For a company as obsessed with creating a singular vision as Marvel, the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe should have a more coherent musical identity. After all, most iconic film franchises have sweeping, instantly recognizable themes and scores. Marvel Comics' films actually have a fairly deep, though not necessarily rich, history of music.
Soundtrack compilations, whose songs may or may not actually appear in the films they’re named for, are popular particularly within youth-focused genres; the Divergent and Hunger Games series, as well as more classically "teen" coming-of-age films like The Fault in Our Stars, have carefully utilized these soundtracks as their own film extensions and pop culture-influencing material. While Marvel successfully did the same with the nostalgia-plumbing Guardians of the Galaxy "mixtape", for all the MCU’s brand expansion and various non-MCU, Marvel Comics-affiliated projects, out of the "new" Marvel catalogue (post-Iron Man), only two Iron Man films, The Avengers, and Guardians of the Galaxy have compilation soundtracks of their own.
Does the loss of the companion soundtrack really impact peoples’ enjoyment of Marvel films? Not necessarily, but as Guardians proved, they certainly can and do add something outside of their function within and without the film. With that in mind, we’re revisiting some of the more notable pre-MCU Marvel soundtracks. What did they reflect in their film counterparts, and how do they hold up now?
Blade (1998) / Blade
Budget: $40 million
Box office: $131.2 million
Soundtrack sales: 631,000 copies
Peak Billboard chart: No. 36
The explicit ties between the music and the film literally give it character in the form of Blade, the goth-meets-the-streets vampire slayer, but the soundtrack’s lyrical content is comically oversaturated with "blade," "darkness," and "war" references, while the music seesaws between genres, as songs like "The Edge of the Blade" by Mystikal and "1/2 and 1/2" by Gang Starr & M.O.P. stand out against others.
Blade II (2002) / Blade II: The Soundtrack
Budget: $50 million
Box office: $155 million
Soundtrack sales: 278,000 copies
Peak Billboard chart: No. 26
Though the soundtrack distanced itself from the film for the better, Blade II’s attempt to merge, rather than swing between, genres lends itself to misplaced, ill-advised cacophony on almost all levels. Only the Gorillaz/Redman mashup works; the rap-rock, rap-techno sound of the early 2000s gets beaten to death. Why does Fatboy Slim need to be mixed in with Eve’s already fantastic "Cowboy"? Nobody knows, and nobody needs to know.
Spider-Man (2002) / Music from and Inspired by Spider-Man
Budget: $140 million
Box office: $821.7 million
Soundtrack sales: 2 million copies
Peak Billboard chart: No. 4
Nickelback was already popular before "Hero", but the song was the self-congratulatory, feel-good hit to complement the first mainstream Marvel movie. Spider-Man took the "sad weird boy becomes stronger/cooler to get girl’s love" trope to the next level, so the songs here are similarly extreme. Pinwheeling between self-loathing (Corey Taylor) and white boy anger (Sum 41, Alien Ant Farm), but peppered with a few now-classics (early Strokes, "Hate to Say I Told You So" by the Hives), the Spider-Man soundtrack is a mess of teen boy emotions and a bona fide cultural touchstone.
Daredevil (2003) / Daredevil: The Album
Budget: $78 million
Box office: $179.1 million
Soundtrack sales: N/A
Peak Billboard chart: No. 9
Though Nickelback, Hoobastank, and Chevelle all get slots here, it’s "Bring Me to Life" and "My Immortal", both by Evanescence, that define this album. As Spider-Man’s soundtrack captured Tobey Macguire/Peter Parker’s teen boy angst, Daredevil: The Album illustrates Ben Affleck/Matt Murdock’s still pretty adolescent rage and inferiority complex. Inclusions like "Bleed for Me" by Saliva and "Fade Out/In" by Paloalto could be any song on any "real FM rock" station—which was probably a driving factor in how this came together.
Spider-Man 2 (2004) / Music from and Inspired by Spider-Man 2
Budget: $200 million
Box office: $783.8 million
Soundtrack sales: 1 million copies
Peak Billboard chart: No. 7
Scream it with me: "VINDICATED/ I AM SELFISH/ I AM WRONG!" Spider-Man 2 leveled up from the original film, so it’s fitting that its soundtrack did the same. "Vindicated" by Dashboard Confessional was the jam, and Train, Taking Back Sunday, and Maroon 5 all scored not only Peter Parker’s emotional growth, but that of a new generation of comics media consumers.
Blade: Trinity (2004) / Blade: Trinity
Budget: $65 million
Box office: $128.9 million
Soundtrack sales: N/A
Peak Billboard chart: No. 15 (Soundtracks)
The best soundtrack of the trilogy by far, it’s still hampered by the strange genre guidelines that admittedly define the films’ sounds. RZA’s and future "Game of Thrones" composer Ramin Djawadi’s touches steer the soundtrack away from the thin metal sound aesthetic of the first two films, but as far as fond farewells go, Blade the character can do better; the soundtrack for Blade: Trinity cannot.
Elektra (2005) / Elektra: The Album
Budget: $43 million
Box office: $56.7 million
Soundtrack sales: N/A
Peak Billboard chart: No. 62
Just by virtue of having a headlining superheroine, one would hope that Elektra’s soundtrack features more women. True, there are more female voices here than on any other Marvel soundtrack, but they’re interchangeable with the rock sensibilities of regulars Jet, Switchfoot, Finger Eleven, and Taking Back Sunday. As always, women are present less as performers and more as subjects, like in Strata’s laughable "Never There (She Stabs)"—and as in the film itself.
Fantastic Four (2005) / Fantastic Four: The Album
Budget: $100 million
Box office: $330.6 million
Soundtrack sales: N/A
Peak Billboard chart: No. 77
The track list for the Fantastic Four soundtrack is all over the place: Simple Plan covering Cheap Trick! Three self-ordained rock supergroups! Chingy and Ryan Cabrera! Given the ridiculous video for "Everything Burns" by Anastacia and Ben Moody, Fantastic Four didn’t really know how to put together its soundtrack (sensual alt rock x everything else?) or the film itself, which was panned for being hokey and badly cast.
Spider-Man 3 (2007) / Music from and Inspired by Spider-Man 3
Budget: $258 million
Box office: $890.9 million
Soundtrack sales: N/A
Peak Billboard chart: No. 33
Though it doesn’t include the defining music moment from the film, the third soundtrack moved away from emo even as the film embraced its swooped bangs protagonist deeper. Snow Patrol’s post-Eyes Open hit, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in their Show Your Bones peak, and smaller projects like Coconut Records and the Oohlas comprise the most complex and inclusive soundtrack of the trilogy, the first (and only) Marvel soundtrack to somewhat successfully mix genres and voices.
Punisher: War Zone (2008) / Punisher: War Zone Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Budget: $35 million
Box office: $10.1 million
Soundtrack sales: N/A
Peak Billboard chart: No. 16
Everything The Punisher could do, Punisher: War Zone does harder, but not better, faster, or stronger. The stock metal-adjacent rock tunes of the first film are swapped out for Rob Zombie, Slayer, Seether, and Senses Fail, while one-hit wonder Kerli and Justice provide some needed, but not particularly meaningful contrast. It’s a metal soundtrack for a metal movie, but both things fall by the wayside in the expectations-shattering wake of the first Iron Man.