Hello guys thanks for reading this article and joining me when I dive into my own dream of my ideal DCCU. I previously posted six parts on this site, and you can read them here:
Part 1 Background and Wonder Woman
Part 2 Green Lantern
Part 3 the Flash
Part 4 Batman
Part 5 Justice League
Part 6 Aquaman
Now, obviously I am taking cues from the DCCU on our world, in that WB is making a movie starring Superman and Batman as I fantasize about my version of the World’s Finest Movie. Previously in Justice League, I teased that Wayne Enterprise, LexCorp and Queen Industries are in a three way competition for the Rebuild Metropolis Project, and the last thing we see concerning this is that Bruce Wayne working with his committee on multiple rebuilding projects, including the one mentioned above. Also, I teased the appearance of LexCorp powered exoskeletons. I hope I can deliver what I teased. Obviously, I would introduce Lex Luthor in this movie, but I don’t think he should be exposed to the public as a villain just yet (of course we as the audience know better). I also intend to introduce Oliver Queen, otherwise known as Green Arrow. The actor playing Green Arrow would be anyone but Stephen Amell, as I think it would not benefit anyone if I merge the TV universe and my dream DC cinematic universe.
We start with Lex Luthor at the LexCorp powered exoskeletons press conference. Lex Luthor claims that his powered exoskeletons/ mech suits would make rebuilding the cities destroyed by “the aliens” much more cheaper and faster. A reporter asks if Lex Luthor would elaborate on who he means by “the aliens”, “are they in yellow, green, or dark blue?” Lex Luthor simply replies, “‘the aliens’ means those who are not human.” And his PR team cuts the Q and A session short, and ends the press conference.
We see Lois Lane and Clark Kent leave the press conference hall, and they both are silent, thinking about the same thing: Lex Luthor’s comments on Superman.
“Well, Clark, it is not like it’s the first time someone say something bad about Superman.”
“It is not, but it is the first time since Sinestro invaded Earth. What’s more, this press conference would be covered in countless newspaper in the country, and more people would sit in front of their TV screens and watch Lex Luthor speaks badly about Superman.”
“Well, I think we can make it one newspaper less.”
The two walks away, as some large TV screen mounted on a building (like those in Times Square) showing the news channel shows Lex Luthor’s speech in the press conference. We switch to Wayne Enterprise, as the committees’ members sit around a large table and watch the news. Bruce Wayne is among them, looking concerned. “He uses the words ‘cheap’ and ‘fast’, the politicians and the general populaces are suckers for those words. Do we have a countermeasure?”
“Not at the moment, Mr Wayne, but I believe someone in the technical department can come up with something. Stanley, call Joan from technical.”
After Bruce Wayne leaves the meeting room, he goes straight to technical division.
We then go back to the press conference site, and we see Lex Luthor leaving in a limousine. We see him reading some documents, and we learn that his powered exoskeleton has something more to it. We also know that Lex Luthor has extensive information regarding the Kryptonian invasion, as well as Superman’s account about the invasion. We also see Lex Luthor has an interest in power rings. (Hint Hint.)
As Clark and Lois returns to the Daily Planet, Perry White begins to ask for the story about the powered exoskeleton. The two immediately begin to work on the story after Lois gave Perry some ideas. During lunchtime, Clark is so depressed about Lex Luthor’s comments, and the fact that he heard his colleagues talking about those comments during office hours. Feeling that he wants to clear his mind, and he wants to help some people, Clark changes into Superman and flies off. As he is flying up in the sky, above the clouds, he hears even more people talking about Lex Luthor’s comments; some thinks Superman is a hero for saving Earth from two batches of invaders, some thinks he is a potential threat, some thinks he is responsible for a lot of the destruction and collateral damage that happened during the invasions. Superman continues flying, and then suddenly he hears people screaming for help. He flies down, and he sees a building on fire, and several people are in danger. He quickly scans the building for its structure and life signs using his X-ray vision, and contains the situation with his freeze-breath and his invulnerability of fire. (This is the time for showcasing Superman’s abilities that are not used in Man of Steel and Justice League.)
