The Sound Of Superheroes
Founded in 1934, DC Comics has made its mark on the printed page, the small screen, and the big screen. With its new subscription streaming service, DC Universe, officially underway, the world of heroes such as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, has become even more available to anyone with a device connected to the web. The streaming service will offer everything from original content to a rotating catalogue of classic films, cartoons, and television programs.
While not everything that DC has put out has been a hit, there have been plenty of films, cartoons, and television shows that have left their mark on pop culture. We’ve all hummed along to the Batman (1966) theme song and who hasn’t puffed out their chest and pretended to fly when hearing the iconic Theme From Superman from John Williams’ score for the 1978 film?
In September of 2010, DC Comics released The Music of DC Comics: 75th Anniversary Collection as a celebration of the music that accompanied the live action and animated content from DC. At first you might not think that comic books and music make a good pair, but you’d be wrong. By just listening to the first few tracks on this album, you realize just how important music is to building up a character or setting the tone for a film or series.
The collection features quite a few expected tracks such as the previously mentioned Superman film theme and the 60’s Batman theme, but it also features plenty of other songs that take you on a trip down memory lane. The tracks are listed by hero and include voice overs and sound effects. Starting with Superman and ending with Wonder Woman, the album covers decades worth of great music from films and shows featuring characters like Swamp Thing, Plastic Man, The Flash, and lesser known heroes that you might not have known had their own shows like Hawkman and The Atom.
Some of my personal favorites from the album include the Batman Beyond theme from 1999, Green Lantern First Flight from the 2009 animated film, and Batman: The Electrical Brain from the classic 1943 serial. It also included Danny Elfman’s iconic The Batman Theme from Tim Burton’s 1989 film.
As massive as the collection is (featuring thirty-one tracks), it is far from complete. There is a ton of musical content related to DC Comics and its many characters and it would be very difficult to include all of those tunes on a disc. Thankfully DC released released twenty-nine more tracks in July of 2016 with The Music of DC Comics: Vol. 2.
This volume proved to the fans that there’s way more music to explore in the DC Universe than one might initially believe. While the first collection featured some of the most recognizable tracks that one might think of, it was missing a few big tunes as well. Starting with Superman and ending with Wonder Woman once again, Volume 2 gave us songs such as Danny Elfman’s Batman: The Animated Series (1996) theme and The Flash TV Series Theme from 1990. It also included songs from series featuring characters such as Metamorpho, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, and DC’s recent DC Superhero Girls theme.
Volume 2 offered even more juicy tracks like Mark Hamill’s Joker singing Jingle Bells Batman Smells from the classic Christmas With The Joker episode of Batman: The Animated Series and Mischeif (Harley Quinn’s Theme) from the 2015 Infinite Crisis game. It also featured a number of selections from the surf guitar heavy The Sensational Guitars of Dan and Dale.
While both of these volumes have some great music on them, there’s still enough music left for even more volumes. It would be really cool if DC started releasing character focused albums that feature music strictly from individual characters. It would be great to have an entire volume of music collected from the entire legacy of characters such as Batman, Superman, and the rest. Hopefully the upcoming Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam! films will be successful enough that more volumes will be released that focus solely on those characters and others.
As always, thanks for taking a trip down memory lane with me. I’ll be posting again in the very near future about some upcoming events that I’ll be attending. I hope to see you there!
Ken's Alternate Universe! 