The Lex Luthor villain's theme is a persistent force in Superman IV, and it has more than worn out its welcome by this point, much like Gene Hackman's antics. It prances throughout "Smoke the Yokes" and "Nefarious" and blurts through the first half of "Hair Raisers" and the start of "First Nuclear Man," becoming more frenzied in the latter cue and returning with devious intent near the end of it. The theme mingles with the Nuclear Man theme in "Ashes," a little more determined but still relatively light to open "Sunstroke" and nicely intertwined with the Nuclear Man theme in "Introducing Nuclear Man 2." Briefly sinister on low woodwinds in "Ear Ache," the villain's theme gains momentum throughout the long "Confrontation" cue while a more scheming personality occupies the theme in "Two-Faced Lex" but with a hint of Courage's new Russian influences. A victorious exclamation follows in "Missile Buildup," and the theme dances through "Mutual Distrust" and "Lifted" before the character's defeats necessitates a pathetic coda on woodwinds in "Quarried." Other returning Williams themes include the Kent family farm theme that had been absent since the first film, expanded in purpose to serve all of Smallville here. It opens "Back in Time" softly, a really good adaptation of this idea in the first half of this cue extending to reminiscing concern at the start of "Pow!" It later recurs only as a quick reminder in the middle of "Come Uppance" for a reference to the town. Meanwhile, Clark's own theme is restricted to "United Nations," where it is cleverly combined with the fanfare. The related duo of the Krypton theme and crystal motif are far less utilized in this score than they were by Thorne, who especially overapplied the latter in Superman III. That motif repeats a few times in the middle of "Back in Time" with light wonderment and combines with the Krypton theme in "Pow!" and later closes out that cue in mystery. The Krypton theme returns at 1:38 into "Pow!" in a moment that leads into the journey to Earth music from the first score. Restrained woodwind reminders in the minor key offer support to the somber "Headline." The idea is barely evident in "Persuader," its role in the score ending there. Given the additional reprise of Susannah York in a role as the voice of Clark's mother, the lack of better incorporation of the Krypton material into this sequence is somewhat disappointing, especially as the Krypton theme remains arguably the best single idea in the entire franchise.

The all-new Williams themes for Superman IV are a treat, and they remain among the most obscure written by the composer for any major picture. It's not unusual for composers to test ideas in one film with the intent of expanding upon them in more successful ventures later, and Williams definitely used Superman IV to trial melodies that defined more popular scores over the following decade. Two of his three themes aren't overly exciting outside of intellectual appreciation, but his idea for Nuclear Man is one of the composer's best unknown gems for the superhero genre, if not in his whole career. Its underlying rhythms and trumpet bursts preview Star Wars prequels while the first half of the theme is muscular and confident (a clear foreshadowing of major Harry Potter themes) while the second half is almost humorously deflating, much like the character. It can be overlaid with Luthor's theme directly and adopts the same pomposity until Nuclear Man matures as a formidable force late in the film. The idea is tentatively revealed at 1:58 into "First Nuclear Man," pieces of the theme starting coming together in rhythmic form; its performances here are disjointed and clumsy, like the first Nuclear Man that Luthor creates. The theme takes on circus-like silliness with xylophone in "Nuke 1 Fight" and is defeatedly twisted around Luthor's theme in "Ashes." When the second edition of the character emerges, though, the Nuclear Man theme receives a slow, more muscular rendition in the latter half of "Enter Nuclear Man 2," briefly carrying over to "Flight to Earth." The imposing version in "Introducing Nuclear Man 2" merges with Luthor's theme but graduates to its own power midway through "Confrontation." The theme flourishes in battle mode thereafter, pounding away in "Tornado" over snare rhythm and electronic groaning effects. The extended treatment from "Tornado" into "Volcano" is almost Goldsmith-like, with even more brief snippets of this mode in "Statue of Liberty Fight." It turns ominous and threatening in "Persuader" and "Awakened," later stomping periodically in "Abducted" and "Mutual Distrust." The Nuclear Man theme remains aggressive in march form during "Metropolis Fight" and "Lift to the Moon," refusing to die in "Moon Fight" and becoming falsely victorious on brass. Courage appropriately allows sonic battle between this theme and the fanfare in "Goodbye Nuke." By this climax, Nuclear Man easily has the most obvious and memorable theme to have graced any sequel thus far in the franchise.

