8. Superman Charms The World's Denizens - A Cynical, Dubious Batman Investigates
Where we last left off in
Man of Steel, Superman was incapable of taking his Earth-shattering fist fights out of Smallville or even just IHOP for that matter, and thusly destroyed the majority of its main street. However, he also saved the Earth and humanity, too. The media hotly debates Superman's intentions because of all the collateral damage and because of the way he, ahem, took care of Zod. The majority of public opinion, though, says he's a pretty swell guy. We're sure to see him save the day at least once more, while hearing about other instances of heroism since
Man of Steel. We will also see how Clark Kent has settled into Metropolis, and hopefully get a better characterization of Lois Lane. A weakness (kryptonite) gets foreshadowed here, too. At around minute five, according to
Save the Cat, the theme is stated. Perhaps Mama Kent will tell her son something like, "Clark, you can save everyone. Nobody has to die," or something gentle. The kind of thing that Batman is later going to tell Superman with his fists. However, not only did Superman brutally kill the one person capable of stopping him, he also committed a virtual genocide by killing the remainder of his own people. What's to stop him from doing the same to humanity, our Batman asks. So, perhaps under the guise of a philanthropic, humanitarian event, Wayne Corp. along with Gotham's favorite son, Bruce Wayne, come to Metropolis to help rebuild in the Kryptonian's aftermath. What's said next in this section is absolutely pure speculation, but maybe Clark Kent will even cover Bruce Wayne's press conference. Clark will notice something is... off... about Mr. Wayne, and will then detect that there are hit-men nearby with his super hearing. He quickly changes into Superman, and saves Bruce Wayne, who upon closer inspection, is not actually the eccentric trillionaire at all, but a double. We then see a smiling Batman watching from afar, watching and observing. This part will cover the "set up," "the catalyst," "the debate" and "break into the second act" parts of
Save the Cat. Batman's motivation is to figure out how to stop the most dangerous threat our world has ever faced, the Last Son of Krypton. Superman's motivation is to prove to Earth that they can trust him. And we'll have a third party as well, a villain that the two unite against in the end to defeat, whose motivation will definitely be complicated (as we have come to expect from David Goyer and his fantastic villains so far), but to put it at its most pragmatic and simple, it'll be to kill Superman.