The Mutant Massacre is one of the darkest days for mutantkind but Stryker’s attack on the New X-Men was just as devastating.
The Decimation event, also known as M-Day, left the mutant world in ruins when most with abilities were depowered. It left the X-Men and the students attending Xavier’s school reeling as many of them were no longer mutants, leaving many to question their existence or injure themselves while trying to activate their powers again.
In the wake of this devastation, the young students of Xavier’s school keep taking hits. The New X-Men story arc “Crusade” finds an old enemy coming to take out the X-Men while they are at their lowest.
Published in 2006, writers Craig Kyle and Chris Yost bring back the hateful religious zealot Reverend William Stryker in a new, terrifying way. Stryker, a villain who has haunted the X-Men for years, rose to fame as a televangelist who preached that mutants were abominations, affronts to God. Stryker is down on his luck and without his hate fueling him, he goes to his former church for guidance. As he is about to kill himself, a vision appears. What he thinks is a sign from God, is actually from Nimrod, a Sentinel from the future.
Nimrod shows Stryker that many mutants will perish on M-Day and Stryker must help end the lives of those that remain. He finds the media spotlight again, speaking to the masses about the threat of mutants. Not only has he gathered a public following but he has also created a team of “Purifiers” who are willing to shed the blood of those who go against Stryker’s vision of a mutant-free world. Even a mutant is swayed by Stryker as Joshua Guthrie, aka Icarus, has struggled with accepting his mutant abilities and blames the death of his girlfriend on his powers. Guthrie leaves the safety of the mansion and is found by Stryker who cuts off his wings to make him “normal.” In return, Guthrie thinks Stryker will help his friends at Xavier’s school and gives him inside details.
At the school, Emma Frost sees a rise in violence against mutants, underscored by Guthrie returning with life-threatening injuries. Deciding that the students who have lost their powers are in danger, Emma Frost and Cyclops smuggle them out of the school to an awaiting bus to take them to safety. As the last student gets on board, a missile hits the bus, killing 42 of them. Fifteen of them are buried on the school grounds as their families still rejected them, even in death. When asked why the children had to be killed, Stryker says that as former mutants the children would have created sympathy for mutantkind, showing that they are not monsters.