The other two fresh themes by Williams for Superman IV include one for the new love interest, Lacy, and the boy, Jeremy, who catches Superman's attention in their shared desire to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Lacy's theme is a slow, romantically swaying saxophone throwback, a precursor to Sabrina in style. There isn't much substance to this fluffy identity, and its swooning album arrangement in "Someone Like You (Lacy's Theme)" makes one wonder if it really fits in with the rest of the score at all. It also exudes too much innocence for a potentially conflicted character serving as Lois and Clark's new, undesired boss. An alternate album rendition was recorded at even a slower tempo, moving it further out of context. In the score, Lacy's theme is introduced on flute in "For Real" for an understated but effective moment, and the saxophone leads the easy-going, full performance in "Lacy." A more contemporary rendition is conjured like source material in "Lacy (Disco Version)." Courage makes the most of the theme's surprising malleability in the latter half of the score, though, alternating it with the love theme in the twinkling joy of "Lacy's Place." In fact, whether or not Williams intentionally modeled the idea this way, Courage finds ways to directly overlap the Lacy and existing love theme like he does with the Luthor and Nuclear Man themes. It turns to trumpet at the end of "Awakened," provides allusions at the start of "Abducted" and in "Mutual Distrust," is adapted into the suspense of "Goodbye Nuke," and mingles with the action of that cue. The idea stays on trumpet over strings to close out the character arc in "Come Uppance." The other new Williams theme belongs to the boy, Jeremy, and all but one rendition of this music was excised from the film due to the extensive cuts late in production. Even had the movie been left at its original bloated length, the idea may not have taken hold in its limited performances and rather muted demeanor. It's a lightly buoyant children's theme highly predictive of Hook, pleasant but lacking much weight in "Jeremy's Theme." It's formally introduced in "The Class," closes "The Visit" with a few seconds of innocence, and is provided an oddly non-soaring version largely identical to the album arrangement in "Flying With Jeremy." While appreciated, the Jeremy material was largely unnecessary in Superman IV, Courage content to explore the relationship between the boy and Superman using the secondary phrases of the main fanfare anyway.

Courage's own two motifs for Superman IV are negligible in impact but are faithfully applied where one might deem necessary. He wrote mostly rhythmic-driven ideas for the nuclear missiles of the story and the Soviet adversaries. The missile motif is more useful, ascending and stately in "The Class," opening "Net Man" in rhythmic suspense, taking a militaristic, brassy stance late in "Sunstroke," and getting lost in the action of "Mutual Distrust." The Soviet theme is a cartoonish, stereotypically Russian march for a brief moment in "Net Man," reprised in "Missile Buildup" with more fanfare as the missiles are replenished, and slightly influencing "Mutual Distrust." While these ideas aren't spectacular, Courage does wonders with Williams' identities in two particular cues worth mentioning. In both cases, he overlaps or alternates between themes brilliantly. The pinnacle of the score is the combination of four themes (fanfare, love theme, Lacy theme, and Jeremy theme) all at once for the momentous culmination at 2:21 into "United Nations," a truly incredible arrangement of hope and inspiration as all those characters are united in a common goal. In "Lacy's Place," Courage allows the fanfare, Lacy theme, and love themes to interact brilliantly as Clark desperately tries to be in the same place with the ladies as Superman. Moments like these reinforce notions that Courage's adaptation work is superior to that of Thorne in this franchise. Even though Superman IV doesn't always sound like Williams music, it is a really thoughtfully constructed score, and the Nuclear Man theme in the latter half gives the whole a fresh angle. The electronics are tastefully applied, and the dissonance that dominated so much of the score for Superman III is minimized, allowing the whole to retain a more straightforward superhero feel. It may not unseat Williams' original score in the franchise, but it competes better than Thorne's entries with John Ottman's smart score for 2006's Superman Returns. An album arrangement of 14 tracks consisting of Williams' thematic arrangements, highlights from Courage's work, some of Fisher's music, and another source song was prepared for an LP release at the time of the film's release, but when most of that music was dropped from the picture in late cuts, the entire album was cancelled. A complete 2-CD set was finally released in 2008 by Film Score Monthly as part of a limited, 8-CD set of franchise music, and this same impressive presentation was offered alone on another limited album by La-La Land Records in 2018 with identical sound quality. Between Williams' new themes and Courage's impressive adaptions, Superman IV is an enduringly enjoyable romp.  ****   @Amazon.com: CD or Download