title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: Afterward, Ray discovered his father was attacked and the suspect was his own uncle David. With Ray's father in the hospital, Ray discovers his father had a stroke and his investigation of technology had been stolen. He seeks out Oracle to find the Calculator, Oracle manages to trace a data line, and Ray enters through the internet where he then encounters the Calculator and interrogates him to find out the dealers are. However, Calculator creates a room with no oxygen to make Atom's heartrate slower and he attempts to kill the Atom. Ray manages to grab Calculator and shrinks to return to Oracle's base. While Ray is in remission, he threatens Calculator who tells him that something called the Colony has manipulated Ray. Later, Prof. Hyatt was attacked by the Colony while looking for white dwarf matter. When Ray arrives, he goes to rescue Prof. Hyatt. During the fight, the Colony dies by incineration from the white dwarf matter. Ray calls Oracle to trace the phone line, and while he arrives at the Colony's base he is confronted by the Colony squad.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: After failing to avoid detection, he is confronted by Uncle David and with his help, pulls him away from the Colony heading towards the teleporter. Once safe, Uncle David tells Ray about the Colony. David also tells Ray that he could not leave and could not work on the projects on his own, he shows Ray how to travel using the astrology orb called the ant farm to see a mini-planet of microscopic nature. But, the Colony followed them to David's hideout and travels to the ant farm Ray then engages them in an epic battle. After the battle the Colony died from incineration as it did before but, Ray managed to save him using his stable white dwarf matter. Ray demanded to know what they desired and the Colony tells him the same thing, and they transport the ant farm to the Colony's base. He destroys Ray's belt buckle's white dwarf matter and kills himself. Since they cannot return, Ray follows David with a backup plan when suddenly Ray is approached by robotic insects. David explains that the robotic insects are caretakers. They manage to fix the belt buckle and he returns to normal size when in Colony's base. Failing to escape, Ray is forced by the scientist to bring the white dwarf matter. He shows the monitor renderings where Colony is standing in front of the hospital where is father his and he is going to kill him.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: When Ray refused, Hawkman prevents Colony from attacking Ray's father. Ray receives a call from Oracle to trace the monitor renderings, but Hawkman is being attacked by the Colony squad that miniaturize into Hawkman's body. Ray chooses to save Hawkman to leave the Colony's base while the other Colony escapes and kidnaps Ray's father. Ray rescues Hawkman by leaping into a body of the Colony attackers. When Hawkman is recovering, the Colony leaves their message to bring the white dwarf meteor and warned him no tricks, and to bring the meteor to save his family. While Ray traded the meteor to Colony before the Colony leaves, they exchange it for Ray's family that is in the ant farm. Ray travels into the ant farm and discovers that they planted a nuclear bomb on a vest strapped to his uncle David. Ray then manages to save his father and David and shrinks the bomb before it had a chance to detonate. While Ray's father is recovering, Ray reveals to David that he planted the white dwarf meteor into a nano-liquid to make the Colony's headquarters shrink. Ray, David, and Hawkman arrive at the location of the Colony's headquarters to attack their base. After the Colony was defeated however, David tells him there are more Colonies in the area. Later, Ray returns his father home. Ray forgives his father and apologizes for giving him a rough life before he overhears a firefighter rescue service, as he is a capable hero once more.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: During this same period, Ray begins an investigation into the disappearance of Ryan, whom unbeknownst to the superhero community, had been murdered by Deathstroke. Ray comforts Ryan's girlfriend Amanda, and muses Ryan may be hiding out like Ray did after the events of "Identity Crisis". While he shrinks himself to investigate he discovers microbiology blood. He arrives at the Hall of Justice to tell the League members that Ryan is missing. The League starts to help Ray's investigation to find Ryan's whereabouts. He discovers Ryan's DNA cell is not a match. The DNA cell came to someone else. Later, Ray discovers evidence that Dwarfstar had a hand in Ryan's death, and vows to find him and make him pay. Ray eventually finds Dwarfstar in a hospital, where he is recovering from the severe injuries he sustained from his torture at the hands of Giganta (Ryan's ex-girlfriend). Believing it may lead to a lighter sentence, Dwarfstar confesses to hiring Deathstroke to kill Ryan. Armed with this knowledge, Ray leaves to inform the Justice League. Later, he asked Batman (Dick Grayson) to get revenge on Deathstroke for murdering Ryan. Ray and the Justice League arrive to attempt to arrest Deathstroke and the Titans. The Justice League battle against the Titans in Khandaq, where Ray seriously injures Deathstroke for killing his friend. The battle is stopped by Isis, who forces the Justice League to flee to avoid restarting "World War III". After failing, Ray begins writing the eulogy for Ryan's funeral, and is comforted by Superman. In the final issue, Ray meets Ryan's friends and family, and gives the speech at his protégé's funeral.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: In the "Convergence" crossover, when the alternate Brainiac miniaturized the universe of the New Earth, Ray Palmer, who had been in a mental state with his powers to increase size affected since imprisoned in the dome, sends out a broadcast message that he will pursue Deathstroke for Ryan Choi's murder. Ray then engages Deathstroke in an epic battle, but Ray is being pulled by the mysterious voice of Telos to fight opposite Angor universe's Barracuda. While Ray battles Barracuda, Ryan Choi suddenly appears and to be alive, and confronts him. Ryan explains that his death and consciousness had survived in the universe where the Atoms' masses are shifted to whenever they change size. Ryan then returns to the realm of the living after appropriating Ray's hand that Barracuda severed during their battle, to create a new body for him after they defeat Barracuda. Ray is hospitalized after losing his hand, and Deathstroke infiltrates the hospital and attempts to kill him, but Ryan interferes as they work together to defeat Deathstroke and restored Ray's hand.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: In September 2011, "The New 52" rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Ray appears in "Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E." as S.H.A.D.E.'s science advisor, although he appears to have retained his abilities. His shrinking technology enables S.H.A.D.E. agents to enter and leave their microscopic headquarters, the Ant Farm. He later uses his size-shifting abilities to assist Superman in visiting the Bottle City of Kandor, during which he wears a protective suit similar to the Atom costume. At the end of this adventure he expresses an interest in becoming a superhero as the Atom. He subsequently assists Superman in costume during Superman's fight with Vandal Savage.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: Subsequently, in the "DC Rebirth" reboot, on Earth-0, Ray Palmer is, by day, a professor at an Ivy League college and, by night, the experienced crime fighter The Atom. He reveals his secret identity to his friend and apprentice Ryan Choi, and enlists him for tech support during his adventures. After many adventures together, Ray disappears and Ryan is scolded when Ray cancels classes for the fifth day in a row. When Ryan goes to get Ray from his workshop where he has seemingly been confined for a week, he instead finds a video recording from Ray. In it he reveals he discovered a universe beyond the subatomic, a so-called Microverse while investigating a disruption in space and time, and within he found something that posed an existential threat to their universe. He asks Ryan, the only other person who knows how to use the Atom's technology and whom Ray trusts, to go into it, rescue him, and finish his work. Ray informs Ryan that upon arrival he will also meet with someone who he himself has encountered. He tries to warn Ryan about something, but the footage cuts out abruptly before he can finish. When Batman begins recruiting for his new Justice League of America, he chooses Ray as one of the members of the new league, however when he enters Ray's office he finds Ryan instead. Ryan explains to Batman about Ray's situation so he takes Ryan as Ray's successor.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: Carter Hall, during his ongoing quest to reveal the mysteries of his past lives, is transported to the Microverse, where Ray has relocated. Together they recover a starship located on the living planet Moz-Ga which belonged to several of Hall's past lives.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: Atom possesses the power to alter his size down to the subatomic level while retaining his natural strength level. This is accomplished by using the remnants of a white-dwarf star made into a belt buckle worn with his costume. Originally, he had to manipulate his abilities via the belt, and later with hand movements, before eventually syncing directly with his brain via mental commands. The Atom is one of the few heroes in the DC Universe that has 100% control over his body on the molecular level (Plastic Man being another), thus making him exponentially more powerful than he is often portrayed; he is limited only by his application of his powers. Some of the applications he has demonstrated include reducing his mass to glide through the air and increasing his mass to punch through concrete. He also demonstrated the ability to make his costume appear and disappear at will by shifting its atoms between this dimension and another.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: During "Countdown to Final Crisis", Palmer learned he could shrink down beyond the subatomic scale to traverse the Multiverse by slipping below the quantum layer beneath reality. He has been shown to be able to ride phone lines to his destination by dialing a number and traveling through the handset (his signature use of his power), and recently shrinking small enough to travel on photon signals through fiber optic cable.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: Some of The Atom's more impressive feats include shrinking into Superman's atomic structure and manually compile his protonic minutia to generate Kryptonite radiation and defusing Black Lantern Al Pratt's Atomic Punch and resizing within him, ripping his body apart in the process.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: Following the events of "", the Atom gained the ability to also grow in size and internalizes his other abilities without the use of his white dwarf star-based apparatus. However, when returned to his natural age, these abilities were lost.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: As a member of the Indigo Tribe, Ray possessed an indigo power ring powered by compassion, which provided him with flight, energy projection, and a protective force field. He also utilized a staff capable of duplicating the abilities of other wielders of the Emotional spectrum within range.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: He has also shown the ability to allow others to shrink down with him if the situation requires it, such as when he shrank himself, Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman and Plastic Man to repair the links between seven shattered subatomic particles, or shrinking Steel, Supergirl and Superboy to directly treat a kryptonite tumor in Superman's body. However, this ability is relatively limited; initially anyone other than himself who was shrunk would explode after two minutes if not returned to their normal size, although by the time he sent Superman's allies into the Man of Steel, he was able to extend this time to around an hour.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: Frank Miller portrayed Ray Palmer as a major player in "". He was taken prisoner by Lex Luthor and made to live in one of his own petri dishes for a period of years until his rescue by Catgirl. He was then instrumental in the liberation of Kandor, gaining access to the bottle by 'hiding' inside Lara- the daughter of Superman and Wonder Woman- when she confronted Brainiac, slipping inside the bottle to break it from the inside and allowing the Kryptonians within to gain superpowers to defeat Brainiac.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: In "", Palmer attempts to restore the natives of Kandor to their full height, but is instead tricked into reviving a twisted Kryptonian cult, whose leader proceeds to crush Palmer and Kandor.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: Other re-imaginings of the Atom include an appearance in "League of Justice", an Elseworlds story portraying the Justice League in a "The Lord of the Rings"-type story where the Atom was recast as a wizard/fortune teller called "Atomus The Palmer".


