Square Off: Col. William Stryker from X-MEN

Throughout Hollywood history, countless characters have been played by various actors. While some have clearly been better than others, other times it is difficult to decide which actor does the best job in the role. Square Off takes two actors and puts them against each other, and determines the best. For our first match-up, we are going to take a look at Brian Cox and Danny Huston in their portrayals of Col. William Stryker from the X-MEN series.

Col. William Stryker rivals many humans with his hatred for mutants in the X-MEN universe. As a father, he was unable to stop his mutant son from manipulating his wife’s mind as she killed herself. From that point on, he set himself to rid the world of mutants. Pragmatically, he surrounds himself with mutants and pulls their strings to work towards his sick final solution. In X2, Stryker is portrayed by one of Hollywood’s greats, Brian Cox. Stryker’s plan in the film is to use Charles Xavier’s Cerebro machine to end the lives of all mutants around the world. Danny Huston, in the prequel X-Men Origins: Wolverine, plays a younger Stryker, who seeks to create the ultimate mutant weapon, and use it to do his evil bidding. Two very different actors, two very different movies. Which one will the winner?

Brian Cox – X2

Brian shows the more emotional side of Stryker in X2. Stryker explains to Xavier the reason for his hatred stems from the loss of his wife. He describes in detail how his wife put a power tool to her head while his son manipulated her thoughts. Instead of being short-sighted and thinking small, Stryker uses his learned knowledge of Cerebro to strike at all mutants around the planet at once. He successfully invaded Xavier’s mansion, and his deep pockets through the military have supplied him with a tactical force to secure one of the most powerful mutants, Xavier himself. The last we see of him, his plan has been foiled, and Wolverine leaves him injured and chained up to face a storm of flooding water from the broken dam at the military facility.

Danny Huston – X-MEN Origins: Wolverine

Danny Huston plays Stryker as a younger and more fluid man. His overall plan in the film is to create the ultimate killing machine, but throughout the movie he goes back and forth with allegiances. The opening shows him with his mutant team, including Wolverine. After Wolverine leaves the team, Stryker goes after the other teammates who left before sending Victor Creed after him. Ironically enough, Stryker puts Wolverine through the Weapon X program, testing him to see if the adamantium process is viable. It’s with the indestructible metal that Wolverine would eventually defeat Stryker in the future, but not before the Colonel shoots him in the head, leading to his memory loss.

And the winner is…

Brian Cox, who not only gave Stryker a deeper portrayal than Huston, but also is comes across more believable as a rogue military man. This decision was fairly straightforward, but in upcoming Squared Off features, we will be looking into some that are much more difficult to determine. Do you agree with this outcome? Leave your comments below.