When he finishes saving people, the onlookers and the fire-fighters cheer. Before Superman “switches off” his X-ray vision, he catches a glimpse of a portion of Lex Luthor’s documents which is an analysis of his account about the Kryptonian invasion. Waving goodbye to the onlookers, he flies towards Lex Luthor’s office, using all of his special vision powers and his enhanced hearing senses. Superman manages to get an impression that Lex Luthor hates him more than his fellow (dead) Kryptonians and the Sinestro Corps, before someone comes in and moves the document around (show that the guy is looking for a specific document, that’s why he is moving the other documents around), and Superman leaves as his afternoon work shift starts.
We then see Lex Luthor and his men talking about the rebuilding projects. Lex Luthor reads a report from his mole in Wayne Enterprises, that Bruce Wayne has some new technologies that can reduce the price of rebuilding and make the new buildings stronger; another mole in Queen Industries reported that she discovered that Queen Industries has a few new material that is extremely environmentally friendly, and Queen Industries has decided to use environmental protection as its ace. “So, our men are saying Oliver Queen and Bruce Wayne have their own aces up their sleeves in this competition? Mercy, call our friend Slade and Sandra.” (Deathstroke and Lady Shiva)
“Got it Lex.”
“And the progress of the ‘next-gen powered exoskeleton’, how is it going?”
Another man replies, “we found two willing test subjects, John Corben and Joseph Martin.” (I would make some tweaks on these two villains, please bear with me and don’t crucify me on this.)
“Good, don’t waste any time, perform the experiments now. And Mercy, call Mrs Waller to confirm our agreement.”
“Right away Lex.” (Remember/ Trivia time: Mercy Graves is the only one in LexCorp who can call her boss by his first name.)
Knowing that Lex Luthor has his account about his kinsmen’s invasion, Clark feels uneasy. He jumps at the chance to interview Bruce Wayne when Perry needs someone to cover the story of Wayne Enterprise’s technological breakthroughs.
Bruce Wayne (of course) knows who Clark Kent really is, and thus he lets the Daily Planet do an exclusive when he sees him in the press conference. Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne do the interview like normal reporters and company heads do, then Clark subtly tells Bruce that he thinks there is something going inside LexCorp targeting him, and Bruce Wayne hints at a second meeting place and time.
After meeting Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne goes back to his office and studies the company’s previous business deals with LexCorp. As he is reading the files, he hears something, which makes him instantly alert, knowing that he cannot demonstrate all his abilities if he does not want to reveal his true identity, Batman. A few moments later (make it really spine-chilling), as Bruce Wayne is striking a strange pose and staring at air-conditioning shafts, windows and doors one after the other, suddenly his office door burst open to reveal Deathstroke charging in, with his sword unsheathed. Bruce Wayne quickly throws three files at Deathstroke, each flying towards Deathstroke from a different angle and speed, and he ducks and runs for the coat and hat hanger. Deathstroke slaps the files away, slices at Bruce with his sword, and Bruce counters with the coat and hat hanger, trying very hard to survive without blowing his cover. Once Deathstroke moves away from the door, Bruce Wayne runs out of his office, zigzagging as gunshots are heard and bullets are fired at him. Bruce runs round a corner and catches a glimpse of his secretary and his staff unconscious or killed. Knowing that his stealth tactics cannot work when Deathstroke is literally two feet after him and the lights are on, Bruce Wayne makes way for the power room, dodging bullets as he runs.
Superman arrives at the place as Bruce said, and he does not see Batman. Concerned, he scans the city using his telescopic and x-ray vision. He sees a few things before finding Bruce Wayne. (The few things Superman sees can be used as set-up for future Batman movies, e.g. Penguin’s bar, or just Easter eggs such as Jim Gordon working in his office.) Superman sees Bruce Wayne flattening himself against a wall, and Deathstroke trying to locate where Bruce is. Superman immediately flies towards Wayne Tower, and try to scare Deathstroke away without hurting Bruce’s ego.
