or

by Ken Gale

Here's my list of hundreds of songs that mention comic book and strip characters. This list doesn't include all the versions of the Batman TV show theme from the 60s (except for The Jam and The Who versions), the soundtrack to Superman or any of the other comic-inspired Broadway plays nor the various Power records of comic book dramatizations. The lyrics though for the Broadway musical It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a Superman! have just been located and should be up one day!

There are a lot of comic characters with names like Rainbow, Storm, Beast, Lightning, etc., and those songs are not listed unless they're specifically about the character, so don't go looking for "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," "Riders on the Storm," "Beast of Burden" or "Lightning Strikes." Many mentions are not specifically about a comic character, but I include them because I don't think a generic Superman would be put into too many songs if there wasn't a specific Superman that became popular. Tarzan was listed in the first draft, but I took him out because he was originally a prose character, not a comic character. Some songs, like Black Sabbath's "Iron Man," are on the list because so many people think of the comic character and suggested the song for the list. Included are animated characters that have had a substantial run in either newspaper comics or comic books, whether or not they first appeared on film or television.

(Updated January 29, 2002) Special thanks go to Eugene A, Fabio Balaguer, Chris Brown, Kasey Castleberry, Chris Companik, Des Devlin, Stephen Engelfried, Todd Enoch, Mike Forrester, Steve Freitag, Marc Glasser, Erich Heinemann, Patti Hemeleski, John Jayne, Mark Ameen Johnson, James Kelly, Pat Kelly, Mike Kuypers, Jules Langley, Arthur Lewandowski, Danny Lieberman, Tommy C. Lim, Jr., Ed Menje, James Mobius, Steve Molinari, Chip Nanco, Cole Odell, Paula O'Keefe, Toby James Petty, Frank Plowright, Vince Ripol, Rob Rudderham, Rob Rundle, James Spielberg, Howard Stangroom, Mercy Van Vlack, Steve Whitaker, Susan Winson and Hillel M. Zelman for help with the research. BENTON ??

The "rockin' chimp" is of course a tribute to the proliferation of simians in the DC Universe of the 60s. He himself was probably a member of the Teen Titans at some point. Any additions or corrections would be greatly welcomed and appreciated (especially if the lyric is missing)! Just drop Chris Companik (this page's designer) an e-mail.

A great number of folks ... who know their lyrics ... quickly jumped onto the bandwagon and their personal collections, thanks to Fred Bronson's CHART BEAT column on BILLBOARD Magazine's online site. Normally a plug here wouldn't go in, but Fred made a cool reference to "Metropolis Mailbag" so he's earned his place right here.

Either scroll on down, or click on any of the letters to jump-skip to your favorite character!

Characters are listed alphabetically, songs listed alphabetically then by artist (and you can argue the alphabetizing all you want, "Lois Lane" is alphabetized under "Lois" and not "Lane.") Album title in italics, then the lyric, all when available.

ADDAMS FAMILY

ALLEY OOP

ANGEL (Also see X-Men)

ANIMANIACS

ARCHIE

AQUAMAN llustration from the DC website

ASTRO

 

ASTROBOY llustration by Mercy Van Vlack

 

AVENGERS, The

BABY HUEY

BARBARELLA

BARNEY GOOGLE

BARNEY RUBBLE (see The Flintstones)

BART SIMPSON

BATMAN (also see Bruce Wayne) llustration by Neal Adams/Dick Giordano

BATMOBILE, The

BAT-SIGNAL, The

BLACK CANARY

BETTY BOOP

 

BRAINIAC

BRENDA STARR

BRUCE WAYNE (also see Batman)

BORIS BADANOV (see Rocky and Bullwinkle)

BULLWINKLE (also see Rocky and Bullwinkle)

CAPTAIN AMERICA illustration by Mercy Van Vlack

CAPTAIN HURRICANE

CAPTAIN MARVEL

CAROL FERRIS

CASPER the Friendly Ghost

 

CATWOMAN

CHARLIE BROWN

CHEMICAL KING

CLARK KENT (also see SUPERMAN)

COMIC BOOK HEROES

COMIC BOOKS themselves

COMMISSIONER GORDON

COSMIC BOY llustration by Mercy Van Vlack

CRIMSON DYNAMO

CYCLOPS (Also see X-Men)

DAISY DUCK

DAN DARE

DAREDEVIL

DIANA PRINCE (Also see Wonder Woman)

DICK GRAYSON (Also see Robin)

DICK TRACY

DOCTOR OCTOPUS

DOCTOR STRANGE llustration by Chris Companik

DOCTOR DOOM

DOCTOR FATE

DONALD DUCK

DURAN DURAN

EGO, THE LIVING PLANET

ELMIRA (character from Animaniacs)

