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The Batgirls have followed Batman’s iconic musical legacy and gotten their own theme song. Unfortunately, it’s objectively bad.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batgirls #2, on sale now from DC Comics.
Every superhero needs an iconic piece of music and Batman has had more than most. For decades, the music of the Dark Knight has inspired fans and defined the hero in numerous different ways. Two of his sidekicks have taken a page out of his book in their new series and gotten their own iconic theme tune. It’s just… not a good one.
Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain decided to ditch the rides they got from their new den mother, Barabara Gordon, and got their own ride, a muscle car they named “Bondo.” They avoided the dreaded Bat-Mopeds again in Batgirls #2 (by Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, Jorge Corona, Sarah Stern, and Becca Carey). Unfortunately, their new ride comes with an unfortunate feature – and it’s basically their theme song now.
An old cassette got stuck in the tape deck so now the car’s stereo system can only play one song on repeat. Since they can’t turn it off while they patrol the streets in Bondo, this song is basically their theme tune now. Whenever villains are committing crimes on the streets of Gotham, they’ll hear this one song just before they get a Batgirl beat down. According to the Batgirls’, this new theme is absolutely dreadful. So much so that the narrator of the issue says that listening to it on repeat is “hero stuff” in its own right.
The history of Batman music is a deep and varied one. The first and most iconic example is the theme of the 1966 Adam West Batman series. This melody has pervaded pop culture for decades and still defines the character for many fans. Though its repetitive lyrics are simple, they’re effective, and probably playing in your head right now.
When the character moved to the big screen, the dynamic changed and yet another iconic theme was created. This time, it was the Danny Elfman theme for Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman film. Like the ’66 theme, it’s still so popular that it often gets played today, even having been featured in the theatrical version of 2017’s Justice League. That ’89 theme was reworked into what became yet another iconic theme, that of Batman: The Animated Series. The music for that show, spinning out of the theme, created its own unique and equally definitive atmosphere which, again, has defined the Dark Knight for a generation.
Unfortunately, the Batgirls haven’t got anything close to what their mentor has, they just get a mysteriously bad old song instead. Although the name of their dreadful theme isn’t explicitly stated, there are some clues as to what it could be. Steph said that it’s from a movie with a “green dude” and the narrator’s comments imply that the reader should know which song she’s talking about from that alone. From that, the most obvious answer would be “All-Star” by Smash Mouth, which is featured in Shrek. Given the song’s popularity as a meme in recent years, it makes sense to assume the reader already knows it well.
However, it could be another song from a movie about someone green. Perhaps The Grinch or even the dreaded Green Lantern. However, for the latter movie, the music is not what most people thought was bad about it. What the Batgirls’ theme song really is is up to the reader to deduce. If they can think of another “objectively bad” song from a movie about a green guy then they can imagine that as the heroes’ new crimefighting theme. Nevertheless, it’ll never live up to the Dark Knight’s vast musical legacy.
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