Bruce is already very tired, he really wants to pant for air but he cannot reveal his location. Deathstroke is not in good shape either, he had never spent so much time killing a businessman, and he is frustrated. Seeing that he is in charge of the situation, and Bruce Wayne cannot beat him, Deathstroke begins shooting walls and slicing everything he sees. Suddenly, Deathstroke’s gun and sword become extremely hot, and Deathstroke drops them out of surprise (because of Superman’s heat vision, duh). Bruce seized the chance and knocks him out. “Thank you Clark, I have to meet you some other day.”
“Take your time with the police Bruce. I’ll come tomorrow for this story.”
“You have a story for me too.”
The next day, Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent meet and they finally shares their information. Bruce Wayne tells Clark Kent he finds that LexCorp has their financial records all straight, though certain entries do not agree with the same entries in Wayne Enterprise’s accounts; and Clark Kent tells Bruce Wayne that Lex Luthor has extensive information concerning Superman, which worries him. Bruce Wayne, after getting up to speed, and after surviving Deathstroke’s attack, decides to take his Batman suit to Metropolis, where the official presentations organized for the three companies for the Rebuild Metropolis Project competition would be held.
At the presentation, we first see Oliver Queen presents his proposal, which makes a lot of people happy, due to his environmentally-friendly strategies and his charming personality. Bruce Wayne, wearing make-up to hide his wounds and bruises, is the only one in the room that notices Oliver Queen’s wounds, which he hides by jokingly says that he had an accident of bumping into a pillar. Bruce also notices that Lex Luthor is looking confident and sure of himself, despite Queen Industries’ environmentally-friendly materials trumps his powered exoskeleton proposal, though Lex Luthor also looks slightly disappointed. Right after Oliver Queen finishes his presentation, one side of the walls of the presentation room exploded when machine-looking thing walks in. We see Atomic Skull, as a suit here in my version, storm in and start blasting people. Bruce Wayne immediately rushes away after telling his employees to do the same, and we hear Oliver Queen says “excuse me” in the background. Clark Kent also runs out of the room, and moments later, Superman flies in and combats the Atomic Skull, pushing the suit out of the conference room and then tries to restrain the suit. Batman soon appears, to everyone’s surprise, and he starts getting people to safety and telling bystanders to hide. After that, he begins scanning the Atomic Skull suit. Superman is looking at it with his X-ray vision too, but he has a hard time trying to make sense of what he sees while battling the suit. Seeing the Atomic Skull’s blasts are harming too many bystanders, Superman attempts to remove the suit from the city by carrying it to the outskirts and continuing the battle there, and he thinks it would be wise to cover where the skull emits the blasts during flight. Superman tries to hold the “skull” with his hands, so that he can block the blasts, and carry the suit away. He hears Batman cries, “Superman, stop!” But it is too late.
As Superman lifts off with his hands around the “skull” part of the suit, the “skull” comes off, to reveal that there is a man inside the suit, and his head is inside the “skull” part. Because the suit is too heavy, the force made by Superman and the suit accidentally breaks the man’s neck. (Yes the man inside is Joseph Martin, and no I would not show much gore, anything more gruesome than Thor’s hand getting cut off would not be shown. However, this scene must be shocking; Superman, Batman and the bystanders must be terrified by what they witness. In my version, Atomic Skull is a man inside a suit.)
As the press and a lot of the personnel are scattered from the presentation hall, and the hall is in shambles, the organising committee decided to continue the presentation meeting tomorrow. That night, Lex Luthor releases another video. He expresses in the video his distaste of Superman. “Superman flies into the conference hall when the skull-faced suit attacks and pushes him to the street to fight, like a naïve boy chasing his enemy for a fistfight. His lack of care for the nearby buildings and civilians is evident, as he lets the man in the skull-faced suit use the energy weapon mounted on the suit to destroy surrounding buildings and endanger onlookers. It is a miracle that only five people were killed. Then, when he is enraged, Superman breaks the neck of the man operating the suit, like what he did to his fellow kinsmen. I tell you, this Superman is a threat!”
Superman meets Batman on top of the Daily Planet to discuss what should they do during midnight. Obviously Superman is shocked by his accidental murder, and he asks what Batman saw when he scanned the suit; but Batman seems more worried about the situation. “According to my scan, this suit is made by some overseas company which does not exist according to my records, and the suit is designed to break the user’s neck when the suit is lifted the way you did. Also, deeper research shows that some of the accounts inside my company don’t agree with each other. I suspect that there is a mole in my company, it is responsible for the account discrepancies, both my accounts and LexCorp’s accounts.”
