BY THE HORNS #6 – Review

BY THE HORNS #6, available from Scout Comics on October 6th, 2021, is the silent account of how Shintaro first made friends with his loyal wolf deer, first met Elodie, and last met a tragic fate under a unicorn’s hoof.

The Details

• Written By: Markisan Naso
• Art By: Jason Muhr
• Colors By: Andrei Tabacaru
• Letters By: Jason Muhr
• Cover Art By: Jason Muhr, Andrei Tabacaru
• Cover Price: $3.99
• Release Date: October 6, 2021

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Was It Good?

Scout announced at the end of July this year that By The Horns was switching from a 7-issue mini to an ongoing series. Shifts of this type happen all the time, so it generally shouldn’t matter. However, when a series is originally written with a definitive beginning, middle, and end in mind, the shift sometimes plays out in abrupt swings of momentum for the story already in progress. A momentum shift isn’t necessarily a bad thing, so it helps to understand why the plot takes an abrupt side trip when you’ve only got one issue left in the series as originally planned.

This is one of those circumstances where an issue pops up that puts the brakes on a story that should be wrapping up. It’s not bad or wrong, but some context helps to let you, my fine readers, know the next issue won’t be rushed or incomplete because the creative team now has more room to flesh out the story. More room is better.

Where does that leave us with this issue? It’s good. Very good. However, the story takes a chance with character development that may not be everyone’s cup of tea. It lowers your opinion of the main character.

Through snippets and hints throughout the series so far, we get the general gist of how Elodie came to be a unicorn hunter. Here we get an entirely wordless issue where we see Shintaro’s backstory firsthand and the beginnings of his romance with Elodie all the way through to his coma, “driving” Elodie to take revenge against the unicorns. It’s another great example of telling the story through art in the most extreme terms, and it succeeds. In case it wasn’t clear, this is still the best art of any Scout title and rivals most any comic from any publisher at the moment.

Now, we were very down on the ending of the last issue because it was revealed that Shintaro wasn’t dead. He’s in a coma and the unicorns had the magic to cure him. We were down on the ending because it felt like a shortcut that negated Elodie’s grief and made her transition into a unicorn hunter seem over the top. This issue won’t do anything to change hearts and minds, but there’s now room to make that creative choice pay off.

That said, this flashback reveals the details of Shintaro’s injury and how the unicorns came to be blamed. This new information is the choice that may (or may not) lower your opinion of Elodie because it makes perfect sense. If Elodie had taken a few minutes to talk to the unicorns and ask what happened, her genocidal quest for vengeance would never have taken place. In any other story, you could explain her misguided mission as the result of overwhelming grief. However, Shintaro isn’t actually dead and magic exists in this world to do all kinds of miraculous things, so Elodie comes across as more irrational than we originally thought.

And there’s the rub. How do you reconcile the inherent good of saving the world from evil wizards using someone who’s almost just as bad? Elodie is no longer relatable as the main character, or at least, if you do find her relatable, I would recommend finding a good therapist… immediately.

This may sound like a backhanded positive review, but it’s not. In isolation, this is an excellent issue in terms of writing and art. However, the new information revealed makes the main character that much more unlikable in context, and I’m curious to see how the creators work Elodie out of the predicament largely of her own making.

What’s It About?

[SPOILERS AHEAD – Click here if you just want the score without spoilers]

First, see what all the fuss is about in our BY THE HORNS #5 review.

Again, this is a wordless issue. No narration or dialog of any kind except for time/place captions. It’s all art.

We begin with a flashback to six years ago where we meet Shintaro on a hunt. During the hunt, Shintaro finds a family of wolf deer maliciously slaughtered. All except for a lone cub. Shintaro desperately gets the cub back to town for help, and his efforts pay off. That cub eventually grows up to become Shinataro’s companion, Sajen.

Later, Shintaro encounters a woman practicing fighting techniques in the woods, and he stops to provide some pointers. That woman is Elodie, the future love of Shinataro’s life, and we’re treated to a montage of a blossoming romance.

A few years later, shortly after their marriage, Shintaro is on another hunting trip when he hears a ruckus nearby. A herd of unicorns has been corraled by the Wizards of the Four Winds and the attack causes the unicorns to stampede in their panic to escape. Unfortunately, Shintaro couldn’t get out of the way in time. We conclude the issue with an emotional hospital scene, a failed attempt to use healing magic, and Elodie suiting up for her first killing spree.

Final Thoughts

BY THE HORNS #6 is a gorgeous, emotional, and wordless entry into the now-ongoing series that fills in the gaps of Elodie’s origin as a unicorn killer. With the final puzzle pieces in place, the real question becomes “Which is the bigger challenge: Stopping the evil wizards from consuming all the magic in the world? Or, finding a way for Elodie to atone for her atrocities?”

Score: 8.5/10