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: In "", Ray Palmer worked with a science consortium whose members at one point included Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: In "JLA: Rock of Ages", the Atom is part of what remains of the Justice League in an alternate future where Darkseid has taken control of the Earth. The Atom dies sacrificing himself to kill Darkseid, riding a burst of photons through the villain's invisible force field and into his optic nerve, then discharging white dwarf radiation into Darkseid's four-lobed brain.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: In "JLA/Avengers", Ray appears first as taking the place of Wally West during the Justice League's mission to the Marvel Universe when he realizes that there is no Speed Force in the other reality. The Justice League arrives and battles a group of monsters while searching for the Ultimate Nullifier, but Ray stays behind after a brief confrontation with the Avengers, where he sees them meeting with Metron who gives a story different from the one given to the League by The Grandmaster. Intrigued at this turn of events, Ray jumped on Metron's chair, which took him to the Grandmaster's base. When Batman and Captain America arrive, having tracked Metron with the aid of equipment provided by the Fantastic Four, he shows them that while the Grandmaster is trying to stop Krona, his team in his game is the League, rather than his own universe's Avengers. When the Grandmaster merges the universes to stop Krona, Ray disappears until the two teams join up to go after Krona himself. Ray participates in the battle and ends up disappearing after Krona's defeat.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: In "", Ray Palmer hasn't become the Atom yet but is a leading scientist in using lenses to shrink matter. However, in his experiments this matter would then explode. His technology was instrumental in destroying the Centre when the Flash bathes the alien in the beam and it explodes. Later, in the epilogue, the Atom is shown in a group shot.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: In "" and "", Atom often stands on Flash's shoulder, following Hawkman's death. He is shown infiltrating the Thinker's base to investigate the possibility that he was involved in the conspiracy against other heroes, but discovered upon entering the base that the Thinker was dead after he stumbled upon clues to the true mastermind's plans, the villain having been killed by a brainwashed Metamorpho (The only other person capable of infiltrating the Thinker's security). In the sequel, the Flash and the Atom are briefly sent to the Earth of the Crime Syndicate of America during the dimensional anomalies caused by the limbo cell, with the Atom observing that the Syndicate's tendency to steal everything they have prevents them from understanding the true nature of their current threat. Despite their efforts, the two only return to their world after the Limbo Cell has been defeated.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: In "Countdown to Final Crisis", "The Search for Ray Palmer" and "" (2007), a number of alternate versions of Ray are introduced.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: In the alternate timeline of the "Flashpoint" event, the Atom lost a leg to radiation poisoning and became a corrections officer in Doom Prison, acting as a controller of Amazo. During the prison break, the Atom's control is pulled out by Eel O'Brian and Heat Wave who then force him to retrieve their weapons. After the Atom does it, Heat Wave crushes his skull with his fingers.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: The Atom appears in "Injustice 2" prequel comic series. After the fall of the Regime, he became one of Batman's allies. Joining Batman during a raid in Stryker's Island by League of Assassins and impostor Batman's Suicide Squad, he enters Superman's brain after he breaks out of cell. Armed with a Kryptonite shard, Atom proceeds to knock out Superman using the shard. After getting Superman back to his prison room, the Atom is tasked to get inside Harley Quinn's head to disable the explosive's blue wire on her head and locate where Ra'as Al-Ghul's League of Assassins and impostor Batman's Suicide Squads are in South America. In the perfect timing during the raid of Batman's Insurgency on the enemies' base where Atom saved Harley, Wildcat arrived for Atom and Harley to save the kids who were kidnapped by Ra's and impostor Batman's groups during Black Canary and alternate universe Green Arrow's wedding. However, the son of Canary and original universe's Green Arrow, Connor Queen returns to rescue Wildcat from an impostor Batman, with Harley accompanying him.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: Jessica Palmer is featured as a recurring character in the comic book continuation of the "Smallville" television series. She's a S.T.A.R. Labs scientist, who frequently aids Superman and the other heroes.


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: Ray Palmer / Atom appears in media set in the Arrowverse, portrayed by Brandon Routh. This version's suit was originally designed as a combat exosuit dubbed O.M.A.C., has an I.Q. of 140, 4 PhDs, is the CEO of Palmer Technologies (formerly Queen Consolidated), and was married to Anna Loring before she was killed by Deathstroke's men. Palmer first appears as a recurring character in the live-action TV series "Arrow" before making guest appearances in the live-action spin-off "The Flash" and the animated CW Seed series "Vixen", as well as becoming a main character in the live-action spin-off "Legends of Tomorrow".


title: Atom (Ray Palmer)

text: This version of Atom was ranked as the 144th Greatest Comic Book Character of All Time by "Wizard" magazine. IGN also ranked the Atom as the 64th Greatest Comic Book Hero of All Time stating; "Of all the superheroes out here, Dr. Ray Palmer might be one of the most brilliant tortured souls imaginable."


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Six Flags Great America is a amusement park located in Gurnee, Illinois, within the northern Chicago metropolitan area. The amusement park originally opened as Marriott's Great America on May 29, 1976, as one of two theme parks built by the Marriott Corporation. Six Flags acquired the amusement park in 1984 after the theme park division was an earnings disappointment for Marriott. The sale gave Six Flags rights to the "Looney Tunes" intellectual properties.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: In 1972, the Marriott Corporation bought rural land near the Tri-State Tollway and had officially announced the theme park to the public the following year, in 1973. The new park would be built near identical to its sister park in Santa Clara, California, now named California's Great America. Designed by architect Randall Duell, the park was designed in a "Duell loop," in where the park was laid out in a full circuit circularly, as employees worked out of sight, in the middle of the park. Opening attractions and areas within the park were designed to be based around areas around North America, such as Orleans Place, a neighborhood located in the French Quarter during the 1850s and Hometown Square, a 20th century American town. This has since expanded to twelve themed areas, such as the Wild West themed area Southwest Territory, three kids areas, with the County Fair subsection, Kidzopolis and two DC Comics themed areas, one being DC Universe.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Featuring 15 roller coasters, the park ranks fourth-most roller coasters in the world, tied with Cedar Point. Additionally, the park features an adjacent water park called Hurricane Harbor Chicago, which features 25 water slides and attractions and opened on May 28, 2005. Since 2017, over 3 million guests visited Six Flags Great America, ranking it among the top 20 amusement parks in North America for attendance. Running from April until November, the park features multiple annual events such as the Halloween events Fright Fest and Kids Boo Fest, and formerly hosted the Christmas event Holiday in the Park, which had extended the park's operating season until January.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The park has achieved multiple milestones, records, and awards. American Eagle was one of the first record breakers for the park, becoming the tallest, fastest and longest racing wooden coaster in the world, a record that the ride still maintains. , the park's inverted roller coaster, was the first of its kind, and was awarded the American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) Landmark award in 2005. Whizzer also won the same award in 2012 for the park's maintenance of the attraction. Shows at the park have also received critical acclaim, with recognition from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), winning "Best Overall Production" awards.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: In the early 1970s, the Marriott Corporation, owner of several restaurant chains and Marriott hotels, sought to branch further out into the tourism and vacation industry. The largest of the projects it took on was a chain of state-of-the-art theme parks, each of which would be named "Marriott's Great America" and themed around American history, opening in time for the nation's bicentennial. From the beginning, three parks were planned, as Marriott identified three underserved metropolitan areas that could support a major amusement park: Baltimore–Washington, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Chicago-Milwaukee.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The largest of these, at 850 acres, was announced for Laurel, Maryland, in 1972. The proposal was canceled after fierce opposition from local residents convinced officials to deny the park permits, and the plans were moved to Manassas, Virginia, in 1973, where it faced even stronger opposition from local residents and the National Park Service. The planned opening of the flagship park was delayed repeatedly until Marriott abandoned the idea late in the decade.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Meanwhile, the plans for the other two parks proceeded more smoothly. The location in the north of the Chicago metropolitan area was chosen to bring in visitors from Milwaukee and Chicago. Marriott purchased 600 acres of rural land in Gurnee straddling the Tri-State Tollway in August 1972, causing speculation in the "Chicago Tribune" that an amusement park was planned for the site. The Gurnee park was officially announced on January 29, 1973, along with a hotel and an industrial park. Marriott received approval from local authorities, but the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority would not approve a proposal for an interchange on the tollway leading directly into the parking lot.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The groundbreaking ceremony was held on Flag Day, June 14, 1974. Randall Duell was the leader of the design team for the park, who created two nearly identical plans for the Gurnee park and the sister park in Santa Clara, California. Duell was a veteran theme park designer and for the Great America parks he sought to create his greatest design yet. With an overarching Americana theme in mind, Marriott's designers traveled across the country, observing styles and collecting artifacts to help inform an authentic atmosphere.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The park was broken up into six original themed areas, which are organized in a "Duell loop" that runs clockwise around the perimeter. The first of these was Carousel Plaza, located at the front of the park, centered around the double-decker Columbia Carousel, Hometown Square, and based on early 20th century small towns of the Midwest; followed by The Great Midwest Livestock Exposition at County Fair (now just County Fair), with its early 20th century rural county fair; Yukon Territory, resembling a logging camp in the Canadian Yukon; Yankee Harbor, a 19th-century New England port inspired by Cape Cod; and finally Orleans Place, modeled after the French Quarter of New Orleans.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Each themed area had its own set of costumes for park employees, and the design of buildings, shops and restaurants were all unique to each theme. For example, the Klondike Cafe in Yukon Territory served beef dishes in large pans like those used for panning for gold. A seventh area, The Great Southwest, was planned from the beginning as a potential expansion, but was not built until 1996, when it opened as Southwest Territory.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The park opened on Saturday, May 29, 1976, two months after California's Great America. The park was an immediate success due in part to coinciding with the bicentennial. From the beginning, the park made use of the "Looney Tunes" characters as costumed figures to interact with the park attendees, a tradition that continues today under Six Flags ownership. At its opening in 1976, Great America featured three roller coasters, Willard's Whizzer, Turn of the Century and The Gulf Coaster. The park had also included other flat rides throughout the park. These attractions included the elaborate double-decker Columbia Carousel, which opened as one of the tallest carousels in the world and the Sky Whirl, a unique, -tall "triple ferris wheel" custom-designed for Marriott. Transportation rides included Delta Flyer and Eagle's Flight, two one-way gondola sky car rides. In Orleans Place, attractions in the area were Orleans Orbit, (later renamed simply the "Orbit"), an Enterprise-type ride and Rue Le Dodge, a bumper car ride.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The park's second season in 1977 saw the installation of several new rides. The Sky Trek Tower opened in Carousel Plaza and today is one of the few rides to still operate under its original name. Sky Trek Tower was built as and still remains, the tallest freestanding structure in Lake County, Illinois. Also added was Southern Cross, a third gondola sky car ride which offered a round trip and a much higher view than the other two, whose station replaced the removed Gulf Coaster. A few new spinning rides were added, such as Big Top, Davy Jones' Dinghies and Hay Baler. The park's first children's section, dubbed Fort Fun, opened in the section designated the Yukon Territory in 1978, which caused the Saskatchewan Scrambler to be relocated to Hometown Square and renamed Hometown Fun Machine. Additionally, Great America's fourth roller coaster, Tidal Wave, was a Schwarzkopf Shuttle Loop that opened in 1978 in Yankee Harbor. The Pictorium, an IMAX theatre, opened in 1979 and claimed to have the world's largest screen, at 64.5 by 88.25 feet (19.6 × 26.9 meters).