“What can I do, Bruce? I just killed a man in that suit!”
“Not much now, actually. You would have to bear that burden for now, and perhaps learn to fight more carefully. I am sorry about today, Clark. Maybe you can lose the costume and be a reporter for now if you want to do something.”
“And you?”
“I’ll try and find who Lex Luthor’s mole is, and what he is trying to do, fooling Bruce Wayne and badmouthing you.”
“Are you sure that it is Lex Luthor and his mole?”
“Who else would do this? Who else would build such a suit to frame you?”
Batman then creeps into LexCorp. We now cues Batman infiltrating LexCorp, taking down guards, hacking computers, planting bugs, switching off lights and other awesome things. Batman hears Mercy Graves talking on the phone about the “Slade and Sandra is just a distraction”, “next-gen powered exoskeleton”, “the new material” and “military contract”. After Mercy hanged up the phone, Batman hears a beep sound, and he quickly runs away as he hears Mercy Graves call security and the press. Now, we have a similar situation like what we had five minutes ago: Batman taking down guards, but when the guards are alert and bloodlust. Batman takes down more guards has a brief fight with Mercy, and he jumps out of a window and glides away.
Superman meanwhile covers Lex Luthor’s video on his Daily Planet article and he goes to sleep early. He cannot fall asleep as the visions of him killing the man in the Atomic Skull suit (the audience know the man as Joseph Martin) keep waking him. After some time of trying to sleep, he receives a call. “Hello?”
“Mr Kent, I have a special story for you…”
Superman knows that it is Bruce on the other end. It is revealed that apart from the few words Batman overheard, Batman’s bugs picked up that Lex Luthor has a deal with the military: Lex Luthor would make them powered exoskeleton battle suits, in return for the military getting Lex Luthor the Rebuilding Metropolis project. Lex Luthor also reached the conclusion that a substance in the air in the Kryptonian ship, which Superman boarded in Man of Steel, caused Superman to haemorrhage and pass out; and Lex Luthor had isolated the substance and created a new material, which theoretically should have the same effect on Superman as the Kryptonian atmosphere.
Bruce Wayne is in bad shape, though he successfully escaped from LexCorp, he knows that the Metropolis police force is informed about the intrusion, and they are working in LexCorp for evidences. After changing back to civilian clothing and making the call to Clark Kent in a public phone booth, he badly needs some sleep, and he almost calls “Alfred!” Knowing that he had made a mistake and having the mistake reinforce the fact that he is exhausted, Batman makes some coffee and begins to work on finding more evidence that can be used to prove that Lex Luthor is behind the Atomic Skull incident.
The next day, Lex Luthor takes the stage in the presentation meeting before Bruce Wayne. He briefly talks about his plan of using powered exoskeleton to assist in the rebuilding process, and thus using less money. Lex Luthor invites the participants to ask questions concerning LexCorp’s proposal, and he uses the questions as opportunities to attack Superman even more. Knowing that he has lost the competition, despite having evidence that LexCorp has some shady business with some authority, Bruce takes the platform and presents Wayne Enterprises’ proposal.
Clark Kent feels like he has fell to rock bottom. As Superman, he was tricked into “killing” Atomic Skull by Lex Luthor in public, and the public was tricked into believing that Superman intentionally killed a man. As Clark Kent, he and Bruce Wayne can both see that Lex Luthor has won the competition for the Rebuild Metropolis Project because of the back-up from the military, and they both know that they cannot prove what they know to the courts, as all their evidence comes from “Batman”, which cannot stand. Still, Clark Kent knows that Superman is still needed in this world, and he believes that the people would believe in him once again when they see him continue helping people, and that can help clear his name of killing Joseph Martin. Therefore, he appears as Superman after the presentation meeting and flies around Metropolis to try and help people, so that he can convince people that he is here to help and he is a good guy. Superman flies around and he tries to find something to do, but all he hears is that people’s discussions of whether Superman is still good or has he lost control.
