Batman V Superman's Score Includes an Easter Egg in the Track Listings

If you've pre-ordered (or even looked at) the soundtrack for Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice from composers Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL, you may have noticed a familiar-sounding track on the disc.

"Must There Be a Superman?" is the fifth track on the CD, and if that title sounds familiar to you, it's only because you've been paying attention to Superman lore at some point in the last few decades.

Originally the title of a story in Superman #247 from writer Elliot S! Maggin and the legendary Superman art team of Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson, "Must There Be A Superman?" was a question posed by the Guardians of the Universe, who supposed the Man of Steel was interfering too much in humanity's destiny.

They brought Superman before a galactic tribunal which, if you squint real hard, seems a little like the Congressional hearing that Holly Hunter's Senator Finch will bring Superman before to explain his role in the Battle of Metropolis in Batman V Superman.

The question of Superman's role in the world, and his part in shaping the destiny of mankind, is one that played heavily in the Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice prequel comics recently released by Dr. Pepper through the Blippar app. And both the theme -- and the phrase itself -- have popped up from time to time over the years since this initial 1972 story. Variations on it have sometimes been used as columns written by Lois Lane, including a "Why The World Doesn't Need Superman" story that is referenced in Superman Returns....And Maggin cited his own story in his introduction to one of the handful of collections of the Mark Waid/Alex Ross miniseries Kingdom Come.