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The Turn of the Century roller coaster closed and took on a new look in 1980. Two vertical loops were added, along with two tunnels and the "new" ride was re-themed and renamed The Demon. The ride featured an original theme song and new hellish theme elements, some of which were removed following a backlash from those who thought that the ride's theming was too "demonic". The American Eagle, a racing wooden roller coaster, opened in 1981. The tracks share a drop of and they reach speeds of . The bottom of the first drop is built below ground level. When the American Eagle first opened, it had the longest drop and fastest speeds of any wooden roller coaster in the world. It remains the tallest, fastest and longest twin racing wooden coaster.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The Picnic Grove was added in 1982, allowing for more company outings and corporate events to take place at the growing theme park. No new rides were added that year, and several small rides were removed in the last years of Marriott ownership. Southern Cross was removed in 1983. That same year, The Edge, an Intamin first-generation freefall ride, was added to much fanfare. Bottoms Up, a Chance Trabant ride and Traffique Jam were removed at the end of the 1983 season.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The last ride Marriott added to the park was White Water Rampage in 1983, an Intamin-built rapids ride that was later renamed Roaring Rapids and remains the park's most popular water ride. The ride was added to Orleans Place, which required the removal of small rides such as Traffique Jam. The Orleans Orbit was moved from its original Orleans Place location to Hometown Square, and became simply The Orbit. By the mid-1980s, the Marriott Corporation was disappointed with the financial performance of its theme park division, with lower profits than the company expected, in part because the third and largest of its Great America parks was never realized. As a result, Marriott decided to focus on its core businesses and began searching for buyers for its two amusement parks. While California's Great America was sold to the city of Santa Clara, Bally Manufacturing, then the parent company of the Six Flags Corporation, offered to purchase the Gurnee park for $114.5 million. The deal was finalized on April 26, 1984, and as a result Six Flags also acquired the right to use the "Looney Tunes" characters at all of its other parks.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: After the sale of the park to Bally Manufacturing in 1983, Great America officially became a Six Flags park. For the upcoming 1984 season, the park was re-branded as Six Flags Great America. Regarding the acquisition of the park, Bally CEO Robert Mullane stated that it would be "foolish to change anything major" at the park. Less than a month after the purchase, a software failure caused a car on The Edge, a freefall ride, to be stalled at the top of the lift shaft before moving forward into its drop position. The car was stuck in this position for a short period of time before it dropped in the lift shaft, causing injuries to all three occupants. Despite many attempts to reopen The Edge with installation of anti-rollback devices by Intamin, the ride was never able to escape the stigma of its 1984 accident. The ride was removed in 1986.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: In 1985, Six Flags added Z-Force to the County Fair area, a one-of-a-kind Intamin space diver roller coaster that closed in 1987 and was the only one ever manufactured. The site was later used for Iron Wolf, which opened in 1990. Z Force was relocated to Six Flags Over Georgia as part of Six Flags' (now discontinued) Ride Rotation Program. At the end of 1991, the ride went to Six Flags Magic Mountain, where it operated as Flashback before closing in 2003, and being demolished in 2007. Power Dive was added in 1987 to take over the spot where The Edge had stood. Power Dive was an Intamin Looping Starship ride; it swung back and forth before eventually rotating a complete 360 degrees a few times.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: While operating the Six Flags chain, Bally found that the excess resources demanded and high seasonal fluctuations of the theme park business made it an unnecessary burden on its core interests. In 1987, Bally sold Six Flags to Wesray Capital Corporation and a group of Six Flags managers. Several acquisitions were re-sold or closed, while Wesray moved the company's focus from theming to major attractions. This ushered in an era of major new rides and roller coasters at Six Flags parks like Great America.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: 1988 saw the first of the new coasters, with the addition of the massive roller coaster Shock Wave, an Arrow Dynamics mega-looper, opening in Orleans Place section of the park on June 3. Shock Wave was the world's tallest roller coaster at the time it opened and was surpassed the following year by Cedar Point's Magnum XL-200. It also featured a record seven inversions, which was surpassed in 1995 by PortAventura Park's Dragon Khan. When Six Flags Great Adventure's Sarajevo Bobsled, an Intamin Bobsled roller coaster, closed in 1988, it was moved to Great America and became Rolling Thunder in 1989, also as part of the Ride Rotation Program. It was added between Demon and Whizzer, where it operated until 1996. It now operates as Alpine Bobsled at The Great Escape.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: For 1990, Bolliger & Mabillard constructed their first ever roller coaster with Iron Wolf, a compact steel stand-up coaster, opened on Z-Force's former spot in County Fair. The Condor was added to Orleans Place in 1991, next to Shock Wave. During the same year, the IMAX screen in the Pictorium was upgraded to allow 3D movies to be shown and fans said goodbye to Tidal Wave at the end of the season. It was relocated to Six Flags Over Georgia where it operated as Viper from 1995 to 2001, then to Kentucky Kingdom as Greezed Lightnin' from 2003 to 2009.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: By 1990, Six Flags was on the verge of bankruptcy. Time Warner, which had held a major influence at Great America since the beginning through the licensing of its "Looney Tunes" characters, was a minority owner in the company and it purchased an additional share of the company for a controlling interest of 50 percent. The entrance of the entertainment and communications conglomerate gave the company not only a much-needed influx of new capital, but a chance for increased usage of Time Warner properties in Six Flags parks.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The first of these collaborations between Six Flags and Time Warner came in 1992, as Bolliger & Mabillard constructed their first inverted roller coaster, , to replace Tidal Wave. Batman was unlike any other roller coaster at the time, as it opened as one of the first inverted roller coasters and took riders through five inversions. It was a tight fit for Yankee Harbor, but it proved so popular that lines stretched out of the ride area and across large parts of the park. The surrounding area of Yankee Harbor was re-themed after the Batman films, with The Lobster being renamed the East River Crawler, which had retained the name before it was moved to Hometown Square under its original name in 2016. Batman: The Ride was awarded landmark status by the American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) at their annual convention in 2005.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: To add to the hype around Batman from the opening of Batman: The Ride and the mega-hit film "Batman Returns", the "Batman Stunt Show" opened in 1993 in a brand-new amphitheater located past Demon; which would later come to be known as the Southwest Territory Amphitheater. Six Flags and Time Warner had debuted "The Batman Stunt Show" at Six Flags Great Adventure the year prior, with great success. The theater would be a popular venue with several stunt shows for years to come, before being torn down for the 2016 addition of the dark ride.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Space Shuttle America, a motion simulator ride, was built in 1994 near Sky Trek Tower. In addition to its purpose-made titular film, Space Shuttle America was home to three other shows during its lifetime: "Escape from Dino Island 2 - 3:D", "Stargate - SG:3000", and "Superstition" during the yearly Fright Fest Event. The original Space Shuttle America film returned for the 2006 season. In 2009, both the Space Shuttle America building and Space Shuttle themed facade have been removed.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: In 1995, construction began on a new themed area for the park. The Southwest Territory was originally intended to be added to the park in 1979, with the Southern Cross ride intended to bring guests to it. The first ride built for the new area was Viper, a wooden roller coaster based on the Coney Island Cyclone and themed after a snake oil salesman. Although smaller in stature than American Eagle, this twister-style coaster features many more instances of airtime during the ride. It was built next to Rolling Thunder, which was removed later the same year to make room for the new area. The ride was relocated to The Great Escape in New York, where it continues to operate as Alpine Bobsled.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Southwest Territory opened in 1996, with a desert theme based on the Old West. Three new rides were added: River Rocker, a pirate ship ride; Chubasco, a teacup ride; and Trail Blazer, a Zamperla Joker. The Big Top was moved in from County Fair and renamed Ricochet. Viper's entrance, which had previously been located in Hometown Square, was moved to Southwest Territory entrance. To add to the excitement surrounding the new area, the amphitheater that has previously been home to the "Batman Stunt Show" was named the "Southwest Territory Amphitheater", and an all-new show, the "Warner Bros. Western Stunt Show", debuted. This show followed the misadventures of three outlaws as they tangled with characters from Western films such as "Maverick", "Blazing Saddles" and "F Troop". The Western Stunt Show ran for three seasons and was replaced in 1999 by the "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" Stunt Show. Giant Drop, an Intamin second-generation drop tower and Dare Devil Dive, a skycoaster, were added in 1997. Giant Drop was placed on the southwest side of Southwest Territory across from the mission, and was themed to be an ore excavator in the fictional Loco Diablo Mine. Dare Devil Dive opened in County Fair.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Time Warner sold 50% of its stake in Six Flags in 1995, and in 1998, Premier Parks had its IPO and became the parent company of Six Flags Theme Parks after purchasing the remaining stake from Time Warner as well as the other 50% that had previously been sold off to holding companies. Premier Parks opted to follow the trend set by Bally's and began acquiring more properties. Plans for expansion outside the amusement park started in the fall of 1997 with the planning of Six Flags Entertainment Village, an entertainment complex that would've been located across Interstate 94.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: 1998 saw many family-friendly additions. Yukon Territory welcomed Camp Cartoon Network, with five new rides, including Spacely's Sprocket Rockets (a Vekoma junior roller coaster), "Scooby-Doo"s Mystery Machine, Yogi's Yahoo River, Rocky Road's Rescue Service and Bedrock Boulder Roller. Bugs Bunny Land was renamed Looney Tunes National Park and included the Looney Tooter Choo Choo Train, the Waddaview Charter, Porky's Buzzy Beez, Petunia's Lady Bugz, Looney Tunes Lodge Foam Ball Factory, Pepe Le Pew's Peak and the Nature Trail. Opposition for Six Flags Entertainment Village arose in November 1998 with the citizens group Citizens United for a Residential Village of Gurnee (CURV) forming, with the concern of road congestion and rising tax prices.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Bolliger & Mabillard constructed Raging Bull in 1999, a hyper-twister coaster that was added to Southwest Territory. This , , and ride was built on the former lot used by Rolling Thunder. In late October, the park had officially cancelled their Entertainment Village project.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The park celebrated its silver (25th) season in 2000. This was the last year for the Sky Whirl, as well as the Hay Baler ride. Since the removal of Sky Whirl after the 2000 season, Six Flags Great America has continued to operate without a Ferris wheel. That same year, an accident involving a guest occurred on the Cajun Cliffhanger ride, which led to its eventual removal.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: In 2001, two inverted shuttle coasters were added: an Intamin impulse coaster named , stylized as V; and Déjà Vu, a Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang ride to replace Sky Whirl and "Hay Baler". Vertical Velocity was added to Yankee Harbor, with the swing ride Whirligig moving closer to the lift hill of Batman: The Ride to make room.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: At the beginning of the 2002 season, there were no major changes to the park. The Pictorium's original IMAX film, "To Fly", was once again shown. In the summer, plans were announced to remove the Whizzer, which would offer its final rides on August 11. The announcement confirmed existing rumors. The plan to remove the coaster, which was one of only two operating Schwarzkopf Speedracers in the world, an original ride from the park's first season and a popular family-friendly attraction, was met with outrage from the public, particularly because the intended replacement was a major thrill ride. The backlash led to Six Flags deciding on August 3 to cancel their plans to replace Whizzer, and instead elected to replace Shockwave. Power Dive was also removed, due to maintenance problems.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: In 2003, Bolliger & Mabillard constructed Superman: Ultimate Flight in Orleans Place, on the plot of land where Shock Wave stood. It was the Midwest's second flying roller coaster, the first being X-Flight at Geauga Lake. The layout of the ride is identical to versions of the ride at Six Flags Great Adventure and Six Flags Over Georgia. Shock Wave had partially stood in the parking lot and for Superman the entire landscaping of the ride area was redone. Additionally, the historic Ameri-Go-Round in County Fair was removed at the end of the 2003 season.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Mardi Gras, a new themed area and an extension of Orleans Place, was added in 2004. It was built in the area where Power Dive and Cajun Cliffhanger had stood. A spinning wild mouse coaster named Ragin' Cajun was added, along with a HUSS Top-Spin model named King Chaos, Zamperla Rockin' Tug named Jester's Wild Ride and a Zamperla Balloon Race named Big Easy Balloons. The same year, the removed Ameri-Go-Round from County Fair was replaced by "Revolution", a HUSS "Frisbee" ride taken from Six Flags Great Adventure. On September 17, 2004, the Six Flags Hurricane Harbor water park was officially announced. It would become the seventh Hurricane Harbor water park to open, and would be built on a parking lot behind Raging Bull and Viper. The water park would feature Bahama Mama and Bubba Tubba, Hurricane Bay, a wave pool, among other attractions. Groundbreaking began in November 2004, with grand opening on May 28, 2005.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: In December 2005, stockholders approved a plan offered by Daniel Snyder of Red Zone, LLC to take over management of Six Flags, Inc., following a fierce stockholder revolt due to rising financial concerns. Snyder appointed former ESPN executive Mark Shapiro as the new CEO of Six Flags, after Kieran Burke was ousted from the company. Snyder and Shapiro's plan of action was to move Six Flags away from Premier Parks' thrill-heavy focus and move more toward a family-friendly environment. During the 2006 season, Six Flags Great America celebrated its 30th anniversary. The classic Triple Play ride in Hometown Square was dismantled prior to the start of the season because Six Flags Over Texas had received a similar HUSS Troika that had been damaged during the hasty demolition of Six Flags AstroWorld, and so a part was needed from the Great America ride for the ride to operate. Triple Play returned for 2007.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Also in 2006, Six Flags announced it would replace its sign that sits along Interstate 94 during the off season. The sign, which had been standing since the park opened in 1976, was replaced with a smaller one featuring an LED screen. The new sign went up within a week after the old one was taken down in December 2006, and uses the old sign's post.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: 2007 marked the introduction of the electronic Flash Pass virtual queue system to Six Flags parks, including Great America. For an additional fee, guests can purchase a Flash Pass and wait in line for a ride without actually standing in line. The system, themed after the DC Comics character, replaced an existing punch card system that was used at the park.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: As part of the new focus on entertainment, Six Flags introduced a new stunt show, "Operation SpyGirl", in the Southwest Territory Amphitheater for the 2007 season. "Operation SpyGirl" was an original live-action production created by Joel Surnow, co-creator of the Fox television series "24". "Operation SpyGirl" debuted in May, and closed for the season in August. The show marked several new ventures for Six Flags, including pre-show entertainment in the waiting area, which set up the storyline that the evil archvillain Max Condor had stolen the "Super Viper Rocket" from the agency for which SpyGirl works—as well as a merchandise cart outside selling "SpyGirl" themed merchandise. "Operation SpyGirl" did not return in 2008. Other new shows introduced for the 2007 season were "Spirit of America" at the reflection pond in front of the Columbia Carousel, and "Show Stoppin'" in the Grand Music Hall.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The tented area in front of the American Eagle was converted into "Wiggles World" in 2007, a third children's area themed after the Wiggles. Wiggles World featured five new rides, Henry's Splash Fountain, the USS Feathersword Play Area, the Yummy Yummy Cafe and the Get Ready to Wiggle Stage show. American Eagle's entrance was relocated to the right of the tent, utilizing part of the entrance building for the adjacent Dare Devil Dive skycoaster, to accommodate the Wiggles area.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Great America added The Dark Knight Coaster in 2008, an indoor Mack wild mouse roller coaster themed after the film and located in Orleans Place. The ride is located indoors, mostly in the dark, and has a storyline based around Batman and The Joker. The Theater Royale was converted into a queue building for the ride, which features a preshow starring Aaron Eckhart, reprising his role as Harvey Dent from the film. Additionally, Splashwater Falls closed for the 2007 season early on, and was removed in March 2008. For 2009, Six Flags replaced Déjà Vu with Buccaneer Battle, a pirate-themed boat ride in County Fair designed by Mack Rides. The ride consists of 14 eight-passenger boats navigating a channel long. During the ride, there are numerous interactive water elements that can be controlled by passersby.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Six Flags officially emerged from bankruptcy protection on May 3, 2010, and announced plans to issue new stock on the New York Stock Exchange. Amid suspected disagreements regarding the future of the company with the board, Shapiro left the company and Al Weber, Jr. was brought in as interim president and CEO. Six Flags announced that Jim Reid-Anderson would replace Weber and become chairman, president, and CEO on August 13, 2010. In 2010, Great America acquired the Little Dipper, a "kiddie" wooden roller coaster that had previously operated at Kiddieland Amusement Park in Melrose Park, a western suburb of Chicago, from 1950 until 2009. It was placed outside Bugs Bunny National Park and opened to the public on May 27, 2010. The park also introduced the "Glow in the Park Parade", which was already featured at other Six Flags parks, and MagiQuest was added to the County Fair Games Gallery in place of the Wii Experience.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Space Shuttle America, the park's motion simulator ride that had been closed for two years, was removed during the 2010 season. On May 26, 2010, Great America filed a petition with the Village of Gurnee seeking to exceed the village's height limit. Six Flags was considering installing Chang, a roller coaster moved after the closure of Kentucky Kingdom, in place of the shuttle. However, the park confirmed it was abandoning those plans in July 2010 and that the space would instead be used for Riptide Bay, a addition to the Hurricane Harbor water park.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: In late 2010, Six Flags began removing some licensed properties from concessions and attractions, with Wiggles World being renamed Kidzopolis and having Wiggles branding and theming removed for 2011. MagiQuest closed due to a lack of popularity and Great America Raceway, an original ride from 1976, was closed and removed. At the end of the 2011 season, Iron Wolf was closed and removed. It was relocated to Six Flags America, rebranded as Apocalypse, before it was converted into a floorless roller coaster and renamed Firebird in the 2019 season. For 2012, the former sites of Splashwater Falls and the Great America Raceway in County Fair were taken over by a new wing coaster from Bolliger & Mabillard with 5 inversions, a 12-story drop and speeds of up to 55 mph. When X-Flight was the second roller coaster of its type in North America and the fourth in the world.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The Glow in the Park parade was replaced in 2013 with IgNight — Grand Finale to the park. IgNight was held in Hometown Square, in front of the Hometown Station. Six Flags announced that 2013 would be the "Season of Backwards" at Great America, with Batman: The Ride, Viper and the Blue Train on American Eagle all running backwards for some part of the season. At the end of the season, "Ragin' Cajun" closed and was relocated to Six Flags America in 2014. For 2014, the park received Goliath, a wooden roller coaster built by Rocky Mountain Construction. The ride broke world records for the steepest drop, fastest speed and longest drop on a wooden coaster, and was built on the plot of land where Iron Wolf formerly stood. Three former kiddie rides were reinstalled in the all-new Hometown Park children's area in 2015, located in Hometown Square. That year, the park held the "40 Seasons of Thrills" celebration, a festival which celebrated the park's history.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: In 2016, Great America introduced Justice League: Battle for Metropolis, a 4D interactive dark ride, alongside a new themed area: Metropolis Plaza. The area is themed after the city of Metropolis from DC Comics, and is located between Southwest Territory and County Fair. Six Flags also announced plans to add virtual reality headsets to Raging Bull by the end of that season, but the Demon received the VR headsets instead, creating a new 'Rage of the Gargoyles' ride experience. The Orbit, an original 1976 attraction, closed on August 6, 2016. At the end of the season, The Jester's Wild Ride was also removed.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The Joker, an S&S 4D Free Spin roller coaster, was added to Yankee Harbor for the 2017 season. The park also announced that The Orbit would not return, and East River Crawler was relocated to the former site of The Orbit and its name returned to The Lobster, the original name for the ride. For the first month of the season, VR headsets were added to Giant Drop, which became the "Drop of Doom".