After the presentation, Wayne Enterprises’ employees had a party in a club in Metropolis, as the committee members think that they are very likely that their company get the project. Bruce Wayne is the only one in the party who knows the truth: Lex Luthor has won the project, thanks to his deal with the military, and Bruce Wayne finds this defeat tastes bitter. He leaves his employees in the club and goes back to his hotel. If he has any hope to get back the project and defeat Luthor, he needs evidence of the military deal; specifically, evidence which would not raise the question of “where did your company find these?” when Wayne Enterprise gives them to the police. He knows he cannot treat Lex Luthor like how he treated the thugs he interrogated in the past; hanging them upside down on top of a building and make them spill their beans. Therefore he decided to go into the LexCorp building and hack their computers again.
Batman sneaks into LexCorp to find more evidence. He attempts to hack an email account and use it to send LexCorp’s accounts to Wayne Enterprise. But he hears some sound before he can finish his work. Knowing LexCorp is capable of making things as powerful as the Atomic Skull suit, Batman sneaks away, but then he hears more sounds coming his way, and it is becoming louder. Batman attempts to lose the pursuer, but he soon realizes that the suit must have sensors, and Batman’s stealth skills cannot do him much good when he is in a surrounding he is not familiar with.
Superman continues flying around the city, thinking. Occasionally he catches things other people mistakenly knocked out of their window, but he dare not stay too long, as one glimpse of their face, and Superman knows how the person he helped thinks of him. He hears Batman in the LexCorp building, and he hears the security guards calling the police. He then flies towards the LexCorp building in order to get Batman out before it’s too late. He locates where Batman is a street block away, as he sees Batman running from another metal suit. Incredibly, the metal suit turns and looks at Superman. The suit then breaks a window and jumps out of the building. It then starts running towards Superman.
Batman can feel that the pursuer stopped chasing him, and he knows what happened. He looks out of the broken window to see Superman floating a street block away looking confused, and the metal suit running towards Superman. Batman then scans the metal suit, and for the first time, we see Batman terrified. (He was frightened when Scarecrow sprayed him with his fear-toxin in Part 4, not really terrified.) He then leaps out of the LexCorp building and glides towards the metal suit.
This time, Superman scanned the metal with his X-ray vision and gets a clearer picture: there is a brain in the suit, nothing organic apart from that, and the suit (or we should call it robot now) is powered by a piece of material locating in the centre of its “chest”. The robot suddenly stops, and from its eyes two beams of energy coming blasting towards Superman. (If you really want to be faithful to the source material, the beams and the piece of “material” can be green in colour.) Superman barely dodges, but not without a suddenly nausea. “Superman! It is ‘that’ material!” Superman hears that a little bit too late, and a second blast from the robot’s “eyes” hit Superman squarely on the chest. Superman has nausea again, and he barely can keep himself afloat. Batman has landed by then, and he runs towards the robot, and tries to restrain it. “Batman stop! There’s a brain inside it!” Superman flies towards the robot and Batman as he speaks, fearing that Batman would harm the brain in the robot. Before he reaches the two, the robot’s right hand reaches behind itself and grabs Batman by his neck, and lifts Batman up in the air, facing the robot; and the robot’s left hand MORPHS into an axe. The robot stretches its left hand, and swings, trying to decapitate Batman. Batman sticks two electrically charged batarangs at the robot, and Superman cuts off the axe from the robot with his heat vision at the same time, incapacitating the robot for a moment. As the three are fighting in the centre of a road, Superman takes the chance and yells, “Everyone take cover! It is dangerous here! Take cov…” And he gets blasted by another beam from the robot’s eyes. This time, Superman falls from the sky and hits the ground, to the onlookers’ surprise. Batman attempts to take down the robot again, this time he uses his grappling gun to restrain the robot, then he sticks plastic explosives on the robot. The explosives severed both arms from the robot, but the robot goes T-1000 and reforms its arms. In the meantime, Batman helps Superman gets up, and asks if he is alright. “It feels like back in Zod’s ship, I’ll give you that.” Before Batman can say reply, he is hit with a bigger beam of energy, emitted from the robot’s chest this