God Loves, Man Kills

"Once more, genocide in the name of God. A story as old as the race."

—Magneto

A story first published in 1982, God Loves, Man Kills is one of the most famous X-Men stories from the Claremont period. Writing in the midst of the rise of televangelists of the 1980s, Chris Claremont and artist Brent Anderson presented a story with a new foe for the X-Men who stood out from previous villains. Taking on issues such as prejudice, religion and the growing Christian fundamentalism of the time, the story proved to be a hit and was one of the influences for the second X-Men movie.

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Tropes used in God Loves, Man Kills include:

• Cold-Blooded Torture: Magneto does... something to the Purifiers to make them tell the X-Men of Striker's plans. Only Nightcrawler provides objection to it. Also a case of Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work.
  • Nightcrawler averts this when he takes his own prisoner (Stryker's brainwashing expert), preferring instead to use threats and his own demonic looks to intimidate the man.
• The Dragon: Anne, to Stryker. It doesn't work out well for her.
• Enemy Mine: William Stryker's crusade against Mutants provides the need for Magneto to team up with the X-Men to confront him.
• Faking the Dead: The Purifiers' fraud fools the police, but doesn't hold up to Wolverine's enhanced senses.
• Offing the Offspring: Long ago, this is how Stryker dealt with his newborn mutant son.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: The police watching over Stryker's rally comment on their disbelief over his message and later step in to help the X-Men.
  • Another is the unnamed senator in the audience.
• Sinister Minister: Stryker is probably one of the best examples for this trope to come from Marvel: a fanatic who believes that God wants him to wipe out every Mutant in the world under the idea that Mutants are created by Satan.
• Villainous Valor: To escape Magneto and the X-Men, and report their doings to her mentor, Stryker's dragon Anne pries open the doors of a runaway elevator and leaps a perilous distance down to a roof.
• Would Hurt a Child: In the very first scene, Purifiers murder two young children. Stryker later attempts to shoot the then 13-year-old Kitty Pryde himself.