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Mardi Gras Hangover, a fire ball attraction, was added in 2018. The attraction is a 100 foot tall looping flat ride which at the time was the largest of its kind in the world. King Chaos closed on August 26, 2017, to make way for the new ride. On April 11, Six Flags Great America announced that Holiday in the Park would also debut at the park November 23, 2018. On April 27, the park confirmed via their official Twitter account that Pictorium would be demolished to make way for new thrills. The Pictorium was mainly used for a hypnotist show during Fright Fest and also hosted the "Screams and Dreams" series about the park's history. On August 30, 2018, the park announced that Maxx Force would open in 2019 replacing the Pictorium. It is manufactured by S&S Worldwide, and is an air launch roller coaster that breaks three world records and features the fastest acceleration in North America. On October 9, 2018, the Rockford Park District announced a potential lease agreement with Six Flags Great America for the park to operate Magic Waters (now Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Rockford). On December 11, 2018, the lease deal was made official and Six Flags took control of the water park on April 1, 2019.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: In March 2020, the park announced the delay of the opening for the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and was ordered to stay closed until the "Phase 5" of Illinois' phased re-opening plan. The attached water park re-opened to the public on July 20, 2020, with safety protocols in place, using the name Hurricane Harbor Chicago. Although the full re-opening of the park was deemed "unlikely" by the Lake County Health Department, the park did open with Holiday in the Park Lights, a holiday lights event, along with Holiday in the Park Lights Drive-Thru, a drive-through holiday event.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: On March 22, 2021, the connected Hurricane Harbor park, now officially named Hurricane Harbor Chicago, was announced to become the 27th park in the Six Flags chain, becoming a separate park. In the following month on April 24, 2021, the park reopened at 25% capacity under Illinois order, with safety protocols in place, including a reservation system, mask mandates, social distancing, and thermal imaging for temperature checks. On May 13, 2021, Illinois state governor J. B. Pritzker, with the park, announced that they would be giving away 50,000 admission tickets; an estimated total value of $4,000,000, for Illinois residents that have been newly vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine. Expanded capacity started on May 14, 2021 with 60% capacity afterwards as part of the "Bridge" reopening plan. The park opened at full capacity on June 11, 2021, and all mask mandates were dropped.On March 24, 2022, the park announced DC Universe, a DC Comics themed area. The area is a re-theme of Yankee Harbor. It would feature 3 "re-imagined" rides, The Flash: Vertical Velocity, a re-theme of Vertical Velocity, DC Super-Villains Swing, a re-theme of Whirligig and Aquaman Splashdown, a re-theme of Yankee Clipper. The re-imagined rides shared names with other rides at Six Flags parks, such as The Flash: Vertical Velocity sharing its name with . Opening day of DC Universe was slated for April 15, 2022, when the park opened, but due to "excessive rain and supply chain issues," the area would open later in spring. DC Universe opened on May 26, 2022.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Additionally, in 2022, the stunt show "Kinetic" premiered on June 25, 2022, and ended on August 7, 2022, in the Grand Music Hall. Running for 30 minutes in total, "Kinetic" is set in an urbanized-skate park setting and was produced and directed by entertainment manager David Major. The park had cast both local talent and entertainers from a New York entertainment group. Stunts during the show included BMX, kick scooter and trampoline acts. Along with the stunts, "Kinetic" also featured song and dance performances and featured multiple instances of audience interaction. "Kinetic" was in development since 2020, being the first summer production at the park since 2019.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The overall layout of Six Flags Great America has remained mostly unchanged from the original design that was created for Marriott. The park's designer, Randall Duell, followed the pattern of his trademark "Duell loop", creating a series of themed areas around a path which winds around the park circularly, allowing space for employees and maintenance workers to work out of sight of guests in the middle.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Six Flags Great America, in total, features twelve themed areas. From the park's main entrance, entering into Carousel Plaza; proceeding counterclockwise, the themed areas are:


