Thursday, January 22, 2009

From the Home Office in Metropolis, Delaware

Top Ten Superhero TV Shows, Selected and Ranked by How Cool Their Theme Songs Are

10. Spider-Man (1960s series)
9. Misfits of Science
8. Legion of Super-Heroes
7. Teen Titans
6. The Greatest American Hero
5. Super Friends
4. Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends
3. X-Men: The Animated Series
2. WordGirl
1. Justice League

Discuss.

(Now I'm thinking I should have put the '60s Batman series in there somewhere. But I can't imagine what I'd bump.)

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12 Comments:

Blogger Richard said...

Yeah, I'd agree the Batman theme needs to be in there.

I may be the only one who feels this way, or at least to admit it, but my list would include the theme from the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman series. Yes yes yes, the first thing everyone always says is "The one that goes fighting for our rights, in your satin tights? Really?" Now that we've got that out of the way, we can proceed to say that the rest of the lyrics are perfectly agreeable and not especially silly...and the tune is extremely catchy. I'm particularly fond of the rolling bass line, which keeps it from sounding anachronistic in either the 1940s setting or the subsequent 1970s update.

Oh yeah, and the 1967 Fantastic Four theme.

12:39 AM  
Blogger Matthew E said...

Actually, I agree about the Wonder Woman song; I just didn't think of it. Again, not sure what I'd bump.

I wasn't familiar with that Fantastic Four one. It's okay but I can think of a lot of others I like just as well.

9:05 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm embarrassed that there are several of these that I've either completely forgotten or never heard in the first place. At least I just added TT to the Mega-Flix rental queue;That'll be one problem solved by this time next week.

The X-Men theme hurts me in places that I previously didn't even know I had.

The best superhero theme-related story I know comes from a board where everyone was talking about ringtones. One denizen mentioned that her brother-in-law had the live-action Hulk theme on his phone. She rolled her eyes at him and said, "Dude, your phone sounds like it's trying to commit suicide."

-- cleome45

1:48 PM  
Blogger Matthew E said...

Well, I imagine you can see them all on YouTube. Some of them are even better if you can see the animation in the opening sequences.

One of the things I like about the X-Men one is the church-bell thing that shows up a couple of times.

9:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, I imagine you can see them all on YouTube...

I promise to get on that as soon as possible. :)

Also, I just remembered my bizarre and unfathomable weakness for the old animated Iron Man theme. The silly faux-Bond girl/fake lounge intro, then the guys jumping in. I don't even know why I like it, given that I've never been much into Iron Man, even during my peak period as a Marvel-head. [shrug]

-- cleome45

4:39 PM  
Blogger Matthew E said...

Those early Marvel themes were catchy, all right. The Captain America one, the Merry Marvel Marching Society song... Haven't heard them in decades, but there are times when I can't get 'em out of my head.

4:48 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've never heard the MMMS song. If I had a membership badge now, that would probably be grounds for turning it in. :o

The Goober Skeeber anthology made effective-- if depressing-- use of the old Captain America song. Some kid was singing it while he pounded the tar out of some other kid who was smaller than him. :/

-- cleome45

7:44 PM  
Blogger Matthew E said...

I've never heard the MMMS song.

Well, one more thing for you to find on YouTube, then.

7:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I rather liked the new FF cartoon's theme. Not as much as the old one! But then it's pretty much a case of "if it's FF, I'll probably like it."

The Thor and Namor cartoons had a certain something to them as well.

But Teen Titans would probably top my list. I have a certain...weakness for Japanese girl garage bands.

7:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'll definitely agree the old WW theme is much zingier than it's given credit for!

7:34 PM  
Blogger Matthew E said...

I'm sure I've seen the FF openings... well, not all of them; how many have there been over the years? Eight?... but they didn't register on me.

Someone once made me a mix CD with the full-length Teen Titans song on it. Doesn't lose anything at three-minutes-and-change.

8:33 PM  
Blogger Matthew E said...

Also I should have put Underdog on this list! Now that's a cool song.

3:10 PM  

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