Since Dark Matter was bagged with this months Judge Dredd Megazine and Canon Fodder is one of those characters I love that you can't find anything of anywhere, lets do a quick review of this tale of gun toting holy men shall we.
Dark Matter is the second and sadly final Canon Fodder tale, lovely art drawn by Chris Weston who was also one of the artists on Indigo Prime below. Weston's is great at even just drawing mediocre stuff which is why he's often he's included on tales with fantastical monsters and landscapes, which is put to good use in Dark Matter.
The premise is a bonkers one, Judgment Day comes and God's a no show so its left to the Priest Patrol to enforce the law on the 'sinners', Fodder may be close to a two dimensional character, rather like a holy Duke Nukem, but its rare to see a protagonist who's not only religious, but militantly so. In many other sci-fi and fantasy worlds Fodder would be portrayed as a villain, but here we are rooting him on, kicking “heathen butt”. Also Fodder bizarrely mirrors Philip Glenster's portrayal as Gene Hunt from Life on Mars, despite being published nearly a decade before.
All in all the story takes to its settings strengths and weaves a rather unorthodox tale that doesn't outstay its welcome, even Fodders 'love interest' goes against what we usually have for stock characters in comic books.
The worst part about the book? Its the fact that due to the ownership issue between Mark Millar and 2000ad, we probably won't be seeing any more from the character. Rest in Peace Canon Fodder. Amen.
