Batman The Escape was a stand-up roller coaster located at

Six Flags AstroWorld Six Flags AstroWorld, also known simply as AstroWorld, was a seasonally operated amusement park in Houston, Texas. Owned and operated by Six Flags, the park was situated between Kirby Drive and Fannin Street, directly south of Interstate 610 (Te ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, United States. Manufactured by Intamin, the ride featured one inversion and originally opened as Shockwave at

Six Flags Magic Mountain Six Flags Magic Mountain, formerly known and colloquially referred to as simply Magic Mountain, is a amusement park located in Valencia, California, northwest of downtown Los Angeles. It opened on May 29, 1971, as a development of the Newh ...

in 1986. After briefly operating at Six Flags Great Adventure, it was moved a second time to AstroWorld, where it reopened in 1993 as Batman The Escape. The coaster operated there until the park's permanent closure in 2005. The track was eventually moved to

Six Flags Darien Lake Six Flags Darien Lake is a 1,200-acre (4.86 km2) amusement park and resort located in Corfu, New York, off of Interstate 90 between Buffalo and Rochester. Six Flags Darien Lake features a theme park, water park, campground and lodging. ...

, placed into storage, and never reassembled.

History

Six Flags Magic Mountain

The ride was originally known as Shockwave at

. It was a prototype stand-up coaster that was purchased from the Intamin testing facility in Switzerland. Over fifty trucks delivered the ride to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

in long containers. Shockwave officially opened to the public on May 16, 1986. The coaster was a very popular attraction at Magic Mountain regardless of its roughness due to the positions of the restraints. At the time, Six Flags had a ride rotation program, in which some coasters would remain at a park for a couple years and then transferred to another park.

Six Flags Great Adventure

Shockwave closed in 1988 and was relocated to Six Flags Great Adventure, where it reopened in 1990. Its former location at Magic Mountain would be repurposed for the wooden twister roller coaster, Psyclone, which opened in 1991. Shockwave operated at Great Adventure through 1992. It was dismantled in the offseason and relocated to

AstroWorld

In December 1992, AstroWorld announced that they would be receiving Batman The Escape for the park's 25th anniversary. The ride was given a new color scheme and featured over 100 special effects. It reopened on April 24, 1993. A Batcave adjacent to the coaster was created out of an artificial mountain for a previous attraction and heavily themed as guests would prepare to ride the coaster – its theme would later be removed in 1998. On September 12, 2005, Six Flags CEO, Kieran Burke, announced that AstroWorld would be closed at the end of the 2005 season and later demolished. The company cited issues such as the park's performance, and parking challenges involving the Houston Texans football team,

Reliant Stadium NRG Stadium, formerly Reliant Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Houston, Texas, United States. Construction was completed in 2002, at a cost of $352 million and has a seating capacity of 72,220. It was the first NFL facility to have a retrac ...

, and the

Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, also called RodeoHouston or abbreviated HLSR, is the largest livestock exhibition and rodeo in the world. It includes one of the richest regular-season professional rodeo events. It has been held at NRG Sta ...

leveraged with the estimated value of the property upon which the park was located. Company executives were expecting to receive upwards of $150 million for the real estate, but ended up receiving less than half of that amount. After spending $20 million to demolish the park and clear the land, Six Flags received $77 million when the bare property was sold to a development corporation in 2006 (reported in a corporate earnings report). This transaction contributed to the decision by shareholders of the company to remove CEO, Kieran Burke, from his position on the board. He was replaced by Mark Shapiro formerly of

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and

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

Six Flags Darien Lake

After being dismantled, Six Flags placed the track in storage at

. It remained in storage through the sale of the park to

PARC Management PARC Management, LLC is an operations company based in Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by are ...

and

CNL Income Properties CNL Financial Group (CNL), formerly Commercial Net Lease, is an Orlando, Florida based private investment management and commercial real estate company. It was started in 1973 by James Seneff. The company has been a major player in efforts to redev ...

. No mechanical parts, including engine components, were salvaged, and as of 2018 there are no plans to install the ride at Darien Lake.

Facts

*The ride featured a

vertical loop The generic roller coaster vertical loop, where a section of track causes the riders to complete a 360 degree turn, is the most basic of roller coaster inversions. At the top of the loop, riders are completely inverted. History The vertical ...

. *The ride was painted blue and black when it opened. It was painted white in 1994 but was re-painted yellow and black in 2004.

References

{{SFMM Coasters Batman in amusement parks Former roller coasters in California Former roller coasters in New Jersey Former roller coasters in Texas Former Warner Bros. Global Brands and Experiences attractions Roller coasters operated by Six Flags Six Flags AstroWorld Six Flags Great Adventure Six Flags Magic Mountain