In a flashback to his childhood, Bruce Wayne runs from his parents' funeral. He falls into a cave, where a circling vortex of bats elevates him back to the surface. In the present, eighteen months after his cataclysmic battle with General Zod in Metropolis, Superman has become a controversial figure. Bruce is now a billionaire who has operated in Gotham City as the masked vigilante Batman for twenty years. Having witnessed the battle in person, he sees Superman as an existential threat to humanity.
Clark Kent, Superman's civilian identity, seeks to condemn Batman's form of justice in Daily Planet articles. Bruce learns that Russian weapon trafficker Anatoli Knyazev has been contacting LexCorp mogul Lex Luthor. Luthor attempts to persuade Senator June Finch to allow him to import kryptonite discovered in the aftermath of Zod's terraforming attempt, so that it can be used as a deterrent against future Kryptonian threats. She declines, but Luthor makes alternative plans with Finch's subordinate, who grants him access to Zod's corpse and the Kryptonian scout ship.