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The front entrance area to the park. In addition to the rides, there are shops and food kiosks themed to the area.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Orleans Place is themed around New Orleans in the late 1800s, specifically the historic French Quarter. The area opened as an original area in 1976, and part of the area was later divided into Mardi Gras in 2004, connecting thematically to the area.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Rue Le Dodge is the last original ride from 1976 in the themed area. Other original attractions from the parks' opening placed in the area were removed, such as Gulf Coaster, a kids coaster placed in the area which is now occupied by Mardi Gras, which closed in 1977 due to multiple fires which plagued the ride.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Some other removed attractions would also include The Edge, which was removed in 1986, Traffique Jam and Orleans Orbit, which were both removed to make way for White Water Rampage. The latter was later moved to Hometown Square, before its removal in 2016 to make way for The Lobster, an original ride from Yankee Harbor.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: One of the park's newest themed areas, it opened in 2004, after being converted from part of Orleans Place. The area's theme comes from the Mardi Gras holiday and specifically the famous celebration of the holiday in New Orleans.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: When Mardi Gras opened, it featured four rides, Big Easy Balloons, a Zamperla "Balloon Race" attraction, King Chaos, a top spin attraction, Jester's Wild Ride, a "Rockin' Tug" attraction, and Roaring Rapids, an Intamin river rapids ride which originally opened in Orleans Place in 1983.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Changes for the area started in 2016 when the park announced The Joker. The original covered bridge used for entry to the former Yankee Harbor was moved to make way for the new attraction. Additionally, Jester's Wild Ride was also removed for the attraction. The next change came the following year, in 2017, when King Chaos was announced to be closed to build Mardi Gras Hangover, an attraction in which is the tallest Larson Loop in the world, although the park claims it is the tallest "loop coaster."


