70. William Stryker

Few villains are scarier than those who truly believe they are doing God's work. Such is the case with William Stryker, a televangelist who uses his position of influence to turn as many as he can against Mutants, a species he believes is an abomination that should be wiped off the face of the Earth.

For 20 years, Stryker was known only for a single appearance, in the X-Men graphic novel "God Loves, Man Kills." However the storyline was so powerful it directly influenced the excellent X2: X-Men United. The film took the general framework from that graphic novel - in which Stryker kidnaps Professor X and attempts to use him to unwittingly help set off a machine that can kill all mutants on Earth. The film revised Stryker to be a corrupt United States Army General.

Thanks to X2's hype and success, Stryker has played a major part in modern X-Men comics, where he's proved to be just as dedicated to his cause as ever, targeting every last mutant on Earth as his "holy crusade" continues.