Reverend William Stryker, a charismatic preacher fiercely hostile to mutants, launches a campaign to convince the public that they represent a threat to humanity. His growing influence is accompanied by increasingly direct violence, while Charles Xavier himself becomes a central target of Stryker’s plan. Faced with this ideological and political offensive, the X-Men are forced into a temporary alliance with Magneto. Beyond the struggle against a common enemy, the story confronts mutants and humans with the mechanisms of fear, fanaticism, and organized hatred.