X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills

AUTHOR: Claremont, Chris

ARTIST: Brent Anderson (illustrator); Steve Oliff (colorist); Tom Orzechowski (letterer)

PUBLISHER: Marvel Comics

FIRST BOOK PUBLICATION: 1982

Publication History

In the introduction to the hardcover reissue of God Loves, Man Kills, author Christopher Claremont writes that in the early 1980’s, the comics industry “was exploding both commercially and creatively. Everywhere you turned, there were new talents, new formats, new concepts. It felt like a revolution, both in terms of the stories being told and the means we had to tell them.” Eager to capitalize on this explosion, Marvel Comics turned to Claremont to create one of the first in a series of graphic novels featuring Marvel characters.

Claremont, whose run on X-Men lasted from 1975 to 1991, had transformed the title from an afterthought filled with reprints into the most critically and commercially successful title of its era, a long-term morality tale about racial discrimination. This narrative move informed the plot development of God Loves, Man Kills, as it was Claremont’s desire to create a story using similar conceptual elements. He also intended to create a story that took place outside the standard Marvel continuity of the time but could still be viewed as a portrait of a specific era.

Originally published in 1982, X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills was Marvel’s fifth graphic novel. It was reissued with new cover art in 1994 and 2003, and as a hardcover edition containing interviews with author Chris Claremont and artist Brent Anderson in 2007.

Plot

Despite the fact that X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills takes place outside the traditional continuity of the Marvel Universe, it features the X-Men of the time (Professor X, Cyclops, Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, and Wolverine) and their main foe, Magneto. The story opens on a group of mysterious, heavily armed assailants who murder a pair of children and hang their lifeless bodies on a swing set. Soon after the killers leave, Magneto arrives to find the children and swears that he will hunt down whoever did this “and make them pay.”

At the same time, Colossus and dance teacher Stevie Hunter find themselves in the middle of a fistfight between Kitty Pryde and another student at Hunter’s Dance Academy. While Hunter and Colossus restrain the two combatants, Kitty informs them that the other student started the altercation by calling her a “mutie lover.” The other student is released, and Hunter, who is African American, urges Kitty to be calm. Kitty responds by asking her, “Suppose he’d called me a nigger-lover, Stevie?! Would you be so damn tolerant then?”

Later, the X-Men gather to watch the broadcast of television news program Nightline, in which Professor X, Cyclops, and Storm debate Reverend William Stryker on the subject of mutant rights. After leaving the studio, Professor X’s car is ambushed, and he and his companions are kidnapped by Stryker’s group of anti-mutant zealots, the Purifiers. While Cyclops and Storm are placed in restraints that nullify their mutant powers, Stryker attempts to brainwash Professor X in order to use his telepathic abilities to power a psi-scan device that will identify and destroy mutants.

As the remaining X-Men search for their teammates, they battle more Purifiers and are joined by their longtime nemesis Magneto, who is also searching for the missing mutants. The team frees Cyclops and Storm and learns that Stryker plans to deploy the psi-scan device, powered by the mind-controlled Professor X, during a rally at Madison Square Garden. The X-Men and Magneto appear just as Reverend Stryker powers up his device, inflicting excruciating pain on the mutants. After disabling the psi-scan and freeing Professor X, the X-Men confront Stryker, who threatens to shoot Kitty. However, just as he is about to pull the trigger, one of the police officers working security at the event shoots Stryker, disabling him.

Magneto urges Professor X to join him in his effort to subjugate humanity in order to protect mutantkind. Cyclops reminds Professor X of his higher calling, and the professor refuses. As Magneto exits, Professor X and the X-Men renew their efforts to ensure that humans and mutants live in peace.

Characters

•Professor X, a.k.a. Charles Xavier, is a mutant with powerful telepathic abilities whose goal is to create peace between mutants and humans. The founder of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, he assembled the X-Men team and trained them to protect humanity.

•Magneto is a mutant with the power to control and generate electromagnetic force. He is the X-Men’s primary adversary and works to create a society ruled by mutants.

