Everything you need to know about the fantastic 2022 comic Eight Billion Genies is right there in the title. The eight issue miniseries tells the story of a world where, without any warning, every human being on the planet suddenly gets their own personal genie, with the ability to grant one single wish of the owner’s choosing. Predictably, chaos ensues, and each of the issues tells the story of the events that unfold from this point over the next 8 minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades and eventually centuries.
Writer Charles Soule does a great job of telling a story on a global scale, yet still focusing on a relatively small cast of well-rounded and distinct characters. In a sense, it almost plays out like a sort of anti-disaster movie. Although the plotting does mainly centre on a group of ‘survivors’; their major conundrum is not how to escape an imminent threat, but rather how to make the most of the miraculous and potentially life-changing opportunity that has been gifted to each of them.
Ryan Browne’s artwork perfectly captures the lunacy of a world that has very quickly gone off the rails, as thousands of people waste no time in wishing into reality their wildest dreams and fantasies. The inkwork is kept loose and sketchy, and Browne digitally paints over these with vivid colours that sell the cinematic fantasy of the story. The genies themselves are a particular highpoint, which Browne illustrates with a distinct Looney Toons wit and energy.
Given the subject and timeframe of the comic, there are no traditional heroes and villains, and this is instead a story of individuals, communities and global trends. Conflicting agendas, acquisition of power and freedom of choice are central themes; and as the story progresses it’s hard not to see comparisons to the era of late-stages-capitalism into which the western world currently seems to be slipping. It’s not all bad news though; the importance of Arts, culture, and the legacy that we leave our children is also explored; and a high-school aged reader could probably write a decent dissertation picking apart the rich themes contained within.
Rights to the comic were very quickly bought-up by Amazon MGM Studios, and a premium tv series or movie of Eight Billion Genies in the near future is highly likely. But on the strength of Browne’s storytelling and heartfelt visuals, I’d recommend not waiting around to jump on this comic.
