A good musical score can be integral to a film’s success and quality. A movie can be amazing but have an incredibly forgettable score, yes, but a good movie with a great score makes the content even better. Music is so absurdly important to visual media. Since the first silent films, music has accompanied film scenes on screen, and it’s never stopped being just as vital.
Being one of the largest franchises in the industry,the Marvel Cinematic Universehas had some absolutely iconic musical scores since its debut back in 2008. There have been some forgettable scores from the MCU over the years, but when they pop off, they truly rock the house and make the films they’re in astoundingly better than they would have been before.The “Portals” scene fromAvengers: Endgameis good, for instance, but without Alan Silvestri’s musical cues, it would be far less renowned.Read on to see where it falls on our list of the best MCU scores of all time.
10’Guardians of the Galaxy' (2014)
Composed by Tyler Bates
WhileGuardians of the Galaxymay be most recognizable because of its soundtrack, many people truly sleep on its score. Composed byTyler Bates, known for theJohn Wickfranchise scores, theGuardians of the Galaxyscore is great at still being recognizable outside of the iconic soundtrack within the film.
Needle drops can only make so many appearances throughout a film. They can’t be played over every scene, so the score by Bates helps make some ofGuardians of the Galaxy’s best moments hit extremely hard.One of the best examples is when Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) quotes, “You said it yourself, b****. We’re the Guardians of the Galaxy,“in the final battleto the score song “Black Tears.”
Guardians of the Galaxy
9’Captain America: The First Avenger' (2011)
Composed by Alan Silvestri
Captain America: The First Avengeris one of the most underrated MCU movies ever put to screen. TheCaptain Americafranchise is one of thebest superhero trilogiesout there, and they had an incredibly strong start with this first film. Part of the reason this movie is so good and unique is due to it being a period piece, and that’s even reflected in the musical score by Alan Silvestri.
The score helps sell the ’40s feeling even more,and that makes it special when compared to other MCU scores in the franchise’s long line of movies and, therefore, scores. It feels patriotic and heroic, which fits Captain America (Chris Evans) perfectly in almost every single way. The melodies that Silvestri defines inCaptain America: The First Avengerwould end up sticking around with the character moving forward, even when he wasn’t composing.
Captain America: The First Avenger
8’Spider-Man: Homecoming' (2017)
Composed by Michael Giacchino
Michael Giacchinois all over cinema. He’s done the scores for the likes ofThe Incredibles,Ratatouille,The Batman,Star Trek, and so many more. This makes him genuinely one of the best composers out there at the moment, as all of his scores sound unique and diverse. Some of his best work in the MCU comes from theSpider-Man: Homecomingtrilogy.
The themes he sets for Spider-Man (Tom Holland) in this first film would go on to be his musical cues for all of his future appearances. It has a youthful and peppy feeling thatfits Tom Holland’s Petervery well, being in high school and still being a teenager.He’s the youngest and most inexperienced of the other Spider-Men in film at this point, and that can be felt inSpider-Man: Homecoming’s music.
Spider-Man: Homecoming
7’Spider-Man: No Way Home' (2021)
Of Michael Giacchino’s workin theSpider-Man: Homecomingtrilogy, his best stuff can most certainly be found inSpider-Man: No Way Home. He manages tocombine the youthful energy of Spider-Man’s theme from the past movies with more mature and somber sounds as the movie continues.This gives the score a great feeling of evolution that coincides with the film’s arc.
“Forget Me Knots” is easily the standout of the entire score, being far more melancholy but still heroic. Many truly hope and believe that this will be the melody of Spider-Man’s theme going forward in the MCU, and it is completely understandable. It fits this new era of the character and builds upon his old theme well.
Spider-Man: No Way Home
6’The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ (2025)
Another absolute banger from Giacchino in the MCU is for the most recent Marvel project (at the time of writing),The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Being the first Fantastic Four film since the absolutely horrificFantastic Four(also known as “Fan4stic”) in 2015,this reboot needed to set itself apart from the others, and the score is a huge part of selling that.