title: Six Flags Great America

text: DC Universe opened as Yankee Harbor in 1976, a 19th-century New England themed town, closely based on Cape Cod. Yankee Harbor, throughout the year, had changed more than the other original themed areas, with the removal of multiple original attractions, and a focus on more DC Comics themed rides.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The area changed in 2022, when it became DC Universe, a DC Comics themed area. The area re-used attraction names from other Six Flags parks for the re-theme of some of the original non-DC themed rides.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: This area is themed around the famous forests and mountains in northwest Canada, with references to logging, prospecting and gold panning, specifically the Klondike Gold Rush.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Yukon Territory formerly held "Bugs Bunny National Park" that opened in 1998, but was fully replaced with Winner's Circle Go Karts, an upcharge attraction, in 2012. Many buildings in the area that originally opened are now closed, and most props in the area have been removed.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: This is a sub-section of Yukon Territory. It was known as "Camp Cartoon Network" when first added in 1998. Despite the former name, the rides were themed to Hanna-Barbera properties and not Cartoon Network ones.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The smallest themed area of the park, based on DC Comics characters. It replaced the Southwest Amphitheater in 2016.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: "The Great Midwest Livestock Exposition at County Fair", almost always known simply as County Fair, is an original themed area located in back of the park, and is the largest themed area. There are many shops, stalls and attractions set in a theme based on a rural county fair. The area also features a food court and a gallery of carnival games.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Some former attractions located in County Fair includes Ameri-Go-Round, a smaller carousel which was replaced with Revolution in 2003, Barney Oldfield Speedway, a car attraction named after American racer Barney Oldfield, which was later replaced with X-Flight, and the Sky Whirl, which was a triple-arm ferris wheel, which was removed to make way for Déjà Vu.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: A children's-specific area of County Fair, located in front of the American Eagle entrance tent. Originally known as Wiggles World, the area was added for 2007. The Wiggles theming was removed after the 2010 season.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: One of the park's original areas, themed after a small midwestern town around the turn of the century. Guests walk through many shops and stalls and can ride many classic carnival-style rides.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Whizzer, a Schwarzkopf spiral-lift coaster, is one of the last of its kind in the world. Hometown Square includes two show venues - the Grand Music Hall, an indoor theater, which at the park's opening, featured 1,600 seats, and the Hometown Square Stage, a stage on the Scenic Railway Station.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Attractions that once stood in Hometown Square includes Bottoms Up, a Chance Rides trabant ride which was an original ride near Demon before it was removed in 1983, and The Orbit. The Orbit was a Schwarzkopf enterprise ride which was also an original ride, originally in Orleans Place, before it was moved into Hometown Square, replacing Bottoms Up. The Orbit was removed in 2016 to make way for The Lobster, which was being moved from Yankee Harbor to make way for The Joker.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: This area is a sub-section of Hometown Square. This section previously existed from the park's opening in 1976 until the rides were removed after the 2001 season. In 2015, three of the original rides returned as part of the park's 40th season celebration.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Originally intended to be built in 1979 as The Great Southwest, the area, themed around an old Wild West town, was built in 1996. The area is outside of the park's loop, connected to both Hometown Square and County Fair. It also had the primary connection to Hurricane Harbor Chicago prior to the parks separating admission.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Six Flags Hurricane Harbor Chicago is a water park located adjacent to Six Flags Great America that originally opened in 2005 under the Six Flags Hurricane Harbor naming. The water park features 25 water slides and attractions throughout the water park. On March 22, 2021, the water park was announced to be separately gated from the amusement park.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: In the days before 4th of July, the park hosts its "Coca-Cola July 4th Fest." July 4 was celebrated at the park since its opening in 1976 and has continued the tradition since. The July 4th Fest features nighttime fireworks on all days the event runs. Many shows are featured during the event, such as the "Spirit of America" show, a parade starting in Hometown Square and ending at Mardi Gras. With the event comes food and drinks that are patriotic themed changed seasonally usually served with Coca-Cola beverages.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The park hosts Taste of Six Flags, a food festival. The first event started on May 8, 2021, and featured different booths with food from the areas of local Six Flags theme parks. In July 2022, the park hosted Taste of Six Flags: Party After Dark. The event is hosted at night and is separately ticketed, and included live music and exclusive ride time, though, it featured similarities to the morning event.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: On weekends in September and October, Six Flags Great America features its annual Halloween event "Fright Fest". The event started small in the early nineties and has expanded significantly since then. During the event the park is decorated into several different "Scare Zones" featuring haunted houses, frightening street characters, Halloween themed shows, as well as transformed rides.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Fright Fest features haunted houses, which are usually an additional fee. Some haunted houses include "Condemned," a haunted house introduced in 2021, based on an underground laboratory and "Bloodshed," which is based on an evil lumberjack. Some other haunted houses include Big Top Terror, Gates of Hell, the 13th Order and Manslaughter Manor.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: One of the most unusual things about the event compared to other parks’ Halloween events is the transformed rides. Many of the park's rides receive special theming. Chubasco, the park's teacup ride, is transformed into Terror Twister 2: A Turn for the Worse, in which the ride building is enclosed and a custom lighting design matched with a custom club style music mix is played. Condor, one of the park's flat rides, is renamed during the event as The Birds and The Pit and runs a different cycle.Fright Fest also features shows and performances throughout the park. "Love at First Fright" has been presented in the Grand Music Hall every year since the event's inception and follows the story of a couple on a dare to spend the night in a cemetery who get caught up in crazy antics when several classic Halloween creatures rise from the grave. The show often plays to capacity audiences during the event, and it is known for changing the show each year to include various pop culture and newsworthy references. The show has won multiple awards from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions for Best Overall Production.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Another show, "The Ringmaster's Cabaret", is described as a "freak show" which mixes in illusions with singing and dancing, and is also presented at the Grand Music Hall. Past shows include "Susan Rosan" - a hypnotist who's with the event for many years until 2018, "Mundaka", a show held in the former Theatre Royale and "The Damsel and the Warlock", in the Snowshoe Saloon.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: For several years a third party called JPM Productions provided street characters and haunted house actors for the event. While the company was praised for its costumes and makeup, in 2010 Six Flags moved the entire production in-house for greater creative control.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Running alongside Fright Fest is “Kids Boo Fest,” a family-friendly Halloween event, specifically oriented towards children. It runs in the morning before 6pm. The event started in 2022, and features trick-or-treat trails and daytime shows, including "Love at First Fright", "The Ringmaster’s Cabaret", and "Monster Bash Dance Party".


title: Six Flags Great America

text: After reports of low attendance at Six Flags amusement parks, Six Flags showed interest in expanding its events, which led to the addition of Oktoberfest in 2022, which would run alongside Fright Fest and Kids Boo Fest. Oktoberfest is hosted on Mooseburger Patio in Yukon Territory. The event's main menu includes beer and German inspired cuisine.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: In 2015, Jim Reid-Anderson had teased the arrival of Holiday in the Park, a Christmas-oriented event. Anderson stated that Six Flags would "see if [Holiday in the Park] makes sense" at the park. A promotion for the announcement of Holiday in the Park started in April 2018, and was called the 4-1-1. On April 11, 2018, Six Flags Great America announced that it would stay open through the end of the year with an event called Holiday in the Park. The new event began on November 23, 2018, and ran weekends through December 23, 2018, and ran daily December 26 through December 31, 2018. Holiday in the Park was developed and produced by RWS Entertainment Group, creating multiple light shows throughout the park.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Starting for the 2020 season, Holiday in the Park Lights began as a replacement for the regular Holiday in the Park event. Due to Illinois' guidelines for the COVID-19 pandemic at that time, rides could not operate. In 2021, though, the park re-opened indoor venues and some attractions. In addition to Holiday in the Park Lights, Six Flags also ran the Holiday in the Park Drive-Thru for both the 2020 and 2021 season, operating weekdays, while the regular Holiday in the Park Lights event ran on weekends. The park removed Holiday in the Park from their event lineup for the 2022 season, and the park closed for the rest of winter.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Holiday in the Park featured multiple shows, one of which were "A Wonderland at the Grand," a holiday-themed musical held in the Grand Music Hall. During the 2020 season, the show was re-imagined as "Wonderland", and was held outdoors at the Hometown Square Stage. Other shows included "The Holidays Bake Me Crazy", a show based on baking for the holidays. Holiday carolers named "The MistleTones" (formerly "The TinsleTones") also walked around the park, singing holiday songs.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Additionally, one of the main features were the holiday lights. The light show "Kalightoscope" was held at Southwest Territory (also named "Kalightoscope"), on both the Chubasco mission building and Giant Drop. "Elegance" was another light show and was shown on the Columbia Carousel. Over 2,500,000 lights were strung up each season on park buildings and trees.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Under operation of the Marriott Corporation, Marriott had expected 2.5 million visitors for the 1976 season. The Marriott Corporation had also expected 25,000 to 30,000 guests to visit daily. Due to the close radius of Chicago, Illinois, Rockford, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it was estimated that the park could draw 6 million to 7 million guests within the area. Marriott had closely reached its attendance goal of 2.5 million guests, with 2.35 million guests in 1976 and 2.4 million guests in the following year, 1977. With the rising attendance of the amusement park, it had also affected the attendance of neighboring amusement parks, including Old Chicago, in which guest numbers plummeted and later led to the closure of the shopping mall and amusement park after the opening of Marriott's Great America.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Under park policy, Six Flags Great America does not release attendance figures. However, the Themed Entertainment Association and other theme park industry analyst companies estimate attendance for the amusement park. 2,860,000 visitors had attended the park in 2005, boosting attendance by 24% after the grand opening of Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, Chicago. The following year, attendance dropped by 240,000 guests in 2006 to 2,620,000 guests that year. It was the same year the Tornado funnel water slide was introduced at the Hurricane Harbor water park. With the introduction of Kidzopolis, attendance rose by 10,000 guests, to a total guests of 6,300,000. Gradually increasing again, with the introduction of The Dark Knight Coaster, attendance was boosted by 30,000 guests, with 2,660,000 guests attending that year. When Buccaneer Battle was introduced, the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) reported 2,500,000 guests that year, a drop of 160,000.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Attendance rose back up for the 2010 season, though, when TEA reported 2,700,000 guests had visited that park that year, a boost of 200,000 guests. This would be the last report from TEA until 2016, as they did not report attendance numbers for Six Flags Great America, and it is estimated that the park had attendance below 2,600,000 or 2,700,000 guests during that period. In 2016, TEA reported attendance for both the 2015 and 2016 seasons at 2,950,000, a rise from 2,793,000 in 2015, a difference of 157,000 guests. The park reached 3 million guests for the first time in 2017, at 3,039,000 guests, with the opening of The Joker. This was maintained for the following years in 2018 and 2019, at 3,107,000 and 3,169,000 guests, respectively.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The Themed Entertainment Association did not report attendance for the park in 2020 due to the park's closure from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. When the park re-opened in 2021, TEA reported an attendance of 2,675,000 for the park.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Multiple Six Flags Great America attractions broke records and first-of-its-kinds when it opened in various categories. The first of these were American Eagle, opening as the tallest, fastest and longest racing wooden roller coaster in the world when it opened in 1981. The next one was Shockwave, opening in 1998, which, at the time, was the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world, along with breaking the world record for most inversions on a roller coaster. Batman: The Ride opened in 1992 as the first inverted roller coaster in the world, which was manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Goliath claimed three Guinness World Records at its opening in 2014, as the steepest wooden roller coaster, longest drop on a wooden roller coaster and fastest wooden roller coaster in the world; retaining the latter two. Mardi Gras Hangover opened to the public on May 25, 2018, as the tallest fire ball attraction in the world. The following year, Maxx Force opened with three record breakers with having the fastest acceleration in North America from 0 to in 1.8 seconds, fastest inversion (heartline roll) in the world at and tallest double inversion in the world at .


