the publication of this sequel, it was unclear whether or not the story was considered part of Marvel canon.