Set in the era of the ’60s,TheFantastic Four: First Steps' musical themes help emphasize the time and tone of the entire movie. In comparison, it may very well be the most unique MCU score to date. After getting the chance to compose what is already essentiallya Fantastic Four film,The Incredibles, it’s fun to see what Giacchino did with an official F4 movie.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
5’Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' (2022)
Composed by Ludwig Göransson
Ludwig Göranssonis another example of Marvel Studios locking down one of the best composers of the modern day for their films, this one primarily because of Göransson’s relationship with this film’s director,Ryan Coogler. After absolutely killing it with the first movie, Göransson continued to make theBlack Pantherfranchise one of the best composed in the MCU withBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever.
Göransson does a couple of cool things in theBlack Panther: Wakanda Foreverscore. Not only does he bring back the old themes, buthe continues to develop those more traditional-sounding Wakandan melodies with some electronic instruments to represent Shuri’s (Letitia Wright) new role as protagonist.He also cements the themes for Namor and the Talokanil exceptionally by letting them sound similar to the Wakandan themes in ways, but far different in others. Not to mention, the song “Wakanda Forever” isone of the best character themespost-Avengers: Endgame.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
4’Iron Man' (2008)
Composed Ramin Djawadi
Most well-known for other metal-clad films likePacific RimandClash of the Titans,Ramin Djawadideveloped the first score of the entire MCU with the cinematic universe’s debut inIron Man, and he did a phenomenal job. The score is actually a big part ofIron Man, with how much it flows with scenes like when he’s building his first suit in a cave, melding with each hit of his hammer to metal.
Iron Manneeded a track that reflected boththe Armored Avengerand Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), and Djawadi’s tracks do this perfectly.He brings an electric/punk rock-feeling sound to it to represent Stark and his rockstar tendencies,while also keeping room for heroic themes when he’s suited up and saving the day as Iron Man.
3’Captain America: The Winter Soldier' (2014)
Composed by Henry Jackman
Known asone of the best MCU movies,Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s score reflects that same quality, too.Captain America: The Winter Soldieris all about not changing Captain America for the modern day, but ratheremphasizing how much the world around Captain America has changed since he went into the ice. The music of this movie does the exact same thing.
Henry Jackmanhas a lot of fun keeping Steve’s themes fromCaptain America: The First Avengerdefined by Alan Silvestri while also smacking it into the current day. The melodies surrounding Steve are far more modern-feeling, and the contrast between the two makes the contrast between Steve and the outside world in the movie even better.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2’Avengers: Endgame' (2019)
All of the scores forThe Avengersfranchise have been iconic, but none match up tothe finale of the Infinity Sagaitself,Avengers: Endgame. This movie is the culmination of everything that came before it, and that is the exact same intention and execution for the score by the return of the legendary Alan Silvestri. The way he continues to craft music that is epic and full of spectacle helps the score inject so much into the scenes it’s part of.The best example of this is the theme “Portals” that plays during the scene in which the universe returns to aid Captain America in his last stand.
Having Alan Silvestri return to bothAvengers: EndgameandAvengers: Infinity Warafter not being the composer forAvengers: Age of Ultronwas the ultimate decision on Marvel Studios' part, as the music he established inThe Avengersproved essential to the finale.
Avengers: Endgame
1’Black Panther' (2018)
After scores like the ones fromCreed,Sinners, and, of course,Black Panther, there’s absolutely no question that Ludwig Göransson may very well be a legend in the music composition space already at only 40 years old. Compared to the entire MCU,Black Pantherneeded to sound completely different from anything that had come before, and Göransson did the perfect job.
He brings in more traditional-sounding instruments to combine with contemporary instruments to make a perfect meld of a score.So many things makeBlack Pantherone of the most special superhero movies ever made, and a gigantic part of that is in its score. It’s more than clear why Ryan Coogler continues to work with his good friend time and time again.