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Some of Six Flags Great America's roller coasters have appeared on "Amusement Today"'s annual Golden Ticket Awards multiple times, with the ride ranking the highest on the Golden Ticket Awards being Raging Bull placing 9th in 2005.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: For American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) awards, two roller coasters at Six Flags Great America have been designated as Coaster Landmark status, an award reserved for rides of significance to amusement parks. The first of these were Batman: The Ride, which was awarded the Coaster Landmark status on June 20, 2005, for its significance as the first inverted roller coaster to open to the public. The next award was given to Whizzer on August 10, 2012, for the parks preservation of the attraction. Additionally, Little Dipper was granted the ACE Coaster Classic award, an award for historic roller coasters that has been well maintained similarly to its original form.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: The Fright Fest show "Love at First Fright" has won multiple International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) awards. In 2005, 2007 and 2008, the show won the IAAPA Big E! Award for "Best Overall Production: $25,000 or less." Additionally in 2008, the show "Show Stoppin"' won the Big E! Award in the category "Best Overall Production: $25,001-$50,000." In 2010, 2013 and 2014, "Love at First Fright" won the IAAPA Brass Ring Awards in the category "Best Overall Production: $50,001-$100,000."


title: Six Flags Great America

text: On "USA Today"'s Readers' Choice Awards, Goliath ranked number 4 in the category "Best Roller Coasters in the Country" in 2018 and Maxx Force ranked number 8 in the category "Best New Amusement Park Attraction" the following year.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: There were multiple instances of incidents and accidents taking place at Six Flags Great America. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) had revealed that in two separate instances, a total of 31 guests had been injured on Whizzer in an investigation in 1980. These injuries were not reported to CPSC. During a private event rented out by U.S. Steel, Demon had stalled on a vertical loop on April 19, 1998, and had required an aerial fire apparatus to release stranded riders. Four instances of guest altercations had occurred between the 2021 and 2022 seasons, including a drive-by shooting which injured three people on August 14, 2022.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: In the late 1970s, two TV specials were produced to feature the Marriott theme park in Gurnee, Illinois, both produced by WLS-TV (ABC 7 Chicago). To celebrate the opening of Marriott's Great America (now Six Flags), "Celebration At Great America" first aired on July 2, 1976, and again on August 21. The special starred Steve Edwards and Sandi Freeman of WLS-TV. Celebrity Guests included Mel Blanc as Bugs Bunny (and other Looney Tunes characters), Jo Anne Worley, Forrest Tucker, Jerry Stiller, Roger Perry and the Cast Members of Great America. Although in poor quality, the special can be found on YouTube.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: Another special, titled "You're Never Too Old," first aired on September 8, 1979, and again on April 26, 1980; hosted by actress Lisa Hartman. Originally, the special was planned to air on August 25, at 10:30 PM, before switching to the later date during primetime for unknown reasons. The special was met with good ratings, even beating out The 53rd Miss America pageant special that aired the same night. The special was uploaded to YouTube by The Museum of Classic Chicago Television.


title: Six Flags Great America

text: In 1977, the park's circus show, "Circus Fantastic", had one of its performances broadcast on "Captain Kangaroo" with Captain Kangaroo (Bob Keeshan) himself as the ringmaster and special guest star Bob Denver of "Gilligan's Island" fame. In 1994, Iron Wolf was featured in the movie "Richie Rich" and was showcased as a backyard coaster. On August 26, 2009, the park was featured on "" where host Robert Irvine creates a meal for coaster enthusiasts to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Raging Bull. In a 2013 episode of "Insane Coaster Wars", the park's B&M wing coaster X-Flight was featured as a contestant against other roller coasters around the world. In that same year, the park was featured in the Hindi movie "."


title: Veronica Mars (season 4)

text: The fourth and final season of "Veronica Mars", an American drama television series created by Rob Thomas, consists of eight episodes that were all released on Hulu on July 19, 2019. It serves as a continuation of the 2004–07 television series as well as the 2014 film. Kristen Bell reprises her role as the title character, and it features the return of several characters from the original series as well as the introduction of new characters.


title: Veronica Mars (season 4)

text: On August 21, 2018, it was reported that Hulu was planning an eight-episode revival of "Veronica Mars" with Kristen Bell returning in the title role and series creator Rob Thomas returning as well. On September 6, 2018, it was reported that production would begin in October 2018 and continue through March 2019 in Los Angeles. Diane Ruggiero-Wright and Dan Etheridge returned as executive producers. On September 20, 2018, Hulu officially confirmed the revival, and announced it would premiere in 2019. The season was originally scheduled for release on July 26, 2019, however, during the series' appearance at San Diego Comic-Con on July 19, it was announced that season would be available that day.


title: Veronica Mars (season 4)

text: Along with Thomas and Ruggiero, the writing staff consists of Heather V. Regnier, David Walpert, Raymond Obstfeld, and former NBA player and author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.


title: Veronica Mars (season 4)

text: Bell stated that the season was going to be darker and bigger and more cinematic, a little bit different" in comparison to the original series. Thomas stated the season takes place five years after the film and would "take "Veronica Mars" back to its hardcore So-Cal noir roots" and that it is "One big case [...] This is a detective show."


title: Veronica Mars (season 4)

text: The revival features a new version of the original theme song, "We Used to Be Friends" by The Dandy Warhols, covered by Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders.


title: Veronica Mars (season 4)

text: Veronica Mars (Kristen Bell) and her father Keith (Enrico Colantoni) are private investigators in Neptune, California, a popular spring break vacation destination. Real estate developer Richard "Big Dick" Casablancas (David Starzyk) campaigns for the enactment of city beautification laws; local business owners protest the likely expense of complying with such laws. Meanwhile, Veronica rejects a marriage proposal from her longtime boyfriend Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring).


title: Veronica Mars (season 4)

text: When a beachside motel is bombed, the Marses are hired to investigate by Congressman Daniel Maloof (Mido Hamada), whose brother's fiancée was killed in the explosion. A Mexican crime boss, whose nephew was another victim, sends two assassins, Alonzo (Clifton Collins Jr.) and Dodie (Frank Gallegos), to find and kill the bomber. Injured in the blast is Penn Epner (Patton Oswalt), a true crime enthusiast, who seizes the spotlight to accuse Maloof of the crime. The late motel owner's daughter, Matty Ross (Izabela Vidovic), investigates on her own; Veronica eventually takes her under her wing to supervise her. Veronica also befriends nightclub owner Nicole Malloy (Kirby Howell-Baptiste), and occasionally consults with Penn and his club of amateur crime-solvers.


title: Veronica Mars (season 4)

text: Their investigation implicates a local ex-con, who apparently commits suicide before he can be arrested. However, after his death, three more bombs explode in Neptune over several days. The Marses uncover evidence that Casablancas's fixer Clyde Pickett (J. K. Simmons) has been hiring the local juvenile delinquents, organized by Veronica's former friend Eli "Weevil" Navarro (Francis Capra), to mug spring break visitors, driving away tourism; Casablancas is then able to buy beachfront property cheaply, planning to redevelop the land for more upscale businesses.


title: Veronica Mars (season 4)

text: Veronica's ex-boyfriend Leo D'Amato (Max Greenfield), an FBI agent, arrives to investigate the case. His rekindled flirtation with Veronica eventually makes her realize how much she values her relationship with Logan. She loses her friendship with Nicole when she confesses to considering Nicole a suspect in the case and bugging her office, and decides to accept Logan's proposal.


title: Veronica Mars (season 4)

text: The Marses eventually conclude that Casablancas was responsible for the bomb at the motel, but the subsequent bombs were the work of a copycat. Casablancas is murdered by Alonzo and Dodie after Clyde tips them off to his guilt. The Marses arrest Penn as the copycat, but he hires them to prove his own innocence. Evidence is uncovered which briefly implicates Penn's fellow amateur crime-solver Don (Clark Duke), but Matty spots that the evidence has been tampered with: Penn was the copycat bomber all along, out for glory and attention. The Marses deduce the site of the next bomb, and Keith disarms the bomb with seconds to spare; but Penn gloats to Veronica as he is being arrested.


title: Veronica Mars (season 4)

text: Veronica and Logan are married that day. But a few hours later, Veronica's car explodes, killing Logan—one last bomb that Penn had set earlier. The next year, when Neptune is fully gentrified and spring break tourism is a thing of the past, Veronica leaves Neptune to solve cases on the road.


title: Veronica Mars (season 4)

text: The first teaser trailer for the season was released on April 12, and the second on May 1, 2019. A panel for "Veronica Mars" took place in June 2019 at the ATX Television Festival. A full-length trailer was released on June 14.


title: Veronica Mars (season 4)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the fourth season has an approval rating of 89% with an average score of 8 out of 10 based on 66 reviews. The site's critical consensus is, "Marshmallows, rejoice! "Veronica Mars" returns in fine form, capturing much of what made the series so beloved while adding new wrinkles that satisfy more often than they mystify." On Metacritic, the fourth season has a score of 75 out of 100 based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Veronica Mars (season 4)

text: The season was released on DVD and Blu-ray (as "The Complete First Season (2019)") via the Warner Archive Collection in region 1 on October 22, 2019. Special features include the 2019 "Veronica Mars" San Diego Comic-Con panel.


title: Danny O'Donoghue

text: Daniel John Mark Luke O'Donoghue (born 3 October 1980) is an Irish singer-songwriter best known for being the frontman of the Irish rock band The Script and as a coach on the first two series of the television singing talent show "The Voice UK". He was earlier a member of the Irish boy band Mytown.


title: Danny O'Donoghue

text: Danny O'Donoghue was born in Dublin, Ireland, to Shay O'Donoghue, a member of the band "The Dreams", and Ailish O'Donoghue. He is the youngest of six children and was raised in Ballinteer, Dublin. As a child, he was initially against the idea of being a musician; however, he ended up dropping out of school to pursue a musical career.


title: Danny O'Donoghue

text: O'Donoghue was originally a member of a late 1990s band called Mytown with friend (and now also band member of The Script) Mark Sheehan, after being signed to Universal Records in 1999. After its moderate success, O'Donoghue moved to Los Angeles with Sheehan to write songs and produce for artists such as Britney Spears, Boyz II Men and TLC.


title: Danny O'Donoghue

text: After one year of writing, O'Donoghue and Sheehan moved back to Dublin and, recruiting drummer Glen Power, started working on their own material. They formed the band The Script in 2001.


title: Danny O'Donoghue

text: The band released their eponymous debut album on 8 August 2008. O'Donoghue co-wrote all the songs on the album. The album went on to become a commercial success, especially in their home country of Ireland, peaking at number one on the Irish Album Chart. The band has since released six more albums: "Science and Faith" in September 2010, "#3" in September 2012, "No Sound Without Silence" in September 2014, "Freedom Child" in September 2017, and "Sunsets & Full Moons" in November 2019. The Script have toured since early March 2013 for their "#3" tour in the UK. They performed in some of the UK's largest arenas and cities such Birmingham, London and Manchester.


