ATTENTION ! Spoilers ahead!
Canto: If I Only Had a Heart ended with the clockwork knight reaching the mountain top and realizing that his climb may have been in vain.
He went in search of his loved one’s heart, and he failed, but he did not come back empty-handed. His climb up the Emerald Tower provided hope for his people, and he transformed the tale of his people, the story of the knight that went to save his princess.
This theme of remembrance and shared history frequents the pages of The Hollow Men. It is impossible to step away from the comic series without realizing the necessity of family stories provide for future generations because, without hope, we are truly lost.
The Hollow Men
When Canto II: The Hollow Men begins, Canto is at home in New Arcana, a sprawling network of treehouse homes reminiscent of the treehouse of the lost boys in the classic movie Hook. Many moons have passed since they were liberated from the furnaces of Arcana, but fear hangs over Canto like a thick fog. Prophetic dreams of the Shrouded Man stalk him in the night, and Canto feels certain the boogie man will inevitably come for his pound of flesh.
However short or long time may span, life must go on. The clockwork knight and several of his tin companions take us on a wild race through the woods of New Arcana, but it ends in a near-tragedy when Veratta’s clock stops. The Elder restarts Veratta’s clock, as he did Cantos before, but she lives on borrowed time.
Canto and the clockwork knights learn Veratta’s shortened life span is not unique. They are all living at the mercy of the hands of a cursed clock. When they left Arcana, their clocks began to count down, and it will not be long before all of their clocks tick their final second. All except for Canto, whose clock was charged with the Shrouded Man’s energy, an energy that shattered the curse on his clock when the Shrouded Man struck Canto down. His clock is not slowing. He will be the last of his people if he does not do something to guarantee their clocks keep ticking. Canto, refusing to give in to defeat, decides to go in search of the Shrouded Man’s power source so he can defeat him once and for all.
Venturing out beyond New Arcana, Canto and several clockwork knights with names that fit their personalities: Rikta, Veratta, and Falco, visit the warrior Aulaura, who aided Canto in his climb up the Emerald tower.
Canto feels certain that Aulaura will aid him in his quest, but he is mistaken. Her people have been duped by the Shrouded Man and are now husks of their former selves. Canto’s defeat of the Shrouded Man gave Aulaura’s people hope, and for a time, they prospered, but when everything fell apart, the Shrouded Man made a timely appearance and promised to remove their fear and pain. His promise was a double-edged blade. Now the brainless, hollow scarecrows that were once a loving people, decorate the streets of Aulaura’s village, and she is doomed to mourn alone.
The doomed watcher’s trope is seen several times throughout The Hollow Men, but Canto refuses to accept that fate. Climbing the Yellow Mountain, Canto arrives at the Valley of the Lionhearted, where he stands before a doorway that reads, “Abandon heart all ye who enter here.” A moniker like the one over the doorway of the inferno where Dante first enters into the layers of hell that will lead him to his love Beatrice. Only Canto is no longer in search of the heart of his loved one, that moment has passed, and Canto knows her heart was born to ash a long time past.
The End?
The epic of the clockwork knight is far from over as a knight without a heart who lost hope is being pursued by a knight who gained a heart to heal the broken world. While the Shrouded Man, the true Hollow man, holds the world hostage, Canto is forced to fly as close to the sun as he possibly can.
Canto began as the rebel who defied the odds to save his loved one, but now Canto is hope personified, a brave tin man that stood up to his oppressor and has shown the world that anything is possible if you keep trying.
Will he rise like a phoenix and burn away the darkness that has blinded the world? Or will the Shrouded Man tear hope from the world and make them forget to live?
If a canto is a verse in a long or epic poem, and in Latin, it means singing or song, then each Canto chapter is another verse in his epic, another heartbeat of hope. Canto makes the choice of a fairytale hero, but he does it on the breath of pending death, on borrowed time.
In a world full of hate and hidden agendas, Canto is the hero we all need, the hope we cling to.
Look for Canto and The City of Giants in April 2021
Writer: David M. Booher
Artist: Drew Zucker
Publisher: IDW Publishing
