Warning! Potential spoilers for Eight Billion Genies by Image Comics below.
Charles Soule and Ryan Browne are teaming up for Eight Billion Genies, a brand new miniseries from Image Comics that asks the question, "if you had one wish... what would you wish for?" The fantasy series imagines what would happen if everyone on Earth got one wish from a genie at the same time and all the chaos that occurs as a result.
Charles Soule and Ryan Browne previously teamed up for the bestselling Image Comics series Curse Words. Soule is best known for his work at Marvel Comics, including runs on Star Wars: Darth Vader, Uncanny Inhumans, and Daredevil. The author has also worked on the Image Comics series Undiscovered Country alongside Scott Snyder and wrote the first High Republic era Star Wars novel, Star Wars: Light of the Jedi. Browne created God Hates Astronauts and worked on Bedlam for Image Comics. Together, Soule and Browne will introduce readers to the world of Eight Billion Genies.
Eight Billion Genies #1 from Image Comics will feature everyone on Earth getting a single wish from a genie and the entertaining hell breaking loose following them. Image is teasing the fantasy series as one of the "wildest rides of the year." In a first look at the eight-issue miniseries, the genies introduce themselves to the public as they tell people they get one wish each.
Soule told us that Eight Billion Genies is bigger and wilder than anything he or Brone has done before and that he can't wait for readers to check it out.
Back in 2017, Ryan Browne and I launched our epic mega-series Curse Words through Image Comics. We didn't think we'd ever do anything wilder or bigger or with as many possibilities for the story to go absolutely anywhere. Now, almost exactly five years later... we've gone and done it! Eight Billion Genies is both of us working at the top of our games, using everything we've learned about making comics to execute the craziest premise we could think of. Eight Billion Genies is a high-wire act for us as creators all the way through—literally on any page the whole thing could unravel. But it doesn't—it just gets better, with every single issue. This is a thoughtful book about all of us, our lives and desires, and this particular moment in history—but it's absolutely drowning in genies, too. And jokes! Lots of great jokes. It'll make you laugh, cry, think... and wish. It'll definitely make you wish. Can't wait for everyone to see it.
Browne teased the unpredictable nature of the miniseries and how weird it might get.
With Eight Billion Genies, Charles and I have created the ultimate hypothetical thought exercise. There are infinite ways for this scenario to play out, and I think we have focused on a direction that shows us a lot about humanity and how we balance our personal desires with that of the greater good. Also, when I realized that children get a wish… well… that gives me the license to draw any weird thing I want flying around in the background! THAT'S my wheelhouse—Charles can figure out the serious stuff!
Eight Billion Genies will feature six covers for issue one, including a cover (seen above) by Browne, a variant cover from Jenny Frison & Steve Seeley, and another variant cover from Declan Shalvey. The miniseries will also have a 1:10 variant, 1:25 variant, and a 1:50 variant, which haven't been revealed yet. Eight Billion Genies #1 by Charles Soule and Ryan Browne arrives in comic book stores on May 11, 2022.
