DC Heroes & Villains Fest is the Energy that Six Flags Needed
After a very busy summer season, Six Flags Great Adventure made the announcement that they would be introducing an all-new new special (limited) event called the DC Heroes & Villains Fest. As fans of live entertainment and diehard fans of DC Comics and the prevalent characters in that universe, this event gave us enough incentive to make our first trip out to SFGA in more than five years. The event itself is set to last for three weekends in August and blends live shows, food and beverage offerings and meet-and-greets with some of the most recognizable heroes and villains from the DC stories. Programming was spread across the evening, and while there were some things that we might have changed if we were calling the shots, there was plenty to see and do and the overall production quality was consistently strong.
The event schedule varies depending on the day of your visit, but the DC festivities all take place in the evenings on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The event officially begins with the DC Heroes Bash Cavalcade. During the parade, the honorable Mayor of Gotham roams the streets, shaking hands and greeting citizens who have lined up to meet superheroes. He invites everyone to attend the dedication ceremony for a new statue of Gotham’s Dark Knight; part of a larger story arc that the show segments will help to piece together as the event goes on. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are then escorted past on a large float, surrounded by the flags and the impressive choreography of the Gotham Color Guard. The cavalcade makes a full loop around the Movietown area of Six Flags Great Adventure before the heroes disappear backstage to ready themselves for the opening ceremony. The parade/cavalcade element may be short, but it generates enough fanfare to draw the attention of day guests and gives them an early chance to see a handful of notable DC characters without waiting in the long lines that will develop later in the evening.
As the mayor takes the stage to begin the dedication ceremony, things begin to go awry. The Mayor begins to speak with a different voice and move in broken and disjointed motions, revealing himself to be a puppet of the nefarious Lex Luthor. Lex never makes a physical appearance onstage, but his presence is felt thanks to a booming voiceover track and the onstage characters succumbing to his mind control. Superman and Wonder Woman attempt to rescue the Mayor, only to be foiled by the Joker and Harley Quinn, who are (in turn) foiled by Batman. After some initial scuffles and scrambles that are surprisingly well-choreographed, the heroes chase the villains offstage and are replaced by the first of many appearances by the event host, MC Hi-Jinx.
Now, we’re not here to tell you that this performance is an absolute triumph. Most of the dialogue is lip-synced to prerecorded voiceover, and the script leans hard into cheesy one-liners and puns. But consider the audience! This event is meant to be a crowdpleaser for heroes and villains of all ages, and all ages were indeed in attendance; so it’s easy to understand why darker DC storylines may have been suppressed. What’s more, the actors were committed to their roles. Many of these performers were flipping, cartwheeling, boxing and dancing their way across the stage all night with mere moments to catch their breath in between - and when they weren’t on stage, they were often in one of the crowded meet-and-greet areas, socializing with other visitors and taking photos and videos while remaining in character. On the basis of energy, enthusiasm and physical choreography alone, the hardworking team behind this event deserves due credit.
Above: Harley Quinn and the Hyenas perform on stage at Six Flags Great Adventure’s DC Heroes and Villains Fest in New Jersey!
The entertainment lineup is the backbone of this event, and it covers a lot of ground. From the moment MC Hi-Jinx takes the stage, the Metropolis area of the park is never without a live performance or activity. When the scripted and choreographed performances aren’t stealing the spotlight, MC Hi-Jinx is hosting the Joker’s Dance Party with his helpful handlers and guiding guests through conga lines, line dances, freestyle dance-offs and superhero stand-in contests. At one point, we had giant beach balls bouncing off of our heads while bubble cannons were popping off left and right - a sort of organized chaos that might not be quite as anarchic as the Joker himself, but might still give him cause to grin. There were also more eye-catching music and dance performances from Catwoman’s Purr-Petrators-A-Go-Go and Harley Quinn & the Hyenas which were impressive enough to keep audiences old and young entertained. For those wondering - yes, Catwoman has a functional whip…and yes, she does crack it over your heads. Every performance was repeated at least once, giving guests multiple opportunities to see the villainous vixens perform over the course of the evening. Each show also offered its own distinct tone, which made the full lineup feel varied rather than repetitive.
