Itinerant Librarian on Books

The description of the book says this book was a basis for the second X-Men film. I have to say that the film makers barely based the film on this as the book pretty much does not resemble the movie at all other than having a character named Stryker who hates mutants and his creation of a second Cerebro-type computer to track and kill mutants. At any rate, as usual, the book is better than the film.

In our graphic novel, Stryker is the leader of a fundamentalist Christian church (more like a cult) that hates mutants, sees them as abominations, and uses Christianity to justify mutant extermination. The cult is very well organized, and it resembles any modern Christian cult today such as Pat Robertson's or Jerry Falwell's with a paramilitary element. When Professor Xavier is kidnapped by the cult, Magneto steps in to help out. Granted, his beliefs are different than Xavier's, but he sees Stryker's church as a common threat all mutants have to face. The X-Men have to find their lost leader and stop Stryker from carrying out his plans while people are divided on whether the mutants are human too or if they are abominations to kill.

In many ways, I think this tale is still very relevant today. All one has to do is look at Christian and other religious extremists who call for racism and bigotry in the name of their deity to see that Stryker is very much alive and well in today's society, especially in the U.S. The story is a pretty good comic book story with some nice twists.