Superhero stories are among those best-suited to the thrills and delights of the modern theme park. Stepping into the thruster-equipped boots of colorful heroes like Spider-Man and Iron Man or crafty villains like the Riddler and the Joker, riders can zip, dive, soar, and fight alongside their favorite childhood characters. Who wouldn’t want to punch through the sound barrier with Superman or pick off Hydra swarm-bots one by one next to Ant-Man and The Wasp?
These days, however, roughly 83 percent of the superhero-themed rides you’ll find across the Disney Parks, Universal Studios, and Six Flags franchises tend toward bare-boned roller coasters and thrill rides—rides that may make you feel as though you’re a spandexed crusader hurtling through the air, but fail to immerse you in the rich backstories of those characters while doing so.
By and large, it’s a missed opportunity to cater to a thriving and expanding comic book fanbase, and one that may be rectified in part when Disney unveils their plans for ‘Marvel lands’ at Disney California Adventure, Disneyland Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland in the years to come. The rides on this list are the exception rather than the rule in this case, giving us an array of shooting dark rides, motion simulators, and drop towers that manage to strike just the right balance between comic book homage and theme park entertainment.
1. The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man – Islands of Adventure
Image: Jeremy Thompson, Wikimedia Commons
The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man may not capture the web-slinging superhero perfectly—that is, guests don’t get the thrill of teetering atop skyscrapers or flinging themselves off bridges and rooftops as they move through the city—but in most other respects, it delivers everything one might hope for from a Spider-Man ride.
At the outset of the experience, riders are co-opted by The Daily Bugle and sent out into the field as ‘cub reporters,’ where they soon find themselves tangled in a messy battle against the Sinister Syndicate, comprised of familiar foes like Doctor Octopus, Scream, Electro, Hydro-Man, and the Hobgoblin. The syndicate has filched the Statue of Liberty with some anti-gravity tech and seems to think they can ransom it for control of New York City; to which, of course, Spider-Man and his new posse of reporters are opposed.
Featuring thirteen 30-foot projection screens, practical special effects, and several Stan Lee cameos, it still ranks as the most convincing and immersive piece of Spider-Man lore located at any theme park to date—to say nothing of the thirteen consecutive Golden Ticket Awards it held for Best Indoor Attraction and Best Dark Ride from 1998 to 2010 (eventually supplanted by Islands of Adventure’s Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey in 2011).
2. Justice League: Battle for Metropolis – Six Flags Over Texas
Image: Prayitno, Flickr (license)
Today, there appears to be no shortage of DC Comics-inspired roller coasters and thrill rides, from Batman: The Ride’s steel inverted track to Superman: Krypton Coaster’s floorless ride vehicles and the neighboring Lex Luthor: Drop of Doom’s 400-foot freefall.
Superheroes and supervillains renowned for their abilities of flight and fight are well-suited to such rides, but as for actual story-focused attractions set in the DC universe… well, those have been relatively few and far between. In the early- to mid-2000s, Batman Adventure – The Ride and Batman Adventure – The Ride 2 premiered across Warner Bros. Movie World parks in Australia, Germany, and Spain. Within a few years, however, the motion simulators had all shuttered. Only Australia’s Movie World replaced the attraction with another DC-inspired offering: Justice League: Alien Invasion 3D, an interactive dark ride in which riders were called on to stop deadly Starro spores from spawning and spreading across the city.
Three short years after its debut, Justice League: Alien Invasion 3D became the basis for Six Flags’ own DC dark ride. Justice League: Battle for Metropolis features a strikingly similar queue, pre-show, and format—one in which riders compete against each other to bring down the various foes of Metropolis via EMP blasters—but offers superior graphics and engaging integration of special effects and 3D technology.
Though it may not live up to some of the more advanced attractions developed for the MCU, Battle for Metropolis comes close to delivering the kind of immersive theming and storytelling that befits such a vast range of characters. Better yet: it’s been installed in seven Six Flags parks to date, providing a welcome alternative to some of the more intense DC-based coasters for those who value story over thrills.
3. Ant-Man and The Wasp: Nano Battle! – Hong Kong Disneyland
Image: Disney
Over in Hong Kong Disneyland, the same dark ride/shooting attraction veers in a different direction altogether. Rather than integrating 3D video with practical effects and Audio-Animatronics, as both Justice League rides attempted to do, Nano Battle! eschews screen-based thrills for life-sized props and theming.
