Eight Billion Genies
Issues 1-3
Writer Charles Soule
Artist Ryan Browne Publisher Image Comics
Having a wish magically granted has always been portrayed as a potentially dangerous proposition, and new Image Comics title Eight Billion Genies expands this concept to ask: what if everyone on Earth got a wish at exactly the same time?
This manic eight-issue miniseries follows what happens when the entire population of Earth simultaneously (and for mysterious reasons) all acquire a genie that will grant them each one wish. Chaos of course immediately breaks loose, and a low-rent bar in Detroit ends up an unexpected safe zone in the madness, its inhabitants riding out the escalating insanity as the worldwide consequences of wishing get bigger and bigger.
Writer Charles Soule and artist Ryan Browne previously collaborated on the anarchic fantasy Curse Words, and they’re in familiar territory here, putting human nature under the microscope while also delivering a fun cavalcade of imaginative hyper-strangeness.
From vampires and unicorns to the reincarnation of Jim Morrison and Ernest Hemingway, these first three issues crank the luridness up to impressive levels. While this offbeat comedy won’t be for everyone, the remaining five issues are clearly going to head in some adventurously bizarre and mindbending directions.