Fish out of Temporal Water: Invoked; Helen Gutierrez used her wish to create a replica of her small hometown from 1982, complete with period-appropriate movies, fashion, shops, and people. Robbie says that he's read enough comic books to know that wishing for immortality is a very bad idea that could go wrong any number of ways. He instead uses his wish to become a superhero capable of defending himself and his parents while searching for another save haven for them.

Implacable Woman: Betty eventually becomes this. Because of her mother's wish, Betty is immortal until she makes a wish, so she is determined to become the last person on Earth to do so. She ends up hunting down everyone else with a genie until she's the only one left. Will: Well, I mean, that’s literally what I wished for up there in the intro, so it must be a thing I’ve really wanted. But for realsies, he does a great job here. I don’t know how I would have gone about drawing and coloring a mess of genies, but the work is great — each genie has their own little sense of visual character, and the cosmic coloring immediately gets to the point that these things are not of this earth. Also, it just looks cool. Eight Billion Genies is an eight-issue Image Comics comic book series written by Charles Soule with art by Ryan Browne. It follows a world forever changed by the appearance of magical genies able to grant any wish imaginable and whose motives are shrouded in mystery. Meanwhile, Will Williams and the people inside his small Michigan bar grapple with their everchanging reality and what to use their omnipotent wishes on. Mark Turetsky: Welcome, dear reader, to our review of 8 Billion Genies #1! Will, what are you doing here? This isn’t a Star Trek! An episode of The Simpsons (specifically, "Curse of the Flying Hellfish") is referenced when discussing the idea of "tontines" (a wish that is shared among multiple people and can only be granted when all of them are in agreement).

We Only Have One Chance: People must audition to get into Fun City (a haven for creative artists). They only get one chance to do so, and cannot use wishes to augment or grant talent.

Every individual on Earth gets a genie capable of fulfilling a single wish. A fraction of the 8 billion people make instant wishes, while others choose to hold onto their genies for years. Predictably, the wishes trigger wild consequences, which lead to a rapid decline in the global population. Deathbed Confession: When Robbie's superhero friends are killed by a particularly powerful supervillain, Robbie has a breakdown because at 12 years old, he's too young to process all this death and destruction. The seemingly-adult King Power tries to comfort Robbie by admitting with his dying breath that he's only 11. Immortality: The final issue takes place 800 years after the events of the first, and three characters survive to the end: Blue-and-Orange Morality: The genies play by some rules that seem arbitrarily contradictory. They won't grant wishes that alter people's free will on a large scale (like asking for world peace), though focused mind control/brainwashing powers are okay. They also don't care how many people are killed as a result of someone's errant wish ( granted, winnowing down the population is why they're there). Lastly, they are able to offer minor assistance—interpreting languages, offering insight on what other people are doing, and so on—at their discretion without requiring a wish to do so.A Dog Named "Dog": All of the genies respond to the name, "Genie". No mention is made of how they don't get each other mixed up, but they can be summoned for advice or to make a wish simply by calling their name. Genius Loci: Someone's wish has given the Earth a face, arms, and legs, while another wish has made the moon a ravenous being that devours Santa Claus and his reindeer. But, I can't help but wish that the story was fleshed out more to really maximize its potential. I can imagine how powerful this would really be if it were a longer series, and we had time to really live in this world, witness the characters change, really sit with the consequences of decisions, and see these ideas evolve. The effect with such a short book is that it feels a bit rushed at times, like we're just jumping from idea to idea, skipping all the juicy bits, and ultimately feels like an awesome bullet-pointed outline. It's the type of captivating tale that I love to read, one that uses a speculative high concept to comment on human nature, morality, and society's destructive tendencies. The ideas here are always interesting and I love the direction the story takes. Incompatible Orientation: Daisy doesn't learn Brian is gay until long after she wastes her wish trying to make him fall in love with her (it didn't work because he was inside the wish-proof bar when she made the wish but she wasn't). It begs the question of whether or not she would've made that wish had she known it would change a fundamental part of him (as opposed to "just" overriding his free will).

Crazy-Prepared: Will converted the basement of his bar into an armored bunker with a little bit of everything, from food to supplies to weapons in case he needs to hunker down. He figured that he needed to be prepared for a wildfire after watching all the friction being created all over the world even before the genies came to Earth.

All Wishes Granted: This is the premise of the comic, as all eight billion people on Earth are suddenly granted one wish each. The premise of Eight Billion Genies #1 is fascinating. What a great idea and exciting concept to grow and expand. The book’s introduction does a great job introducing each and every character and establishing personality traits. Mr. Williams seems to be an intelligent guy who was somehow prepared for this situation. The band is filled with young adults who are still a little impulsive. Because of the setup, when the genies appear, I can focus entirely on that. I think many writing techniques suggest that we introduce our literature with action sequences and worry about introducing characters later. In this case, I’m glad that I learned all the leading players before the main plot point showed up. Great choices here by the creative team. Exact Words: Unusually for a work about genies, this is averted/subverted - unspoken intent is taken into account, and it's this - along with potential conflicts with other wishes - that causes unintended consequences. Exact wording, however, can be used to work around this - the lawyers of the Exactitude haven end up making a business out of writing wishes for the leaders of other havens. Mark: His two non- Star Wars novels, The Oracle Year and Anyone, are more or less set in the real world, with one crucial difference. In Oracle Year, it’s “what if someone came up with 108 absolutely accurate predictions, from the outlandish to the utterly mundane, that will happen over the course of one year?” It’s a tiny, tiny thing, but it utterly changes the world.

That concept: tomorrow, for seemingly no reason, every human on Earth gets their own genie and one wish. “Not three. One,” says one of the eight billion tiny floating blue genies, each cutely modeled in attire and facial hair similar to the human wish holder they are paired with.

Betty Tzang, daughter of Wang and Lifeng. Her mother's wish was that Betty would survive to use her own wish. Killed Mid-Sentence: Ernest and Dorothy both suffer from No Ontological Inertia while they're in the middle of talking, dropping their alcohol glasses in the process and shattering them against the table. Mark: To be fair, Nice House is a psychological horror comic. This is much more brimming with joie de vivre. If you have read Browne’s God Hates Astronauts or Soule & Browne’s Curse Words, you will be familiar with the two’s trademark humor and style. Eight Billion Genies is no exception with a ton of humor (especially hidden in Browne’s artwork). The book also contains a lot of heart throughout, especially in the last few issues.