Music Of DC Comics: 75th Anniversary Collection Review

• 10th Aug 2011

With a giggle and a smile I listened to this release all in one go. Yes this is here to coincide with the 75^th anniversary of DC Comics. (And wait until you see the book review to follow soon).

Here though it’s a journey faster than a speeding bullet, and stretching across the likes of the Man of Steel, Batman and the Justice League. Television, Animation, Film themes tunes are all explored.

Starting with the very retro Superman theme, it quickly leaps ahead in time to John William’s magnificent theme for the Richard Donner flick, and then we get the John Gart theme for The new Adventures Of Superman, and then the 90’s Lois and Clark theme, then John Gart’s Superboy, then the latter Superboy, then Smallville… So that’s 8 tracks in all devoted to a similar type of character. Not bad!

Now John Gart is a name you have to get used to for this release as apparently he composed the themes for many of the oldies.

Of course we get a bit of Batman (yes Gart gets a shot at that too!). And whilst the Danny Elfman one is probably the most dramatic, and the Hans Zimmer/ James Newton Howard extract being the more modern; everyone of course is gonna go crazy for the Neil Hefti 60’s theme.

A large section is also devoted to the grouped super heroes (Justice League/ Teen Titans), the final ten or so tracks are devoted to the odd rare hero (Aquaman, Swamp Thing, Shazam, The Flash and Green Lantern).

Despite there being 31 tracks, you still get a feel that the choice is somewhat limited if drawn over several decades. It’s almost a shame so much if spent focussing on the past as it does get a bit repetitive (Yes Gart’s themes are very similar, not to mention all coming with intact voice over introductions).

What they should have done really is to follow suite with the book release and just do one mammoth boxset with several discs inside that chart the journey musically from the inception to the present.

But that complain is really ponly born out of the variety of music you glimpse here. It’s a great listen, but one you really yearn for a more complete collection of to really get in there to really follow the timeline. But then what’s to stop anyone going out there and grabbing them one CD at a time for a full on collection!

Steven Hurst