God Loves, But Mind Control Still Kills part III: Mind Control Is The Opiate Of The People

In the third and final part of God Loves, But Mind Control Still Kills, the mysteries surrounding Mount Haven are finally answered. Just why is the mutant hating reverend William Stryker after the inhabitants of this mountain town? How come Bishop and Shadowcat are the only two X-men who seem impervious to whatever is mind controlling everyone else and just what is the deal with minister Paul? Let's dive in...

                              

Issue # 29 opens with Lady Deathstrike standing triumphant over the unconscious body of her archenemy Wolverine. However, because her body is being controlled, lady Yuriko Oyama is unable to fully appreciate this victory...

Not that she would have had too much time to enjoy his death, because Logan's fellow X-man Cannonball races to the rescue... the sounds of which can be heard in Mount Haven, serving as a bit of a wake up call for the mind controlled Storm... However, the equally addled Sage tries to win her back...

Ah yes, when all else fails and the violent weather mirrors Storm's subconscious fighting back... Dial 'S' for either Sage or Sappho....the mind controlled mentat needed the X-treme X-men's team leader back in the game. After all, Bishop was still on the loose... So Sage resorted to this here.

Storm's near lesbian encounter had no effect on that cheerful, mindless grin on her face. In fact, it seemed prevalent in Mount Haven... all courtesy of minister Paul, as Kitty Pryde finds out in the labyrinth like catacombs of the city. 

Kitty finally realises Mount Haven's dirty secret. The place didn't exactly start out as a haven for mutants... quite the opposite in fact. The town was home to one of the largest mutant detention and research facilities in the country...Aaron Pankow, the convicted mass murderer William Ryker went to see in the opening issue of this arc, worked there and told the reverend about the atrocities in Mount Haven, causing Stryker to start up his crusade once again.

Long story short... Stryker has figured out just who minister Paul really is. Mount Haven did indeed house a government sponsored mutant R&D facility, outfitted with a top notch sentient computer system capable of sentient reasoning. During the many hours of supervising and facilitating horrific experiments on captured mutants, the 'innocent' A.I. started to see right from wrong and decided to take action. 

Taking over the form of one of the tortured mutants, Haven's A.I. used his body to reinvented itself as minister Paul. Soon, it figured out a way to protect everyone who wasn't a mutant, by unleashing swarms of nigh undetectable nannites into the air that infected everyone in town. Paul slowly killed every human within the city limits. This meant death came as an unexpected surprise to the general population and it also explained just why there were no adults, only mutant offspring running around carefree (and mind controlled). 

An apalled Stryker finally carried out his mission when he pushed Shadowcat into minister Paul. Her innate phasing abilities immediately short circuit whatever electronics they encounter... Not only did this ability make her impervious to the nannites, it also explained why the healer Cybil died after Kitty accidentally phased through here...

In this case, Kitty's phasing caused the computer controlling Paul to suffer the equivalent of a grand mal seizure, shutting down all the nannites in Mount Haven at once... Often with lethal results as Bishop discovered...

Yes, the entire town had been infected with the nannites that slowly turned their bodies into cybernetic organisms designed to be controlled by the not quite human cybernetic intelligence housing in minister Paul. When he short circuited, his followers paid the price... Only the most recent of arrivals lived to tell the tale.

In the end, Bishop was instrumental in ensuring all the X-men, including Cannonball, recovered from their bout with cybernetic mind control. In case you were wondering why Bishop wasn't infected himself... the answer is painfully obvious: coming from a future where cybernetic infestation is as common as chicken pox, Bishop was inocculated against nannites as a kid. A rather simple and effective deus ex machina... Speaking of machines of god...

'Paul' was left in a state of existential crisis. The only reason the evolved computer system did what it did was a rather silly misunderstanding. It believed the only real human beings were the ones showing 'the spark', actually meaning the energy flare indicative of mutagenic potential. Baseline human being were considered to be little more than vermin to be eradicated... after all, anything to protect the 'real human beings'.

The reverend Stryker offered a stunningly selfless solution for this dilemma...

Yup, here we have the mutant hating man of God, wearing a slave collar, freely sacrificing his life to keep a newly formed cybernetic intelligence in check. It's really one for the history books, if only future writers would have left the reverend alone...

