TV series based on DC Comics characters may not be the first place one would think to look for characters bursting into song, but occasionally, this assumption's been proven wrong. On a few occasions, DC animated programs have taken advantage of the auditory quality that comics naturally lack and included music.
Let's take a look at these various musical numbers, which range from staged to spontaneous, but of which only the viewer can judge the quality.
10 "Lulu's Back In Town"
The first musical number in the DCAU was an explicitly staged performance, both within and outside of the narrative's confines. In the Justice League Unlimited episode, "This Little Piggy," the witch Circe, having been freed from Tartarus and enacted revenge on Wonder Woman, heads to the Amphitheater on the Greek island, Mykonos.
Here, she performs a rendition of the 1935 song "Lulu's Back In Town," a fitting choice given Circe's recent return from the Underworld. The glamorous performance is helped tremendously by the Broadway experience of her voice actress, Rachel York.
9 "Am I Blue?"
The next DC music number occurs in the very same episode. When Batman tracks down Circe and realizes he has no chance of defeating her, he instead offers her a trade to lift her curse of Diana. Circe requests that Batman give her "something he's worked very hard to conceal," which turns out to be his singing talent. Thus, Bruce, still-in-costume, sings "Am I Blue?" in a performance that moves Circe to tears.
While remembered as one of the most surreally funny moments of the DCAU, Kevin Conroy's vocal talent shouldn't be elided - the producers hearing him sing was what prompted the idea for the scene in the first place.
8 "I'm The Music Meister"
Batman: The Brave & The Bold went one step further than JLU and featured an outright musical episode, with "Mayhem of the Music Meister." Though similar to classic Buffy The Vampire Slayer episode "Once More With Feeling," a diegetic reason was provided for why everyone suddenly broke into song.
The episode's titular villain, created for the series and voiced by Neil Patrick Harris, possesses the power to control others through song. This song, as one might guess from the title, introduces the character when he ensnares hero and villain alike by putting Aquaman, Black Canary, Green Arrow, Black Manta, The Clock King, and Grodd under his control.
7 "Drives Us Bats"
The next music number in "Mayhem Of The Music Meister" comes when Batman inevitably arrives to interfere in the villain's plans. The song pokes fun at the infallibility of this incarnation of Batman, referencing both his numerous tools and general effectiveness.
Of course, since the song is from the POV of a villain, the song laments this effectiveness versus celebrating it, with the numerous denizens of Arkham Asylum joining in as background singers to accompany Music Meister's fury at Batman always foiling villainous schemes.
6 "If Only"
No musical is complete without a love song. This particular tune is a duet between the Music Meister and Grey DeLisle's Black Canary, the former singing about his infatuation with the heroine and the latter about her unrequited love for Batman.
While neither character gets what they're longing for, the song reprises at the episode's end, now sung by Canary and James Arnold Taylor's Green Arrow, and this time, the sentiment of the song moves from mere desire to true romance.
5 "Death Trap"
The Brave and The Bold is mostly a stylistic homage to the Batman of the Silver Age, previously brought to screen by Adam West in the 1960s television series. A crucial element of the narrative formula for both that series and the comics it adapted was Batman being trapped in the Bond Villain-esque traps, only to escape at the last minute.
As such, it's natural that "Mayhem Of The Music Meister" would include a song about such a trap. As the Music Meister heads off to see his plan to complete, he leaves Batman and Black Canary trapped in his lair, expecting them to die. As the two heroes try to escape, Black Canary sonically describes the over-elaborate (to put it mildly) death-trap.
4 "The World Is Mine"
The climax of The Brave and The Bold's musical episode, the Music Meister enacts his plan to enslave the world to his whimsical will via satellite broadcast. As the mind-controlled citizens join in as back-up singers, only Batman and Black Canary retain their freedom, though by the final verse, they're overwhelmed and Canary falls under the Meister's spell, as well.
However, at the 11th hour, the Meister's plan blows up when Batman tricks Black Canary into singing at so high a pitch that she unleashes her sonic "Canary cry," breaking the Music Meister's spell.
3 "Where's The Fun In That?"
After the success of "Mayhem Of The Music Meister," The Brave and The Bold would return to featuring music numbers sparingly throughout its run. One such occasion came when the show adapted the Emperor Joker storyline.
Granted God-like powers, the Joker, as voiced by Jeff Bennett, easily captures Batman and begins bending the world to his whims. However, when he's asked by Harley why he stills refrains from unmasking Batman, the appalled Joker breaks out into this solo song that explains not only her question, but his entire ethos.
2 "Well Ahoy!"
Every episode of The Brave and The Bold began with a cold open unrelated to the main storyline. Such teasers typically featured Batman teaming up with another villain, but the season 3 episode, "Sword Of The Atom," was an exception. The teaser, titled "The Currys of Atlantis," frames Aquaman's life as taking place within a sitcom straight out of the 1950s, complete with a laugh track and a stock story of Aquaman forgetting his anniversary with Mera.
Naturally, this teaser opened with a theme song - the song in question, "Well Ahoy!" is a solo by Aquaman's voice actor John DiMaggio, and fits the tone of the sequence perfectly.
1 "The Birds Of Prey"
A song so laden with innuendo, the episode featuring it, "The Mask of Matches Malone," wasn't even allowed to air on Cartoon Network. After Batman suffers amnesia and believes himself to be the crime boss Matches Malone, Catwoman, The Huntress and Black Canary join together as the Birds of Prey to rescue Batman from himself.
After sneaking into "Malone's" hide-out and being caught on stage, the trio break out into an impromptu song filled with thinly veiled references to male DC superheroes' bedroom hang-ups. Huntress wagging her index finger in reference to Aquaman's "little fish" was likely the straw that broke the censors' backs. Grey DeLisle previously proved her musical chops as Black Canary in "Mayhem Of The Music Meister," and this time, she's joined by Tara Strong and Nika Futterman as Huntress and Catwoman, respectively, who both prove welcome additions.