“Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream….”

“Ride the snake…..”

Back in my reckless youth days I started a band with some friends and we thought it would be a great idea to drop some acid so we can we write better songs – you know, like The Beatles did back in the 60’s.

I was able to procure some LSD tabs from this shady dude that I worked with at a pizza joint, and after handing them out to my band mates we all placed the piece of paper on our tongues and got ready to write Strawberry Fields Forever.

Uh, well needless to say, no music was written that night – instead we had our sober friend George drive us around town so we could look at the pretty lights streaking by. The closest any of us got to a “I am the Walrus” moment was when at one point I was laying in the backseat and Led Zeppelins “Rock and Roll” came on the stereo – I jumped up and proclaimed “I FUCKING UNDERSTAND! I UNDERSTAND WHAT MUSIC IS ALL ABOUT! I HAVE THE ANSWER TO WHAT IT MEANS!” George asked, “What does it mean dude?” I replied, “I’m gotta throw up.”

Yeah, good times. I never dropped acid again after that (it may have had something to do with my friend who was having a bad trip and wanted to fuck satan’s daughters. It kinda freaked me out and I might have started crying at one point while I was hanging my head out the window of the car as we drove around the mountains so I could look at the stars. Hmm, did I say “good times”? Okay, maybe not that good). Anyway, tripping balls did not lead to a mind altering revelation as I had hoped it would.

Now Green Arrow on the other hand…

…In this issue Oliver Queen is given some hallucinatory drugs that reveal to him the origins of his destiny to become Green Arrow and also give him insight to the threat that has been plaguing him of late. It’s all pretty heavy stuff but it does an awesome job of clearing away the last remaining bullshit of Dan Jurgens story lines and sets up the NEW status quo for this book.

My favorite part of this book though is a single panel on page 14 where Magus sums up Green Arrow’s “new” origin in two word balloons, “then Lacroix killed your father and became Komodo. Emerson knew he needed to both protect you and prepare you for the day Komodo would come for you. He had you cast away here with only a bow.”

This is approaching Alan Moore territory. I fucking love Jeff Lemire – or should I call him Jeff “Timothy Leary” Lemire now?

Turn on, tune in, drop out. Yep – Pick of the Week.

P.S, you didn’t think I would end this silly review without mentioning Sorrentino’s art did you? Absolutely gorgeous stuff here and his work brings a verisimilitude to this comic that enriches every aspect of it. Let’s hope this team stays on for awhile.