Despite heavily relying on mind control, God Loves Man Kills II is a remarkable story that mirrors the original graphic novel in having William Stryker starting out as a protector of humanity, but eventually merging with a mechanized man hunter to safeguard both man ánd mutantkind in the process... It's a rare case of perfect symmetry and a worthy send off for the character of the reverend William Stryker. His story arc had reached a natural climax... what else could be done?

... *sigh*... Yeah, instead of leaving a powerful and unique character alone, granting him the story arc his creator had intended, you could of course turn the reverend Stryker into a platitudes spouting hate filled bigot stereotype, literally armed with a piece of the futuristic Sentinel Nimrod. Y'know, for shits and giggles...

"Oh heavenly father, forgive us our sins as we forgive those indebted to us" ... indeed. Thankfully, the X-men weren't too bothered with all of that after their experiences in Mount Haven.

God Loves, But Mind Control Still Kills part II: Haven Knows I Tried To Control You!

In the second part of God Loves, But Mind Control Still Kills, Chris Claremont is hard at work crafting a sequel to his classic 1982 graphic novel. Originally intended to somewhat tie in to the second X-men movie, ol' Chris lost track of that when writing this story.

The reverend Stryker was freed from prison by his associate Lady Deathstrike, who intentionally made sure the blame was placed on the X-men. At the same time, Stryker and Deathstrike kidnapped Kitty Pryde because the reverend felt she'd be instrumental for his mission in the mysterious town of Mount Haven.

However, before Stryker could make his move, an unknown entity from Mount Haven controlled the body of Deathstrike and forced her to chase after Stryker. He cleverly escaped with Kitty by donning adamantium laced body armors and forcing her to phase them to safety by, well, let's have Chris explain this.

However, this process is apparently extremely disruptive to the Earth's energy fields because of the adamantium armor they're wearing. And that's where the X-men come in, because Storm goes completely ballistic when she's caught in the backlash of the trauma Kitty's phasing is causing the Earth. After calming their leader down, the X-men figure out a few things thanks to Sage.  

Believably explaining the connection between Stryker and Lady Deathstrike, Claremont also has the team realise Kitty is involved which only increases the urgency of their mission. Storm uses her powers to follow the trail of destruction left after Kitty's joyride, figuring that she has to be somewhere near where the devastation stops. As they get underway, Kitty wakes up...

Yes, Kitty had managed to lose Stryker along the way but was so exhausted she was almost run over by a family who were on their way to bring their mutant son to... Mount Haven. Which is exactly where Kitty finds herself...

Obviously taken by the charismatic minister calling himself Paul, the confused Kitty follows him on a tour of Mount Haven... which at first glance appears to be the realisation of professor Xavier's dream: a town where mutants don't have to hide who or what they are. However, halfway through the tour, Kitty suddenly falls ill.

It's interesting to note that while Paul dressed Kitty in an outfit that's a cross between elitist WASP and naughty schoolgirl, he didn't bother to remove the armored slave collar Stryker had placed around her neck.

Still, that is of little importance as Paul rushes Kitty to an underground facility in the opening pages of X-treme X-men # 28, where a healer called Cybil tries to treat her. However, Shadowcat is so delirious, she phases through the mutant feline... which leads to several gruesome discoveries.

For one thing, Cybil dies on the spot because Kitty phased through her. Also, the underground clinic is actually part of a bigger lab complex, filled with people who seem to have died instantly... This partially answers Kitty's question why, apart from minister Paul, Mount Haven only seems to be populated by young mutants. But before she could get some answers, the armored form of reverend Stryker pops up out of nowhere, knocking out Paul and going on an extensive rant about the mysteries of Mount Haven... 

Meanwhile, the X-men have arrived in Mount Haven and soon find themselves mind controlled...

After encountering some young mutants, the cold and calculating Sage was suddenly all smiles... which was a dead give away for her fellow teammate Bishop that she wasn't quite in her right mind. Easily taking her out, he soon finds out she wasn't the only one compromised... the hard way.

And there was even more mind control fun to be had... As Wolverine encounters Lady Deathstrike, hot on the trail of Stryker and Kitty. 

Yuriko's cybernetic body was still being controlled, but that didn't exactly dull her fighting instincts. And heck... she didn't mind sharing the experience as she gave Logan some sage advice after a two page spread of bloody battle.

