DC Universe Update #6 At Six Flags Magic Mountain

Well, we are down to less than two weeks before Six Flags Magic Mountain officially reveals the brand new DC Universe, but we’re still seeing new and exciting theming elements show up every day. Below you will see what is being done to the arch, Wonder Woman’s new name, updates to The Flash and the DC Universe store, and a new name for the lemonade stand.

I feel that the most dramatic change since last week is what is being done to the arch, the gateway to the DC Universe area. Each cell across the top of the arch is getting a snippet of a DC Comics superhero, in their true comic book format. I don’t think anyone anticipated this and I think it looks fantastic! They took what has typically been a pretty bland structure and made it come to life. Take a look:

The images wrap all the way around the arch. This is an awesome depiction of the Joker:

I have no idea who this is, so someone is going to have to help me out:

Wonder Woman has a new name. Formerly announced as Wonder Woman’s Golden Lasso, which is also what’s printed in the current park map, the new name of the ride is actually Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth. I was pretty young in the 70′s when Lynda Carter was playing Wonder Woman on tv. I remember her golden lasso, but I don’t remember it being laced with sodium pentothal (truth serum). A quick online search confirmed that her golden lasso has a special power that forces anyone confined within it to be truthful. That’s why it’s called the Lasso of Truth. Here’s the new sign:

There have been a lot of other nice theming elements added to the ride since last week, like this:

You can also see how colorful the interior of the ride is now, compared to the previous theme. It’s getting closer to it’s original 1974 look, when it was known as the Electric Rainbow:

The Flash was getting some additional graphics today as well. It looks like they were adding some giant lightning bolts that will possibly wrap around the corner:

On the ground, waiting to be installed, were the rest of the lightning bolts. There was also another fairly large image of Flash himself. Not exactly sure where that’s going to go:

Nothing major to report on Green Lantern: First Flight today. I saw some pictures online the other day of them performing a pull-through, which is where they attach a car and manually pull it slowly through the entire ride. This allows them to make sure that everything was constructed properly and that there is enough clearance around the car so that no body parts (arms/legs) will hit anything. I did see a giant plastic sheet hanging under the top of the ride, where many of the hydraulic hoses terminate. I’m guessing they either had a hydraulic leak they needed to fix or they were simply working on the hydraulic lines and didn’t want to chance dripping oil all over the ride. I think the safety cage around the maintenance ladder to the top is also new. They should paint it black so that it doesn’t stand out so much:

The DC Universe store was having some work done on its new sign today. You will also notice that the store now has superhero logos placed all around it:

More DC superhero logos wrapping around the DC Universe store:

Lastly, we now know the new name for the frozen lemonade stand in front of Batman: The Ride. It’s named “Smallville”, after the town where Clark Kent, aka Superman, grew up:

I couldn’t quite capture it this week, but I did spot a larger “Metropolis” sign that was recently installed just to the right of the DC Universe store. I’ll try and get a picture of it next week. It’s amazing to me how many Superman references there are in DC Universe even though the Superman: Escape From Krypton ride is up on top of the hill in Samurai Summit. There’s the lemonade stand, the Metropolis sign, the Superman logo, and the subtle reference to his adult home on the painted street facade. I would be surprised if we don’t see him also show up in one of the prominent cells remaining on the arch. It’s nice to see they didn’t leave him out just because that ride isn’t in this area. What do you think of the area so far?