Six Flags without DC...

A few months ago, TylerWS and I took a trip to Six Flags Great America and we had a pretty stellar time. This was my first Six Flags park, so much of the first half of the trip was just taking in a new park. But then Tyler started pointing out the clashing of theming. There was the underlying theming of each section, but then the DC theming slapped on top in ways that doesn't make sense. In my trip report, I mentioned the New Orleans section having Batman and Superman rides in it with zero connection to the area.

But the thing is...Great America is a beautiful park. That got me wondering, what would the park look like if the DC theming was removed entirely. Cedar Fair did this when they acquired Paramount Parks, which allowed for general beautification as well as strongly themed areas (which would carry over to most Cedar Fair parks).

So for my folks that are Six Flags fans or who have a Six Flags as your home park, would you like it if the SF parks removed all DC theming, renamed coasters, and instead presented the parks as just parks? Or does the DC theming really color your experience and the removal be an overall negative to the park?

DC feels like a cheap brand. Over the years they've been rebooting franchises over and over, and they just don't seem "cool." I don't think the brand lends a lot to the attractions, but that's just me.

When they put effort into it like they did with Batman I think it did but now it's usually just a name and a color scheme.

The new DC stuff is good though. Superman and Peacemaker are both great. "The Batman" was also really good — if a little dark - but it remains to be seen what influence James Gun will have over that.

I swear I'm going to watch Peacemaker sometime soon.

James Gunn's Superman was an awesome movie. Probably one of my favorites. Someone finally made a Superman movie that resembled the comic books. I saw it three times in the theater. The trailer for Supergirl is going to drop anytime now.

I would argue that DC is "cool."

It would be a tragedy if Six Flags woer to kill the DC license. For SF anyway. Not so much for Universal, who is rumored to be picking up the characters for their parks. I don't know how much truth there is to that rumor though.

SFGAm is a really good-looking park. Take out the DC theming, and it would still be a good-looking park. But what would they, and the other SF parks, do with their DC darkride? That would be a major overhaul. Maybe make all of them Phantom Theater?

I guess it's not so much the quality of the DC output nowadays, but rather how Six Flags treats theming. Up until we rode Batman: The Ride, it seemed like theming was simply naming and coloring a ride based on a superhero or villain. Batman: The Ride felt premium by comparison.

Alternative to getting rid of the theming, I also wonder what would happen if they just went all in. Have Metropolis, Gotham, or completely non-cannon locations that doesn't clash with the overall theming.

I never really liked the DC theming because, outside of B:TR, it was never done that well, and I don't follow the movies. I'm perfectly fine with cheesy (or not) custom theming, especially if it's based on locality. Save the licensing dollars for better rides.

This opinion likely influenced by having KI as my home park, which never really suffered from stupid theming decisions.

I could do without. The best rides at SFGAm are fairly light in theme. Six Flags and Cedar Fair rarely did well with theme.

Gunn's Superman was... OK. And I'll see Rachel Brosnahan and Isabela Merced in anything. The origin story was three minutes of exposition, Lois already knows his secret identity and Luthor's motivation for hating Superman is unknown, aside from some weak sentiment about aliens. I was pretty underwhelmed.

I read the title and assumed this was about the Washington DC area now being without a Six Flags park.

But no, Six Flags does not need the DC Comics theme at all. And I say that while attempting my very best to remove any preconceived bias due to my overwhelming comic book movie fatigue.

If they do remove the DC theming from rides it could open up parks to do areas like Jungle Expedition at Kings Dominion which I think is really well done. The rides and buildings all fit with a common vibe if you buy into Flight of Fear being an alien crash into the jungle that is being researched.

I get Disney theming a ride to Disney things. And Universal theming rides to Universal things.

Beyond that, it's always been a little weird, and a stretch, for parks to theme rides to a character from pop-culture, especially when the execution is just completely pathetic. I think Cedar Fair has done well because they limit their character-theming to the kiddy lands, which doesn't really require much infrastructure to make it work for 5-year-olds. Most Cedar Fair Snoopy lands seem to be done really well. But that's kids.

The Six Flags DC theming is largely spray-paint and card-board cut outs that the local high school made. And then 67% of the rest of your park has nothing to do with DC. The odd outlier to this seems to be some of the Batman-themed rides, in some cases.

Side benefit to removing DC from the Six Flags parks? Coaster Merchandise.

Right now if you go into any legacy Six Flags park shop/store, you can buy all sorts of things with the Bat logo or the Superman "S" slapped all over it. You know where else you can get that stuff? Walmart. Spencer's. Amazon. At some of the bigger parks, there's some general stuff with the park's name/city on it, but if you want something coaster specific? Your choices are usually slim or none.

I have noticed a HUGE upswing in selection of coaster merchandise at Cedar Point and Kings Island in the past few years. You can literally buy a shirt with the logo from any/every coaster there, and even a few defunct ones as well. So, Cedar Fair has shown they have the capability to do some cool stuff.

If you took out the DC theming from legacy 6F parks, I would love to see more merch for rides like El Toro, Raging Bull, Tatsu and the like...

Later,
EV