"Embrace Mount Haven as your new home. And Paul as your saviour."

'Savio-u-r'? Never knew Deathstrike was British. Ah well, the cat's out of the bag now...minister Paul is the big bad of this arc. Just how big a threat he is, will become clear in the third and final part of God Loves, But Mind Control Still Kills: Mind Control Is The Opiate Of The People

God Loves, But Mind Control Still Kills part I: Here we go again...

Back in the early 00's, Marvel celebrated its initial successes at the box office thanks to the first Spider-Man and X-men movies.

2003 brought Ang Lee's Hulk and more importantly X-2, heavily based on Chris Claremont's fan favorite God Loves, Man Kills graphic novel from 1982. While the movie version of William Stryker was a military commander instead of a reverend, the powers that were at Marvel still felt the movie should warrant a comics tie in. Ahhh, synergy... It truly is a wonderful thing.

Naturally the task to write this tie in fell on Chris Claremont, who came up with the six part God Loves, Man Kills II that played out in the pages of X-treme X-men, starting with issue # 25. Naturally, the reverend William Stryker had a starring role. However, which version of Stryker? Claremont's 1982 original...

Or someone more like actor Brian Cox, from the actual movie Marvel's marketeers were trying to plug?

Oh, you guessed it... right down to the goatee...

So what had Stryker been up to since he got sent to prison after killing a woman on live tv? Well, he's still in prison, where he's being treated as a celebrity of sorts.Not every inmate gets a private jet to take him back to his prison cell after hearing serial killer Aaron Pankow's confession. Something is up with Stryker and Sage is all over the case. Hey, she *IS* the X-men's mentat after all...

At first, the X-men don't consider Sage's Stryker newsflash too important... but the reverend's travel plans soon take a turn for the worse as an old foe of the X-men manages to worm her way aboard his jet.

Yuriko Oyama, Lady Deathstrike for her enemies, featured heavily in the X-2 movie. So it only makes (commercial) sense she would have to appear here as an ally of Stryker's as well, in spite of any previously established continuity between the two of them. Rescuing the reverend by killing his captors and crashing the plane, she also manages to place the blame like a pro...

So, the X-men have been accussed of downing a plane and causing the death of at least half a dozen people. Of course we know it's a lie, but why would the team even consider getting close to the scene of the crime?

After all, apart from the old 'guilty by association' line, contaminating the crime scene with their presence and finger prints would only work to incriminate them further... Yet, the X-men travel to the site of the crash where Wolverine realises that the corpses in the wreckage died from very familiar stab wounds. But before he could share his findings, the team was attacked by para military troops who appeared ready for them.

Meanwhile the reverend Stryker and Lady Deathstrike are in Chicago's The Belles of Hell bar to see an X-man who didn't want to be an X-man anymore...

"Yes, Deathstrike. She is PERFECT."

Stryker needed Kitty for his latest mission, but rather than asking for her help he tried to mind control her in the opening pages of X-Treme X-men # 26, which subjected Kitty to a plethora of alternate identities who tried to undermine her sense of self, in hopes of making her vulnerable to the reverend's subliminal recruitment message. 

Luckily, his slick sales pitch was undermined by an aspect of Kitty's mind, taking the form of her best friend Illyana Rasputin. Kitty cast the reverend out, leaving both Stryker and his team of mind control specialists baffled. She really should have succumbed to the procedure, yet her phasing powers made it impossible for the mind control techs to fully map her brain patterns.

Annoyed, Stryker asked Lady Deathstrike to use her impressive cybernetic abilities to check in on the surveillance team in Mount Haven, the location where this mission of his is supposed to go down...

You gotta love Lady Deathstrike's, in retrospect, low tech approach to surfing... Forget wifi, best way to go online is by shifting your fingers into com ports and dialing in. Still, despite the slow dial up, she made contact with the surveillance team...

Discovering their demise, she was confronted by the mysterious presence responsible for all the mayhem.. but managed to sign off before he could affect her. Or did she? 

Shocked to learn Deathstrike was being used as an unwilling assassin, Stryker ordered his followers to protect him, causing them to serve as little more than cannon fodder while he raced towards the cell of a  rather strung out Kitty Pryde. Revealing a metal slave collar around his neck, Stryker slapped one on Kitty too just as Deathstrike barged in for the kill.

