Comic-Con: It Would Be Music to His Ears, if He Could Hear It

SAN DIEGOâ€"“It’s sometimes difficult to hear the music.”

So said John Debney, the composer who did music for “Iron Man 2,” among other films, and was speaking on a panel at the Comic-Con fan convention here about the not entirely subtle art of creating music for superheroes.

Mr. Debney joined a group of composers and executives, along with one director, Jeff Wadlow, whose credits include “Kick Ass 2.” The directors Shane Black and James Mangold had been advertised. But, ultimately, they didn’t show, leaving the discussion mostly to those second-class citizens of the superhero world, the music crowd.

The fantasy world isn’t exactly tone-deaf. But music simply isn’t the first priority here, or in the big fantasy and science-fiction films that appear at Comic-Con. Music makers who participated in the Thursday-morning panel discussion noted that the noisy sound effects and music are often at war in superhero movies. “Sometimes, I think the sound can get a little too assaultive,” Mr. Debney said.

Marco Beltrami, who introduced a clip from “The Wolverine,” for which he wrote music, was surprised to find, as the clip screened, that the scenes were scored with music he had written for some completely different segments. Joking, sort of, Mr. Beltrami mused that he’d better go see the finished film. “It might not even by my music in it,” he said.