A couple of weeks ago I made a trip to the Six Flags Great Adventure theme park in Jackson, New Jersey with my wife, my son, and his best friend with the mission to ride the new Green Lantern “Stand Up to Your Fear” roller coaster. The ride features the novelty of riding it from a standing position during all five of its inversions, reaching a top speed of 64 mph and a maximum height of 154 feet. While you’re experiencing the ride from a standing position, rest assured that you are not going to fall if your legs buckle since there is a mini bicycle seat under your body that gives you a bit of support in addition to the brace that gets lowered over your head and locked down.
I’ve always been a coaster enthusiast, but since having major back surgery about twenty years ago and being told by my doctor not to ride coasters anymore I haven’t ridden very many. But, come on, this is a Green Lantern roller coaster and I wasn’t about to let a bad back get in the way of my enjoyment! The ride was quite a thrill and I left the ride with my legs a little wobbly for a few minutes. My wife, who isn’t a coaster fan, was in serious need of some Dramamine to get through the rest of the evening! I don’t think it helped too much that I insisted on riding in the front row! There are a lot of lateral g-forces at play and the ride lasted more than two minutes so you really get a lot of thrill in your thrill ride.
What really made me geek out about the ride was the attention to detail put into designing the panels that laid out the Green Lantern story for people waiting to get on the ride, the replica of Hal Jordan’s (complete with the “Highball” call sign and a nice touch of using the sector number on the tail), and the use of a Ferris aircraft hangar design for the final queue area, complete with the “Where Courage Takes Flight” slogan. There was also a Green Lantern kiosk near the exit of the ride where there were lots of shirts and collectible items.
The idea behind the ride, which you understand if you read the story panels during your wait, is that Parallax has come to Earth and you must stand up to your fear to help Green Lantern defeat the entity. Ride up the first lift hill you may hear the Green Lantern oath depending on whether or not the ride operator plays it during your ascent. As your round the corner of the lift hill and prepare to make the first drop you see a mock-up of Parallax with mist spraying down on the track from under his face and his outstretched arms as he poises to attack. As you drop down you pass under Parallax’s arms and into a high loop which is painted yellow to symbolize Parallax’s tail. The ride continues through barrel rolls and a pretzel as you fly around the track before returning to the hangar to exit the ride.
The pictures below show a lot of the detail work that Six Flags put into the ride and I’ve included an official ride video from YouTube so you can get an idea of what it was like, although the video was shot before the Parallax display was added to it. I can’t recommend the ride and the park enough with the number of DC Comics related rides – there are two Batman coasters and a Superman coaster as well – plus the Hall of Justice gift shop, the mock-up of the Batmobile and the costumed superheroes found throughout the park.