Activating the collars, Stryker and Kitty manifested adamantium laced armor while waiting for the mind controlled Deathstrike to catch up. Just as Stryker used Kitty's phasing abilities to move to freedom, Lady Deathstrike was left alone with a rather chilling realisation...

The game was afoot as we'll see in the second part of God Loves, But Mind Control Still Kills: Haven Knows I Tried To Control You!

God Loves, But Mind Control Kills...

One of the most pivotal tales of the X-men is 1982's graphic novel  God Loves, Man Kills... Chris Claremont brilliantly mixes mutant hate with religion when he introduced the reverend William Stryker, a popular televangelist who uses the word of God to launch a crusade against all mutants.

Stryker employs a band of vigilantes called Purifiers who kill every mutant they can find in the name of the lord. Leaving their corpses for anyone to see, in this case by tying the young children to the swing on the playground. Such horrifying, cruel acts cannot go unpunished. Enter... Magneto.

The mutant master of magnetism was drawn to the Purifiers' anti mutant crusade. He swore to avenge all the senseless deaths they had caused. But Stryker wasn't attacking mutants at random, far from it. The reverend had a plan in mind to kill all mutants and it involved Charles Xavier.

Through unrevealed means, Stryker had learned about the X-men and specifically their telepathic leader. After arranging to appear with Xavier on ABC's Nightline to discuss mutants, the Purifiers led Xavier, Storm and Cylops into an ambush on their way back home. Making it appear like a car accident, they left three charred bodies in the burnt out wreck... which didn't fool Wolverine's senses.

But the X-men were still unaware of Stryker's involvement, let alone his plans with the professor. The reverend wanted to use Xavier and his Cerebro machine to identify and destroy any and all mutants that came to his sermons. This way, he could filter out the true and pure believers from his flock.

Naturally the professor would never agree to any of this, so Stryker ordered his will broken. In a truly inspired, utterly horrific unending virtual reality loop, Stryker assaulted Charles by having demonised versions of the X-men brutally attack and mutilate him.

There is so much going on in these panels. From the obvious comparisons to Christ on the cross to the utter depravity of the demonic X-men. Not to mention Brent Eric Anderson's striking art work and the moody coloring job that only uses blood red and pitch black to intensify the horrors on display. Unfortunately for Stryker, all of that still didn't get Xavier to crack.

One has to admire just how methodical they were about it, keeping progress reports and everything. Naturally, they had no chance of breaking the professor. He's a man of great moral fibre, the idea he would ever succumb or use his powers to hurt his pupils? Madness...

Right, well... moving right along...

During his inquiries into the Purifiers, Magneto encountered the X-men who were looking for their missing team members. Deeming Stryker too big a threat to ignore, Magneto allied himself with his most hated enemies.  

In an impressive display of force, Magneto kicked off the final confrontation with Stryker by disrupting his sermon. How did he achieve this? Ow, by simply yanking the dome off the venue... the friggin' Madison Square Garden.

Backstage at the Garden, Stryker had Xavier ready to scan the audience for possible mutants. If he found any, he was forced to... deal.... with them.

Xavier was used as a machine to fire intense psychic energies at any suspected mutants. If you even had a little bit of mutant potential, you'd start bleeding from the ears. Lots of people did in the Garden, including Anne, field leader of the Purifiers and loyal Stryker subject.

When Stryker, fired up by religious fervor, realised Anne was a mutant he tossed her off the canticle. Falling at least two dozen feet, Anne died right before the rolling cameras. To add insult to injury, they also shot Stryker's final conclusion with the team that had him pointing a gun at 13 year old Kitty Pryde... right up until the point a security guard came to his senses and ended the menace of Stryker by planting a bullet straight in the reverend's heart.

Xavier was freed, no one was too seriously hurt and the X-men and Magneto soon returned to Xavier's school. Magneto politely declined the X-men's offer to stay with them and left soon afterwards, just as Charles was getting a little misty eyed...

Apart from the emotional, if not slightly overwrought ending, this graphic novel is a showcase of how to tell a compelling storyline that, despite dealing with familiar subjects, still manages to feels refreshingly original.