time. Batman struggles to get up, and when he shields Superman, he yells, “Heat vision now!” Superman briefly aimed at the robot’s head, before slicing it into two pieces, from the left shoulder to the right waist. Batman peered at the robot on the ground as Superman flies towards the robot. “Why didn’t you just slice its head off with your heat vision?” Superman says, “Because there is a …” and he is caught by the robot; a metal ring around Superman’s neck pushes his head upward, and neutralizes the use of heat vision. The robot then says, “for my dead family in your kinsmen’s invasion,” and unleashes its chest beam at Superman. Superman is gravely sick after the energy blast; he struggles free from the robot’s grip, and drops onto the ground. Batman just barely musters enough strength to stand up after his encounter with the chest beam, and he runs into battle again, this time using his goo-gun to stick the robot to the ground and immobilize it. Batman tells Superman that he is the only hope of stopping the robot, but Superman feels that he cannot do so because he fears he would take another life. Batman convinces Superman that there is no life in the robot; the brain only tells the robot what to do. Superman then argues that there is a life in the robot, and he would not kill ever again. The robot breaks free at this point, and Batman goes and fight the robot some more, with some new tactics and improvisation. Superman seeing Batman is trying really hard to survive, flies in to help, and he tears away the robot’s right arm, which is holding Batman at that time. However, the exposure to the material mounted on the robot’s chest severely weakens Superman, and he drops onto the ground barely after tearing away the left arm. Luckily, Batman successfully pulls the material away from the robot, making it stop, and then he wraps it with his cape. He is barely standing when the crowds cheer for both the heroes, and he grapples away before the ambulance arrives and Superman is rushed to a hospital.
The next day, Bruce Wayne wakes up, and he turns on the TV in his hotel room. Just as he expected, LexCorp got the Rebuild Metropolis Project; and the silver lining is that police is investigating the incident with several witness accounts saying the robot emerged from the LexCorp building.
Lois Lane visits Superman in the hospital, and she learns that Superman is recuperating after his exposure to “unknown radiation” last night. Bruce Wayne comes to visit “the hero who saved the people in front of LexCorp last night”. Inside the hospital, the two come to grips with the fact that Lex Luthor has won one of the battles, and most likely the investigation concerning last night’s brawl would be dropped soon. “You saved our lives last night, Superman, thank you.”
“Batman saved mine when he removed that irradiating material. Where is it now?”
“I destroyed it.” (Relax, Batman would get some more Kryptonite in the future.)
We cut to Lex Luthor and Mercy Graves talking. We learn a few things here:
-Lex Luthor does not see the two “next-gen powered exoskeleton” as a failure, rather as successful test runs for his personal suit, and now he sees how he should improve his personal suit.
-The military is pleased with the performance of Atomic Skull and Metallo, and they would like to buy LexCorp’s technology.
-He never intends to kill Bruce Wayne or Oliver Queen; he just wants to shake them up a little bit.
-His test formula of making something that can make Superman to feel sick works, and he has a few more variations.
This scene ends with Lex Luthor saying that he is pleased with the situation, and as the deal works, he thinks Mrs Waller is pleased too. And the movie ends.
Before you start criticizing this, let me do some criticism for you.
I know this is not my best work. I know I lifted a few plot details from other stories floating around the internet. I know I did not use Deathstroke enough. I know Superman and Batman seem useless here. I know I changed quite a bit from the source material. I know there are more things that can be vastly improved, which you would like to point out.
What I am trying to do is to make Superman and Batman face something new: they have to face the power of “words” and “politics”. Superman was slandered to no end by Lex Luthor, and Batman lost a business project because of something illegal but he cannot stop nor prove. The villain in the movie has won. I think not everyone would like this, but I am being honest, this is what I want to see. I want to do three things in this movie: follow up the story in Man of Steel and Justice League (like the real life Batman VS Superman movie), have Batman and Superman bond and have them face something they cannot overcome.
So that’s how I envision my Worlds’ Finest movie. I really hope you like it. I would try to write one more fan-fic, before my semester starts and schoolwork take over my life. Please stay tuned.