So, in my frustration over Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, I wrote a bit of fanfiction that exemplifies what I wish I had seen instead of what we actually got. Even though I didn't really care for Man of Steel, I'm still using it as a basis for this idea. The horizontal lines denote location changes for this opening set piece. I overall tried to hue toward what WB was going for, but tried to stay truer to the characters. At least in my view.
An abandoned factory burns in Gotham City's garment district. Firefighters douse the blaze, but nothing seems to knock back the flames until Superman arrives. He surveys the scene for a moment as the music swells. With his incredible senses, he hears the sound of a woman whimpering from deep within the building. He smashes through the burning masonry to find the source: a tape recorder sitting on a desk. He takes only the briefest of moments to process what that means before darting back to the inferno.
Cut to Bruce Wayne in Metropolis, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the newly repaired Wayne Tower. Bruce delivers an amiable speech about hope and optimism. “General Zod may have wounded the skyline of this city, but he could never touch the hopeful spirit of its people. We will not give in to suspicion. Or fear. Or hate. Because we will always remember that while this city was threatened by alien hands, it was also saved by them.” The voice over of his speech carries back to the previous scene in Gotham...
Pushing through the heat, Superman discovers that the fire wasn't actually burning out of control, but rather was being fed by a network of gas lines throughout the building. He shuts off the gas and dumps the contents of a nearby water tower on what sparse flames remain.
The firefighters cheer as Superman flies down to meet them. “Helluva job, Superman!” Superman smiles and shakes hands with the men and women, thanking them for the help. In the distance, an elderly man in a long overcoat and hat watches Superman carefully, glances at his watch.
Bruce Wayne concludes his speech, grabs the oversized pair of scissors. He scans the crowd, stopping once he sees Lois Lane scribbling onto a small legal pad. She turns the pad to Bruce, “10 minutes on the record. I'll wear a low-cut dress.” Bruce smiles rakishly and gives her a wink in response. Just as he's about to cut the ribbon, the facade on the newly constructed skyscraper explodes.
Superman's eyes snap to the horizon, and he's off like a rocket. The elderly man glances at his watch again and breathes a sigh of relief.
Back in Metropolis, chaos has erupted outside Wayne Tower as a second explosion blasts out windows and shatters concrete from farther up the building. Luckily, the crowd had been gathered in a courtyard a far enough distance to be spared the brunt of the explosions or the raining glass. Lois and Jimmy Olsen watch the spectacle with wide eyes and a whirring camera. She turns back to where Bruce Wayne had been a second earlier, but he's gone.
Bruce runs through the dust and into the ground floor of Wayne Tower. He pries open the elevator door, retrieves a grapnel gun from a hidden compartment, and zips up the shaft.
Outside, Superman arrives and again surveys the scene. To his astonishment, everyone outside the building seems to be safe. The explosions haven't caused significant structural damage either, but his X-ray vision reveals three more bombs on the building's supporting frame and a single man on the top floor. Superman plows through glass and drywall to disarm the explosives in an instant then circles back to save the man.
Superman bursts through the glass of Bruce Wayne's office. “Mr. Wayne! I've disarmed the remaining explosives, but this building isn't safe! Just come with me and-”
“Help me save them!” Bruce replies from inside the closet. “I need to save them!”
Back to street level, Jimmy photographs the destruction and then notices Superman floating gently down from the sky, carrying Bruce Wayne in an office chair clutching a golf bag. Once they are safely down, Lois rushes them. “What the hell was that about?!”
Superman frowns. “I'm afraid Mr. Wayne values expensive toys more than his own life.”
Bruce chuckles. “I can't argue with that. But these clubs once belonged to President Eisenhower himself. Do you play?”
Lois ignores Bruce, as anyone would when in the presence of Superman. “What's going on?”
Superman: “I don't know. There were three more bombs that would have taken down the building. I was lucky to be close enough to help-”
Bruce: “My gosh. Well thank you so much, Superman. If you can hold on a moment, I'd like to write you a check for your trouble.”
Superman bristles as first responders finally swarm the scene. “That won't be necessary, Mr. Wayne.” He gently lifts himself into the air and flies away. As Bruce watches, his persona slips away to reveal the true man beneath. A man possessed of awe, terror, and rage.
After a short reintroduction to Clark and Lois and possibly some foreshadowing about Kryptonite or the rest of the plot, the film picks back up again with Bruce Wayne.
Bruce returns to stately Wayne Manor, where he is greeted by the elderly man from the Gotham fire. The man grimaces, but has no words.
“I've got plenty of buildings, Alfred,” Bruce greets his oldest friend and confidant, “I can buy all the brick and steel in the world, but what I need is information.”
Alfred bites his tongue. Whatever withering remark he wanted to offer remained unsaid. “Coffee, Master Wayne?”
Bruce recognizes the rebuke all the same, takes off his jacket (still mottled with dust and fragments of glass) and proceeds to the Bat Cave, where several computer screens are already displaying news coverage of both the bombing at Wayne Tower and the fire in the garment district. The headlines and chyrons echo the same sentiment: “Superman saves the day.” Bruce sits and begins to work.
A short time later, Alfred brings the pot of coffee. Bruce's eyes flash from screen to screen, cross-referencing time stamps from every source including secret cameras he'd placed all over both sites, piecing together the events in as complete a form as possible. Every fragment of insight brings with it a renewed sense of panic for Bruce. Quick cuts of of the day Zod attacked Metropolis. Bruce had been there that day. He'd seen the carnage of that battle firsthand and was helpless to stop it. And he refused to be helpless again.
Bruce frowns at his findings as he keeps writing and rewriting figures. "Top speed: Gotham-Metropoils: 5 minutes 14 second – ~Mach 3.4” and “Heat resistance up to 20k degrees – No effect.” Alfred clears his throat and offers Bruce a cup of coffee.
“He can see through walls,” Bruce says, almost in defeat. “The bomb by the window was supposed to bait the hook and encourage him to search the building, but he went straight for the one in the stairwell first. He must have been able to see it from outside. And when he came for me, he went straight to the top floor.” His brow furrows. “But then at the fire, he went to the sound of a crying girl, even though he should have been able to see from outside that there wasn't anyone in there.”
“Maybe he was just making sure,” Alfred offers.
“No... look at his face when he realizes. Something about that room... No. Not the room, just this wall here. He approached from this side and couldn't see through it.” Bruce checks the factory's plans and finds the wall. When he realizes what he's found, Bruce smiles. “Inside that wall is a tangle of lead pipes...” He turns back to the picture of Superman's confusion. “You can't see through lead, can you?”
“All this time pouring over every scrap of information about him, and you've missed the obvious. Since Zod's invasion, this is a man who has done everything in his power to help people.”
“He's not a man, Alfred.” Bruce stands and stretches. “And it doesn't matter what he does or why he betrayed Zod or how many cats he pulls out of trees. Today I saw what I needed to see.”
“What's that.”
“This 'Superman' persona that he's created is a lie. I don't know who or what he really is. I don't know if he's friend or foe. But I know a mask when I see one.”
Alfred sighs, collects the empty cup as the news continues to roll on the screen behind him. Bruce's smiling face from earlier in the day with the caption that reads “Bruce Wayne: 'Do Not Give in to Fear'.”
And then it would go on from there, with Batman and Superman trying to figure each other out in a kind of cat and mouse game (not immediately aim toward killing each other). There's not even a whole lot of philosophical differences between them when you get right down to it. Batman should be suspicious because he's always suspicious. And Superman should eventually win his confidence by proving he actually is as good a guy as he comes across as. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it.