Apocalypse talks about survival as though he is simply explaining a law of nature. Then he spends an enormous amount of time arranging who gets stronger, who gets hurt and which…

Apocalypse talks about survival as though he is simply explaining a law of nature. Then he spends an enormous amount of time arranging who gets stronger, who gets hurt and which fight everybody has to take part in. The Horsemen make that contradiction very clear. He chooses the recruits, changes their circumstances, provides the equipment and points them at a target. This isn't a neutral test. He has his hands on the scales from the beginning. Each recruitment gives him a different pressure point. War has been badly injured. Famine is young and vulnerable. Pestilence has lived through the destruction of her community. Warren desperately wants back something that has been taken from him. Apocalypse presents himself as the answer and expects their futures in return. He is also willing to let the first three fail against X-Factor so they can learn the lesson he wants taught. To him, the damage around that lesson is acceptable. The civilians caught in the middle don't get to decline participation. When Death is revealed, the experiment becomes personal for X-Factor. They aren't just being offered a place beside an enemy. They are being shown their friend as an example of what the enemy can do to them. Apocalypse has the size, the technology and the physical power to be intimidating without any of that manipulation. The Horsemen add something worse: evidence that he can find somebody's worst moment and make himself indispensable inside it. He calls that salvation. The people who accept it lose their names to roles in his plan, and the rest of New York gets to find out what those roles mean.