title: Danny O'Donoghue

text: In 2012 O'Donoghue made his first appearance in "The Voice UK" alongside Jessie J, will.i.am and Tom Jones as a coach. The decision was supported by bandmates Glen Power and Mark Sheehan, who said: "Danny did "The Voice" to put a face to The Script. We know about producing, song writing and performing – we’ve been doing it since we were 14 or 15. Danny on a show about singing was good for us. People saw how passionate he is about music, how much it means to him and it made our band better known." The appointment of O'Donoghue as coach initially drew criticism, with Twitter users branding him "Danny I Dunno Who" and comedian James Corden joking about it at the 2012 BRIT Awards.


title: Danny O'Donoghue

text: O'Donoghue retaliated saying "James who? Whatever. It’s up to other people to make up their own minds. I know I’m on this show for what I’ve done in my career. I’ve spent 15 years in the music industry, it’s all I know." Since then, however, the show has helped contribute to O'Donoghue's popularity, with O'Donoghue stating there was a "big outpouring of love for The Script" but adding that it "could have gone the other way." In the first series, he coached Bo Bruce, who went on to become the runner-up. Since then, she has had moderate success. He was asked to appear as a judge for "The Voice" again in 2013 after leading 'Team Danny' to great success. In the second series, Andrea Begley from his team went on to unexpectedly win.


title: Danny O'Donoghue

text: O'Donoghue co-wrote the track "Alive" for Bo Bruce's album "Before I Sleep". On 16 July 2013, O'Donoghue announced he was leaving the show to concentrate on The Script.


title: Danny O'Donoghue

text: O'Donoghue's father, Shay, died of stomach aneurysm on 14 February 2008, at the age of 63. The rose tattoo on O'Donoghue's left arm and the song "If You Could See Me Now" from their album "#3" are dedicated to the memory of his father. His mother Ailish, died 8 February 2019.


title: Moriah

text: Moriah (Hebrew: , "Mōrīyya"; Arabic: ﻣﺮﻭﻩ, "Marwah") is the name given to a mountainous region in the Book of Genesis, where the binding of Isaac by Abraham is said to have taken place. Jews identify the region mentioned in Genesis and the specific mountain in which the near-sacrifice is said to have occurred with "Mount Moriah", mentioned in the Book of Chronicles as the place where Solomon's Temple is said to have been built, and both these locations are also identified with the current Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Samaritan Torah, on the other hand, transliterates the place mentioned for the binding of Isaac as Moreh, a name for the region near modern-day Nablus. It is believed by the Samaritans that the near-sacrifice actually took place on Mount Gerizim, near Nablus in the West Bank.


title: Moriah

text: Many Muslims, in turn, believe the place mentioned in the first book of the Bible, rendered as Marwa in Arabic in the Quran, is actually located close to the Kaaba in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. There has been a historical account of rams' horns preserved in the Kaaba until the year 683, which are believed to be the remains of the sacrifice of Ishmael – the first son of Abraham, who most Muslims believe was the son Abraham tied down and almost sacrificed, and not Isaac.


title: Moriah

text: In the Jewish Bible, "Moriyya" and/or "Moriah" () occur twice, with differences of spelling between different manuscripts. Tradition has interpreted these two as the same place:


title: Moriah

text: Whereas the mention of Moriah in Genesis could be referring to any mountainous region, the book of Chronicles says that the location of Araunah's threshing floor is on "Mount Moriah" and that the Temple of Solomon was built over Araunah's threshing floor. This has led to the classical rabbinical supposition that the Moriah region mentioned in Genesis as the place where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac was in Jerusalem.


title: Moriah

text: In consequence of these traditions, Classical Rabbinical Literature theorised that the name was a (linguistically corrupted) reference to the Temple, suggesting translations like "the teaching-place" (referring to the Sanhedrin that met there), "the place of fear" (referring to the supposed fear that non-Israelites would have at the Temple), "the place of myrrh" (referring to the spices burnt as incense). On the other hand, some interpretations of a biblical passage concerning Melchizedek, king of Salem, would indicate Jerusalem was already a city with a priest at the time of Abraham, and thus is unlikely to have been founded on the lonely spot where Abraham tried to sacrifice Isaac.


title: Moriah

text: There is also debate as to whether the two references to Moriyya/Moriah (Genesis 22:2 and 2 Chronicles 3:1) are correctly understood as the same name. Ancient translators seem to have interpreted them differently: whereas all ancient translations simply transliterated the name in Chronicles, in Genesis they tended to try to understand the literal meaning of the name and to translate it. For example, in the Greek Septuagint translation, these verses are translated as:


title: Moriah

text: Moreover, other ancient translations interpret the instance in Genesis in different ways from the Septuagint:


title: Moriah

text: Some modern biblical scholars, however, regard the name as a reference to the Amorites, having lost the initial "a" via aphesis; the name is thus interpreted as meaning "land of the Amorites". This agrees with the Septuagint, where, for example, 2 Chronicles 3:1 refers to the location as . Some scholars also identify it with Moreh, the location near Shechem at which Abraham built an altar, according to Genesis 12:6. Hence a number of scholars believe that the "" mentioned in Genesis actually refers to a hill near Shechem, supporting the Samaritan belief that the near-sacrifice of Isaac occurred on Mount Gerizim – a location near Shechem.


title: Kuwait International Airport

text: Kuwait International Airport (, ) is an international airport located in the Farwaniya Governorate, Kuwait, south of the centre of Kuwait City, spread over an area of . It serves as the primary hub for Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways. A portion of the airport complex is designated as Abdullah Al-Mubarak Air Base, which contains the headquarters of the Kuwait Air Force, as well as the Kuwait Air Force Museum.


title: Kuwait International Airport

text: The airport was first launched in 1927–1928. It was originally envisioned as a stop for British planes on their way to British India. The current main airport structure, designed by Kenzo Tange and opened in 1979, was executed and completed by Al Hani Construction in a joint venture with Ballast Nedam of The Netherlands.


title: Kuwait International Airport

text: On February 27, 1991, during the final days of the Gulf War, in part of the liberation of Kuwait, the airport became the scene of a tank battle between Iraqi forces and elements of the U.S. Army Special Forces.


title: Kuwait International Airport

text: The airport underwent a large renovation and expansion project from 1999 to 2001, in which the former parking lot was cleared and a terminal expansion was built. This incorporated new check-in areas, a new entrance to the airport, the construction of a multi-story parking structure and an airport mall.


title: Kuwait International Airport

text: Kuwait International Airport can currently handle more than 13 million passengers a year. A new general aviation terminal was completed in 2008 under a BOT scheme and is operated by Royal Aviation. By the end of 2008, however, this airport was modified with the construction of a small building named the Sheikh Saad General Aviation Terminal, to handle the scheduled services of Wataniya Airways along with general aviation traffic.


title: Kuwait International Airport

text: In 2011, the Department of Civil Aviation announced the intention of extending Kuwait International Airport so it can handle more passengers and more aircraft. On October 3, 2011, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation announced that a new Foster + Partners designed terminal will begin construction in 2012 and will increase the annual passenger handling amount to 14 million passengers in its first phase with the option of expanding to 25 million passengers. The airport finalized formalities for the construction of the terminal, which was due to begin construction in 2012 with completion by 2016. It would be built to the south of the current terminal complex with new access routes from the Seventh Ring Road to the south of the airport compound. It is designed as a three-pointed star, with each point extending 600 meters from the star's center. Two airside hotels will form part of the new building.


title: Kuwait International Airport

text: In December 2012, the Kuwaiti Ministry of Public Works announced that the new Terminal at the Kuwait International Airport would be completed by the end of 2016, estimating the cost to be around 900 million Kuwaiti dinar ($3.2 billion). On May 20, 2013, the Director of Operations Management in the General Administration of Civil Aviation, Essam Al-Zamil, announced that some of the flights will be diverted to the Sheikh Saad Terminal instead of Kuwait Airport's main terminal starting in July due to the large number of passengers and the growing number of aircraft attributing to Kuwait Airport being over capacity.


title: Kuwait International Airport

text: On May 9, 2017, the Foster + Partners designed Terminal 2 formally broke ground and heavy construction work began on site. The terminal is being built by Turkey's Limak Holding and was originally scheduled for completion in 6.5 years, although the contractors and Kuwaiti government have made claims to deliver the project within four years.


title: Kuwait International Airport

text: On May 22, 2018, Jazeera Airways launched its own dedicated terminal at Kuwait International Airport, to be called Terminal 5. It is located directly adjacent to and connected to the existing main building, but features dedicated arrival/departure areas, customs and all supporting functions in order to alleviate congestion at the main building. All Jazeera arrivals will arrive at the new terminal from opening, while departing flights will transition from the current terminal between May 22 and May 27. By May 27, all departing and arriving Jazeera flights will be handled exclusively at Terminal 5.


title: Kuwait International Airport

text: On August 8, 2018, Terminal 4 was inaugurated to cater to all flights operated by Kuwait's national carrier, Kuwait Airways. Terminal 4 can handle 4.5 million passengers annually and eases congestion at Terminal 1. There are 2,450 additional car parking spaces in a dedicated surface lot adjacent to the terminal and connected to the building by a bridge.


title: Kuwait International Airport

text: The airport is home to the Abdullah Al-Mubarak Air Base, which is used by the Kuwait Air Force and has been used by Italian Air Force Boeing KC-767s since October 2014 for the fight against ISIL. The gateway at Abdullah Al-Mubarak Air Base, used by US Air Force and coalition forces, was replaced after over 20 years of operation in 2019 with the opening of Cargo City, located adjacent to a newly built ramp on the airport's western side. Cargo City is operated by the 387th Air Expeditionary Group, with the 5th Expeditionary Air Mobility Squadron providing additional services like maintenance for military and contract flights.


title: Kuwait International Airport

text: The airport lies at an elevation of above mean sea level. It has two runways: 15R/33L with a concrete surface measuring and 15L/33R with an asphalt surface measuring .