FABULOUS FURRY FREAK BROTHERS

FANTASTIC FOUR

FLASH, The

FLASH GORDON

FLINTSTONES llustration by Chris Companik

GHOST RIDER the motorcycle-riding flaming headed super-hero

GOOFY

GOTHAM CITY

GREEN ARROW

GREEN LANTERN illustration by Gil Kane

  • "Sunshine Superman" from Donovan's Sunshine Superman. "Superman and Green Lantern ain't got nothing on me."
  • "Green Lantern" by Evenrude. "Green Lantern, super-light, please don't hurt me... "
  • "Green Lantern" by J-Sin Starr "All my power comes from my will, trapped inside this emerald ring. With it I could rule the world, but instead I've become superhero. In the brightest day, in the darkest night, no evil shall escape my sight, let those who worship evil's might, beware my power, Green Lantern's light!""
  • "Super Powers from Ookla the Mok. The song does not mentioned Green Lantern by name but the lyrics include "I got a alien who helped me acessorize."
  • "The Ballad of Aquaman" by the Social Bedders. "Superman can fly up in the sky and Batman has a genius brain, Wonder Woman, the amazon, has got a invisible magic plane. The Flash runs quick as a comet, Green Lantern's got a glowing ring, they all bring great power, but what does Aquaman bring?"

    HAGAR THE HORRIBLE and HELGA

    HALO JONES

    HE-MAN

    HUCKLEBERRY HOUND

    THE HULK

    HUMAN TORCH llustration by John Romita

    HOT STUFF

    HOWARD THE DUCK

    ICEMAN

    INVISIBLES, The

    IRON MAN

    JETSONS, GEORGE and JANE

    JIMMY OLSEN

    JOHNNY THUNDER

    JOKER, The

    JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS

    JUDGE DREDD

    JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA (Also see individual members.)

    KRAVEN THE HUNTER

    KRYPTONITE

    LISA SIMPSON

    LINUS

    LITTLE AUDREY

    LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE

    LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND

     

    LOIS LANE llustration by Fred Hembeck

    LOVE AND ROCKETS illustration by Jaime Hernandez

    MAGNETO

    MARMADUKE

    MARVELMAN

    MEN IN BLACK

    MICKEY MOUSE

    MINNIE MOUSE

    MISTER BURNS

    MISTER MIRACLE illustration by Joe Phillips

     

    MODESTY BLAISE

    MODOK

    MXYZPTLK

    NAMOR/SUB-MARINER

    NEMESIS (the British character)

    OLIVE OYL (see POPEYE)

    PENGUIN, The

    PINKY AND THE BRAIN

    PLASTIC MAN

    PLUTO

    POPEYE & OLIVE OYL

    PREACHER/JESSE CUTTER

    PROFESSOR X (Also see X-Men)

    RICHIE RICH

    RIDDLER, The

    ROBIN illustration by Mercy Van Vlack

    ROCKY & BULLWINKLE

    RORSHACH (Also see The Watchmen)

    RUPERT THE BEAR

    SABRETOOTH

    SAD SACK

    SALLY (from Peanuts)

    SATURN GIRL

    SCOOBY DOO

    SENATOR KELLY

    SENTINELS, The

    SGT. FURY

    SGT. ROCK

    SHEENA, QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE

    SHRINKING VIOLET llustration by Jeff Moy

    SILVER SURFER

    SNOOPY

    SOLOMON GRUNDY

    SPEEDY GONZALES

     

    SPIDER-MAN llustration by John Romita

    SPIDER-WOMAN

    STAR SAPPHIRE (See Carol Ferris)

    STEVE ROGERS (Also see Captain America)

    SUPERBOY

    SUPERGIRL illustration by Mercy Van Vlack

    SUPER HEROES (in general)

    SUPERMAN (also see CLARK KENT) llustration by Curt Swan/Murphy Anderson

    SUPER SKRULL

    SUPERWOMAN

    SYLVESTER (see Tweety and Sylvester)

    TEENAGE NINJA MUTANT TURTLES

    THOMPSON TWINS

    THOR

    TINKERBELL

    TITANIUM MAN

    TOM AND JERRY

    TRIPLICATE GIRL

    TWEETY AND SYLVESTER

    2000 A.D. (A British comic book)

    UFO, The (German comics character)

    V FOR VENDETTA

    VICKI VALE

    WATCHMEN, The (also see Rorshach)

    WERNER-BEINHAT

    WOLVERINE (Also see X-Men)

    WONDER GIRL illustration by Mercy Van Vlack

  • "Spaceeaster" from Gamma Ray's Heading for Tomorrow "You're drowning in a lusty whirl, be Superman or Wonder Girl."
  • "Randu Scouse Git" from the Monkees' Headquarters. "The being known as Wonder Girl is speaking, I believe."
  • WONDER WOMAN (Also see Diana Prince) llustration from DC Web Site

    WOODY WOODPECKER

    X-MEN, The (Also see Wolverine, Professor X, Cyclops, Angel) llustration by members of X-APA

    YOGI BEAR

     ZERO HOUR

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