As much as we enjoyed the event experience, there were some things that we would like to see changed - starting with the food and beverage offerings. As the evening progressed, our stomachs eventually began to rumble and we went looking for some of the special event offerings that were advertised on the park’s social pages and website. It was at this point that we discovered that most of the event-specific food and beverage offerings came from one location - the Yum Yum Café - which was quite a ways away from the festival zone. Not wanting to wander too far from the main stage for fear of missing the big finale, we felt somewhat handcuffed to the one event snack that we were able to collect from the Metro Grill in the Metropolis area of the park. Thus, the mystery eggroll - a randomized surprise of either buffalo chicken, cheesesteak, or pepperoni pizza inside a crispy shell - became our dinner. We both wound up with cheesesteak as far as our “mystery flavors”; and while the eggrolls weren’t bad, they weren’t anything to write home about, either. Ultimately, we think it’d make more sense to serve the event-specific food closer to the event area and to put a little more effort into the visual theming of the snacks and drinks - but since Granny’s Country Kitchen was only a few paces away, our complaints are more to do with synergy than starvation.
If the festival had a heart, it would have been the meet-and-greet moments with the DC icons. By moving tactically and jumping in lines as they formed, we were able to meet every single event character - heroes and villains alike. Batman and Superman posed stoically, Wonder Woman engaged warmly with guests, and the villains leaned into their personas with playful banter. Catwoman even let us have a little “meow” for an Instagram post, which was above and beyond anything that we could have hoped for. Each character had their own designated meet-and-greet area with some areas offering clever backdrops and set pieces to enhance your photos. For families with small kids - as well as families of two who happen to be kids at heart - the character close-ups were the highlight of the event. Younger audiences left with photos, autographs and memories of meeting their favorite heroes, while adults could appreciate the level of detail in the costumes and the commitment to characterization - both of which have been dramatically improved since our last visit in 2020, by the way.
The Super-Hero Smackdown, which served as the closing performance for the night, may have run a little longer than it needed to - and significantly “nerfed” the man of steel - but the choreography and the physical and facial performances of the actors made the finale worth the runtime. We had everything from fog effects to small-scale stunts with whips, ropes and weaponry, showcasing the weeks (if not months) of training and footwork that these hardworking actors had poured into preparing for the three weekends of the event. At one point, there were eight to ten fights happening on the same small stage and actors were cartwheeling, ducking, blocking and punching in perfect sync. Narrative weaknesses aside, this finale was quite impressive on the basis of stagecraft and managed to end on a high note, sending families home with a message of truth, justice and hope for a better tomorrow.
Above: Villains unite to put an end to the Justice League and bring anarchy to the streets of Gotham at Six Flags Great Adventure’s DC Heroes & Villains Fest.
When you travel as often as we do, you have to be practical about what you’re willing to spend on an amusement park outing. Unless you’ve already invested in a season or a multi-park pass, the cheapest possible admission to Six Flags Great Adventure will run you about $39.99/person, before you figure in the cost of parking and food. While that would be asking a lot for the DC Heroes & Villains Fest alone, never forget that your ticket also grants you access to a lineup of 13 roller coasters including El Toro and Nitro, an interactive dark ride featuring the voices of prominent DC property performers like Kevin Conroy and Troy Baker, dozens of photo ops and daylight character meet-and-greets and everything else that goes hand-in-hand with a Six Flags park. The DC Heroes & Villains Fest is actually what we call an ‘added value’ proposition - a four-to-five-hour experience that is ostensibly free, adding to the existing benefits of purchasing a day ticket.
On that front, DC Heroes & Villains Fest is exactly what we’d like to see more of from Six Flags Great Adventure and the other parks that are hosting this event. Taken as a whole, the event adds a well-rounded layer of entertainment to a regular park visit and livens up an area of the park that might otherwise be dead or slow during the evening hours of operation. As theming enthusiasts first and coaster enthusiasts second, we’ve never felt that Six Flags Great Adventure was a must-visit park and we’ve always found excuses not to make the 2.5 hour drive into central Jersey…but this event gave us just the incentive we needed, and we left impressed with the effort Six Flags put into creating a cohesive DC-themed evening. DC Heroes & Villains Fest managed to deliver on both entertainment and atmosphere without overstaying its welcome; to the contrary, we would love to see this event extended into more weekends next summer, and renewed for years to come. If you’ve not been able to experience this event just yet, you still have one more weekend to get out there and make some superhero memories before it is replaced by the seasonal Fright Fest event - check out https://www.sixflags.com/greatadventure/events/dc-heroes-and-villains-fest for more details. We’ll see you all on the streets of Gotham!
