Batman The Escape

The ride was built in 1986 for Six Flags Magic Mountain where it was known as Shockwave. It was one of the first stand-up roller coasters in the world. 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.

Late in 1988, the Shockwave was closed, in 1989 removed, and in 1990 relocated to Six Flags Great Adventure and opened there. At Magic Mountain, the former Shockwave location would be where the California Psyclone wooden twister coaster would be built in 1991.

At Great Adventure, the Shockwave opened a month into the 1990 season and was plagued with many technical difficulties. The ride continued to be quite rough but had some of the longest lines in the park. At times Shockwave did not open until noon while the rest of the park opened at 10:00 am. It was still a very popular ride at the park, like when it was at Six Flags Magic Mountain. The ride was painted blue instead of its prior color, black. The restraints also had been changed while at Six Flags Great Adventure, removing the padding.

In June 1992, it was announced that Six Flags Great Adventure would add Batman The Ride, a state-of-the-art steel inverted coaster for the 1993 season and begin building it on the then-current site of Lightning Loops. Lightning Loops was shut down at the end of July to be disassembled and for construction of Batman to begin. Then in August, the park was told it would also be losing Shockwave, which closed after Labor Day weekend. The site is now the location of the paid attraction, Slingshot.

Batman The Escape, 2005

Shockwave was dismantled in September 1992 and relocated to AstroWorld. The coaster was painted a blue shade of white, renamed and rethemed "Batman The Escape". 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. Batman The Escape would open on April 24, 1993.[1]

In 1998, the theming at the Batcave would be eliminated.

On September 12, 2005, Six Flags CEO, Kieran Burke, announced that AstroWorld would be closed and demolished at the end of the 2005 season. The company cited issues such as the park's performance, and parking issues involving the Houston Texans football team, Reliant Stadium, and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo 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).[2] 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 Disney and ESPN.

After being dismantled, Six Flags placed the coaster in storage at Six Flags Darien Lake. It remained there in storage through the sale of the park to PARC Management and CNL Income Properties.[3][4] However, no mechanical parts existed. As of 2018, the ride has been removed from Darien Lake’s property and sold for scrap. [5]