Taking this approach to villains has proven to be one of the X-Men franchise’s strongest assets. Many have complained about the weak villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the X-Men films have consistently produced villains that engage in a moral ambiguity that makes them easily relatable.
Magneto’s time in Nazi concentration camps imbued him with a fear of further persecution, a thirst for revenge, and a bastardized sense of justice. In X2 William Stryker sought revenge against the mutants on a race-wide level after his mutant son tormented him and his wife – leading to her eventual suicide.
Even Bolivar Trask from the recent X-Men: Days of Future Past blatantly stated that he did not hate the mutants he wished to eradicate, but he admired them and saw them as a common struggle that could unite the human race against our inevitable extinction. Despite the obvious differences in origin and power level, Apocalypse’s rationale for going down his villainous path follows similar – as well as relatable – character beats.