•Reverend William Stryker is a former Army Ranger and the founder of the William Stryker Crusade, a religious organization dedicated to the eradication of mutants. He also controls the Purifiers, an anti-mutant paramilitary organization, and develops a psi-scan device that can be used to identify mutants.

•Cyclops, a.k.a. Scott Summers, is a mutant who wears a ruby-quartz visor to control the concussive energy blasts that are emitted by his eyes. As the only original X-Man still remaining, he serves as the team’s leader.

•Storm, a.k.a. Ororo Munroe, is a mutant who was raised as an orphan in Kenya and Egypt, where she was worshiped as a goddess because of her ability to control the weather. Storm is the X-Men’s second-in-command.

•Colossus, a.k.a. Peter Rasputin, is a Russian mutant who possesses superstrength and can transform his flesh into organic steel, making him invulnerable to most conventional attacks.

•Wolverine, a.k.a. Logan, is a Canadian mutant with increased healing abilities and heightened senses. His skeleton is plated with unbreakable adamantium, and he can extend three metal claws from the knuckles of each hand. He is a former intelligence operative for the Canadian government.

•Ariel, a.k.a. Kitty Pryde, is the youngest member of the X-Men. She has the ability to become intangible and “phase” through solid objects.

•Nightcrawler, a.k.a. Kurt Wagner, is a German mutant with short blue fur, fangs, and a long, prehensile tail. He has the ability to teleport, accompanied by the smell of brimstone and a loud bamf!, and can cling to vertical surfaces.

•Anne Reynolds is the leader of the Purifiers. Stryker’s psi-scan device reveals that she is a mutant.

Artistic Style

While Chris Claremont’s name had become synonymous with the title and characters, artist Brent Anderson was relatively new to the X-Men when he was approached to illustrate God Loves, Man Kills, having worked on only a handful of the series’ individual issues. He was recruited by Claremont and Marvel editor Louise Simonson following the departure of the original artist assigned to the book, Neal Adams.

Generally, Anderson’s art incorporates a painterly abstractness that is unique in comic art. While the characters and their actions are always clear and defined, Anderson’s use of rich color and abstraction of detail elevates his work in God Loves, Man Kills. This visual identity provides a compelling counterpoint to Claremont’s naturalistic dialogue.

Anderson is also effective at illustrating action scenes. In the numerous fight sequences throughout the book, many involving multiple characters, he consistently uses close-ups to present specific, sharp moments featuring either an individual or a pair of characters. This tight focus makes the characters’ actions much more concentrated and intense than if they were presented in a longer, less focused shot.

Another effective element of Anderson’s artistic style is his manipulation of panel size and spacing, which underscores both the rhythm of Claremont’s dialogue and the natural dramatic action of the narrative. For example, in a scene where Stryker recounts the birth of his mutant son and the subsequent death of both the boy and his mother, Anderson uses a traditionally symmetrical page layout, which fits with Stryker’s detached retelling of the story. This is also apparent in the early scene outside Stevie Hunter’s dance studio in which Kitty fights a fellow student. To illustrate the argument between the two characters, Anderson uses a series of narrow vertical rectangles, each featuring close-up shots of the characters. This focused, repetitive layout conveys the anxiety and percussive cadence of the argument’s dialogue.

Much like the thematic content and narrative action of God Loves, Man Kills, Anderson’s art both addresses the traditional conventions of the comics medium and expands on them by employing numerous inventive visual practices.

Themes

While alienation, prejudice, and moral ambiguity have always been at the heart of Chris Claremont’s work on the X-Men, these ideas are crystallized in X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills. The primary narrative action concerns the X-Men’s struggle against Reverend William Stryker, who commits violent acts in support of his belief that mutants are “Satan’s most insidious plot against humanity.”

Claremont claims that he found the roots of Stryker and his followers in the ultraconservative Christianity that was on the rise following the founding of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority political group in 1979. He says that Stryker’s actions were based on “the stridency and the passion and, to a certain extent, the rage that some of [the members of the religious right] felt toward those who were not of their various persuasion.” As the mutants struggle against Stryker and his Purifiers, the idea that “the X-Men work as surrogates for just about any minority—sexual, racial, religious” becomes apparent.

