Our cast is seen a very turbulent decade go by after G-Day. But everything has to end. Your Major Spoilers review of Eight Billion Genies #7 from Image Comics awaits!

EIGHT BILLION GENIES #7

Writer: Charles Soule
Artist: Ryan Browne
Colorist: Ryan Browne
Letterer: Chris Crank
Production Design: Erika Schnatz
Publisher: Image Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 15, 2023

Previously in Eight Billion Genies: We’ve seen the first eight years after G-day – now, we’ll visit the FIRST EIGHT DECADES as our characters live, love, grow, change, and die in a world transformed forever by the appearance of eight billion genies eighty years before. Brace yourself…

This one’s a heartbreaker.

WHERE WE LEFT OFF

We pick up with Wang and Lifeng Zhang, braving an ocean full of genie-created horrors to get their now eight-year-old daughter Ting-Shu to the safety of the haven known as El Futuro. With less than twenty million people left on Earth, the available havens are getting fewer and further between, but they make it, thanks to Wang’s armor-that-always-gives-him-what-he-needs-to-survive. Upon arrival, Ting-Shu is shocked to find that her genie will not listen to her, as her parents have chosen a settlement where no one under 25 can actually USE their wish, and after a few years, she begins to believe she hates them. A quarter-century after G-Day, we catch up with Ed and June Green, who have lived a quiet life in Hope’s Hollow, while their super-powered son, Robbie has become The Idea Man’s enforcer. When Ed has a fatal heart attack, June realizes that she has only a short time to tell her son the truth about the Idea Man. As for ol’ Floyd, he is unsuccessful in bartering entry to the most exclusive haven of them all, and declares war on them. When the lawyers of the Exactitude strike first, he only has to have more wishes banked. And he does have more.

Exactly THREE more.

THEY WEREN’T KIDDING ABOUT THE HEART-BREAKING

Many of the plots introduced in the first issue receive closure here, as even the youngest members of the cast are over eighty by the time it ends. LIfeng and Ting-Shu’s relationship gets closure, while Robbie realizes that the Idea Man’s wish was for people to believe in him, even though he’s a huge fraud. Even Daisy, Brian, and Alex’s life in the artistic refuge of Fun City is revisited, and Soule pulls no punches in his depictions of the characters’ various fates. It’s perfectly matched with the art of Browne, who throws in tons of wonderful visual moments, such as one of Idea Man’s stolen genie throwing him the bird and insulting him as it disappears. Likewise, the genies of El Futuro gain earmuffs as soon as you enter the city, if their host is a child, while the lawyers of The Exactitude live in a high-rise that’s glorious in its rich-guy mundanity. And the FUNERALS! My goodness, the funerals in this issue are all moving in their own strange ways, with the final page showing us that two remaining cast members have decided to try living their lives free in what remains of the world.

BOTTOM LINE: I LOVE THIS

Perhaps the best moment of Eight Billion Genies #7 is the moment where the leering, animated moon we’ve been seeing for half the series finally becomes important to the story in a most satisfying and EC-Comics-gruesome way, but the fusion of art and script into a wonderful storytelling engine makes for a most satisfying chapter, earning a dead-solid 5 out of 5 stars overall. This issue is good enough that, even though I usually dislike adaptations, I’m excited to see if Amazon Studios can really bring this one to life.

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