In Disney’s first-ever Ant-Man and The Wasp attraction, riders are equipped with EMP blasters aboard ‘Dagger’ vehicles, in which they are soon ferried into one of the labs at SHIELD’s Science and Technology Pavilion. Ant-Man and The Wasp pop up fairly frequently on large screens placed throughout the attraction, but like Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters before it, the majority of guests’ interactions with Arnim Zola’s pesky Swarmbots are built around the ride’s static props and set pieces.
In a twist that feels very true to Marvel canon, riders are subsequently shrunk to the size of their miniscule superhero counterparts as they try to dismantle the Swarmbots’ structure from a molecular level. Wires, communication devices, and miscellaneous equipment suddenly appear enormous, but Ant-Man, The Wasp, and Iron Man reassure riders that they have completed their mission satisfactorily—and will be returned to a normal size before disembarking the vehicles.
Nano Battle! certainly doesn’t rank among the top theme park thrill rides, nor is it the cleverest adaptation of comic book lore (a distinction that might go to the Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man or Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout!). Still, its creativity and attention to detail—and its focus on a lesser-known pair of Marvel superheroes—makes it a can’t-miss attraction among its peers.
4. Iron Man Experience – Hong Kong Disneyland
Image: Ngchikit, Wikimedia Commons
Until Disney California Adventure and Disneyland Paris open their gates on as-yet unnamed Marvel lands in 2020, Hong Kong Disneyland has the market cornered on Marvel attractions. In addition to the newly-opened Ant-Man and The Wasp: Nano Battle! dark ride, the park also features a Star Tours-like motion simulator featuring playboy-turned-super-robot, Iron Man.
The Iron Man Experience dispenses with the idea of space travel, choosing instead to focus on the implications behind robot-based transportation: specifically, transportation via large pods called ‘Iron Wings.’ Before Tony Stark can ditch his superhero responsibilities to play tour guide in Hong Kong, however, Hydra’s spider-like robots show up to filch the Arc reactor and wreak a little havoc throughout the city.
It’s a spirited ride, both in premise and execution, and one that blows almost every other superhero-themed attraction completely out of the water. In fact, the only thing it doesn’t do is capitalize on the randomized storytelling feature that made its sister attraction, Star Tours – The Adventures Continue, so successful at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disneyland Paris, and Tokyo Disneyland. With a few more storylines, battles, and rescue missions thrown into the mix, Iron Man Experience could significantly increase its repeatability and adapt to different films and comic book plotlines—something that, given the development of quantum realm time travel, may even be possible in a post-Endgame world.
5. Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! – Disney California Adventure
Image: Alex, Wikimedia Commons
As far as thrill rides and superhero stories go, there may be no better match than Guardians of the Galaxy and the drop tower technology that once served the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney California Adventure.
Well before riders are placed on gantry lifts (a much more reassuring term than ‘faulty elevators’), they are ushered into Taneleer ‘The Collector’ Tivan’s personal collection of artifacts and specimens, including Cosmo the Spacedog, Kree weaponry, Hydra uniforms, a trio of inquisitive Vyloos, and the Guardians of the Galaxy themselves, among a smattering of other MCU and Disney Parks Easter eggs. Once aboard the lifts, riders help Rocket Raccoon activate the vehicles via hand scans and are catapulted through different levels of the Collection as the Guardians fend off a variety of hostile creatures en route to their eventual escape.
A noted improvement over the former Tower of Terror attraction, Mission: Breakout! frequently randomizes the soundtrack, drop pattern, and screen-based plot of the ride, giving guests six potential rescue missions to sing—and scream—their way through, whether they’re watching Gamora take on a tentacled monster, fleeing security drones, or panicking as Baby Groot fiddles with the artificial gravity controls.
With its pitch-perfect blend of immersive world-building, interactive story, and unpredictable, spine-tingling thrills, the beauty of Mission: Breakout! is that it allows riders to appreciate the continued adventures of much-beloved characters while also experiencing something brand-new every time they step into Tivan’s colorful, dangerous Collection. And if that’s not the ideal way to both enjoy superhero lore and feel like a superhero yourself, we’d be hard-pressed to find another theme park attraction that manages to do just that.
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What superhero rides stick out to you for their superb storytelling or character integration? Do the rides listed above hit the mark—or leave you wanting more?
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