If any of you Comic Vine maniacs have read my editorial at Screened, you’ll know I’ve got some strong opinions about soundtracks. By my reckoning, a superhero movie without a memorable musical theme is as woefully-incomplete as one without, well, superpowers. So you can imagine how jazzed I am about the MUSIC OF DC COMICS CD, a collection that celebrates DC’s 75 anniversary in tandem with that colossal THE ART OF MODERN MYTHMAKING coffee table book. Indeed, in many ways, it’s an accompaniment to the tome (it was even playing during the UCLA seminar's down time!) with its 31 tracks encompassing songs from the earliest days of movie serials to the latest DTV cartoon features.
The selection’s quite comprehensive, with cuts from series as obscure as the PLASTIC MAN, HAWKMAN and ATOM cartoons. I even get a very real sense of how quickly time can fly by as I look over its track list, because there are theme songs here that I grew up with, but nevertheless haven’t thought about in years (making it good that aural memory's the strongest, right?) Some of you youngin's in this comic community might think this surge of HULK, WONDER WOMAN and JESSICA JONES TV shows is something without precedent, but any child of the 90s will remember that there used to be a lot of heroes on the tube between the likes of SWAMP THING, SUPERBOY and THE FLASH. Listen to this and you'll feel like your ears are, indeed, traveling through comics history.
Out of these, I’d say I’m most excited about the John Williams and Danny Elfman’s respective themes to the first SUPERMAN and BATMAN movies. These tunes are so powerful as motivators, I really only need to hum a few notes of each to get properly pumped up for any spectacular challenge (like the Spartan Race!)
Pick this up at Amazon or your big chain book store of choice. Sadly, the only major omission seems to be Prince's Batdance...
Tom Pinchuk’s the writer of HYBRID BASTARDS! & UNIMAGINABLE . Order them on Amazon here & here . Follow him on Twitter: @tompinchuk
