After several months of waiting in agony, Great Adventure fans can know what exactly it is they’re receiving for the 2011 season – The Green Lantern.
The Green Lantern will open in the park’s Boardwalk section in 2011. The ride’s green and black paintjob will stand out from the parking lot – offering a more twisted look than the neighboring Kingda Ka roller coaster. The Green Lantern is slightly similar to the park’s Bizarro roller coaster – but the main draw of the coaster will be the riding position – riders will ride standing up. The stand-up coaster will be the first one in the area since Shockwave, an Intamin stand-up, was moved from Great Adventure to Astroworld during the mid-90’s. Ironically, Great Adventure will have had some of the oldest stand-up technology and the newest in the same general area.
The Green Lantern will be themed to, you guessed it, the infamous DC Comics character who has been around since 1941, and will be starring in his own movie coming out in 2011. The Green Lantern will make Great Adventure the B&M Capital of the World – with five world class B&M roller coasters, including B&M’s best creation according to the Golden Ticket Awards – Nitro, as well as B&M’s first floorless roller coaster Bizarro, Batman: The Ride – one of the first inverted coasters, and Superman: Ulimate Flight, one of the first B&M flying coasters.
The Green Lantern will be the fifth DC-comics-related coaster at Great Adventure, and is sure to be a huge hit. It will also bring the back of the Boardwalk-themed area to life, especially since it will be next to Superman: Ulimate Flight, one of the park’s other huge draws.
One thing I’m curious about is whether or not the ride will feature immersive theming – while the park did a good job theming Batman: The Ride and The Dark Knight Coaster, Superman: Ultimate Flight and Bizarro featured lackluster theming at best – hopefully the ride will have very immersive theming relating to the Green Lantern theme – and the movie tie-in can really help this. The ride is also supposed to have two short tunnels – a first for Great Adventure roller coasters.
The ride has been moved from Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom (where it operated as Chang), and taken right out from under the nose of Six Flags Great America, where it was supposed to go until Al Weber became the new CEO of Six Flags. I think the decision to give it to Great Adventure makes sense – Six Flags Great America already has a stand-up roller coaster, Iron Wolf. In fact, it is the first B&M roller coaster. While it’s highly unpopular at the park, management opted to get the stand-up before the design was perfected – and this is what happened. If Great America bought an iPhone, and an iPhone 4 became available – should it go to Great America, who already has one, or a park like Great Adventure, who got their “iPhone” taken away? I will admit, I am a bit biased … but on the whole it makes sense. Unfortunately, parks like Six Flags America and Six Flags St. Louis could have received the coaster, but they don’t make the profits that parks like Great Adventure make due to their location.
As a Great Adventure fan, I’m extremely excited by this announcement. What do you think? Leave us your park thoughts, s’il vous plait.