Another theme present in God Loves, Man Kills is the issue of moral ambiguity and the effects of compromise. The X-Men are forced to team with their most powerful foe, Magneto, whose disdain for humanity and separatist views are antithetical to the beliefs of Professor X and his students. While the X-Men are aware of Magneto’s attitudes and practices, they must also take into account the fact that he is a powerful ally against the Stryker Crusade. This concept is illustrated when Magneto tortures a member of the Purifiers whom he and the X-Men have captured. Upon witnessing Magneto’s actions, Nightcrawler asks his teammates, “If we use our foes’ methods . . . how are we better than them?”

This idea ultimately plays out in the book’s final scene. Following the defeat of Stryker, Magneto invites Professor X to join him in his campaign to subjugate humanity for the sake of mutant preservation. Professor X is tempted by the offer but ultimately rejects it in favor of his more peaceful, idealistic approach. However, the fact that he considers the offer indicates that while he may not approve of Magneto’s attitudes or actions, he certainly understands his motivations.

X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills is a significant book for a number of reasons, not the least of which is its thematic density and complexity. It stands as a preeminent example of the capacity of comics and graphic novels to engage with serious, realistic subjects and ideas.

Impact

The hallmark of Christopher Claremont’s run as author of the X-Men was his transformation of the title into a long-running parable about the evils of racism and prejudice. During that time, he also created two more of the X-Men’s most iconic stories, The Dark Phoenix Saga (1980) and Days of Future Past (1981). The serious nature of Claremont’s work and the book’s commercial success in the early 1980’s made the X-Men title a prime candidate to be featured in Marvel’s new graphic novel line for more adult audiences.

Perhaps the most important element of God Loves, Man Kills is the manner in which it treats its thematic content. As the book deals with numerous mature themes and ideas, including racism, prejudice, and the role of faith, it was Claremont’s belief that the story could not be effectively told within the confines of a standard comic. In an interview by John Rhett Thomas in the 2007 edition of God Loves, Man Kills, Claremont explains that it was the vision of the creative and editorial team “to demonstrate how powerfully graphic storytelling could be used to convey concepts and stories in a way that people to a wide extent could understand and derive pleasure and learning from it.”

While the action of God Loves, Man Kills takes place outside the Marvel continuity, its thematic impact was felt in the mainstream X-Men books following its publication. Claremont continued to explore ideas of oppression and alienation, in X-Men as well as in related titles such as New Mutants and the Wolverine miniseries (featuring art by Frank Miller), both published in 1982. While God Loves, Man Kills may not have been the first time Claremont incorporated serious content into his work, it is certainly one of the most definitive examples of a movement that impacted virtually every other comic title of its era.

Films

X2: X-Men United. Directed by Bryan Singer. Marvel Enterprises, 2003. The film contains a number of elements that were directly inspired by God Loves, Man Kills, but it cannot be called a direct adaptation. The most prominent parallel is that both works feature an antagonist named William Stryker. However, the Stryker of God Loves, Man Kills is a former U.S. Army Ranger turned televangelist, while X2’s Stryker is a colonel in the U.S. Army who once sent his mutant son to Professor X’s School for Gifted Youngsters. While there are similarities in the plots of both works, such as Professor X’s kidnapping and the X-Men being forced to ally themselves with Magneto, there are also a multitude of dissimilarities in both narrative and characters, making God Loves, Man Kills more inspiration than direct source material for X2.

Further Reading

Bendis, Brian Michael, and Olivier Coipel. House of M (2008).

Claremont, Chris. X-Men: Days of Future Past (1981).

Claremont, Chris, and John Byrne. X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga (1980).

Bibliography

Duey, Kathleen, Robert Gould, and Eugene Epstein. X-Men Ultimate Picture Book. Carlsbad, Calif.: Big Guy Books, 2003.

Lee, Stan, ed. Five Decades of the X-Men. New York: Marvel Comics Group, 2002.

Sanderson, Peter. X-Men: The Ultimate Guide. 3d ed. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2006.