10 X-Men Graphic Novels You Must Read Before You Die
4. God Loves, Man Kills
Stan Lee always said that he created the X-Men as an allegory for the Civil Rights Movement, and no-where is this truer than in 1982's graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills.
When two mutant children are murdered under the orders of Reverend William Stryker, it sets in motion a plot that it will see every mutant killed in one fail swoop.
Stryker is not a normal human being. Sure, he has no powers but he is pure evil to his core. This is, after all, the man who murders both his wife and newborn after he discovers the baby is a mutant and, if he has his way, he'll murder every last person who has the nerve to be different.
He successfully kidnaps Professor X and straps him to a machine that can kill all mutant kind with one massive cerebral haemorrhage. Luckily, the X-Men and Magneto, of all people, save the day and Charles Xavier and manage to bait Stryker into admitting to it all on national TV.
Written by Chris Claremont, a man responsible for far too many brilliant X-Men stories, and illustrated by Brent Anderson, God Loves is a no holds-bared look at bigotry and all within the pages of a simple comic book.