10 Best Superhero Movie Theme Songs

James Horner, Hans Zimmer and Michael Giacchino have all taken their stabs at creating themes for Spider-Man, but Danny Elfman truly defined the sound of Spidey on screen with his theme for the Sam Raimi trilogy. After having already composed for Batman, it would be easy to think Elfman would reuse his tricks for the wall crawler, but his score for Spider-Man is something totally unique.

It does still have a similar arc to Elfman's Batman theme in some of the ways it builds and decreases tension, but it has a totally different tonal outlook. Whereas the Batman theme is totally ostentatious and gothic, Spider-Man ultimately has a very warm and uplifting feel to it. It begins with a note of sadness, representing the underlying tragedy of the character, but then builds into a heroic crescendo that lasts for the rest of the piece. The best way to sum it up is "soaring", which is ultimately what Spidey does when he's swinging through New York.

Elfman's theme is so iconic that it rivals the 1960s cartoon theme for best Spider-Man music. It's so good that when Christopher Young took over composing duties for Spider-Man 3, he kept most of Elfman's established music. Though some of the themes established by other composers since have been strong, this theme is and forever shall be the Spider-Man movie theme.