10 Greatest Superhero Movie Themes Of All Time
With great power comes great music.
Now more than ever - with "brave" projects bringing Ant-Man, Fantastic Four, and Deadpool to screen, when all seemed impossible at one point - superhero movies have a special place in cinema-goers' hearts.
Audiences have been lapping up superheroic screen exploits since the matinee serials of the 1930s and have only briefly let up, despite claims that Tim Burton invented the genre in the '80s. A large portion of the attraction is, of course, the adventure, the action and the costumes, but one of the more under-appreciated aspects of a superhero film is the theme music.
A great theme can thrill you before the movie has even started, or keep you on the edge of your seat as it recurs in the soundtrack throughout the film.
Some of the great movie composers have worked on superhero films across the years - Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, even John Williams - and so there is an abundance of terrific superhero themes out there. Some are sombre character pieces, a few are more creeping melodies but most are full of punch-the-air refrains, making you wish you could slip on a cape and tights and fly around to it. Unfortunately, this sort of thing is banned in most cinemas.
But you won't be judged here. Feel free to put your underwear over your trousers and read on for the 10 best superhero movie themes.
10. Hellboy
A different kind of hero, Hellboy is a demon who is summoned from the underworld by the Nazis to bring about the apocalypse but who instead works with the American Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense to save the world from occult forces.
Matching its unusual star, Marco Beltrami's theme is closer to that of a horror movie - fitting for the composer of Scream and The Woman In Black - with suspenseful stings instead of the fast-paced thrill of most superhero themes.
As such, it's more memorable than most. And for video game fans, it also sounds eerily like the Fallout theme - which is actually narrated by Hellboy himself, Ron Perlman.