Pipes had one of the saddest death scenes I've ever read in a comic.

 

He's probably alive then.

 

I can't believe Tailgate's spark exploded so hard that his soul was utterly destroyed and he doesn't even exist in the Afterspark!

 

Wow. Even Ambulon's soul is split in two. May that joke never die.

 

My only guess is since

Spoiler

tall, green, and scorpion happens to have Skid's brain in hand---. However, since the brain may contain only the memories...not sure how that may work.

Safe to say, it may mean the Skids we "know" is dead. But not.

Confusing innit?  

 

To be fair, it wasn't exactly "off-panel" per-say. For all we know the Decepticon may have over-flooded the chamber with radiation after giving his spiel about exacting revenge and how he's going to do it. We also know Tailgate has known panic attacks which could have aggravated any damage/death the radiation could have done to his person.

Of course, there are other sci-fi sources that have used the gimmick that prologed "stasis lock" stabilizes dangerously erratic systems (which was the original intent}.

So, could be either way.

Nowhere do I think it would have affected the state of his soul regardless of the type of death. Otherwise one would wonder about every other Transformer who met such a devastating end since their race began.

 

Plot twist: Tailgate never had a soul in the first place.

 

Did you not read the last issue? Tailgate wasn't even mentioned. It was all the Scavengers..  

 

I mean, you're right, there's no technical reason why Tailgate couldn't really be dead.

But he definitely isn't, because of how, like, storytelling works.

 

Rodimus, this Christmas you will be visited by four ghosts...

 

When Fort Max’s crew found the body, the panel was set in just such a way as so we couldn’t actually see Tailgate, and their expressions didn’t look like people who just found a dead guy, but like they found something amazing and weird. Plus we never actually hear Fort Max say he’s dead, because Rodimus took the communicator of loudspeaker at that point. Fort Max could have told him anything.

Trust me, Tailgate is not dead.

 

I just reread the scene, there's no reason to think Tailgate's dead based on it.

 

I\'ve got a couple theories and answers. BEWARE OF SPOILERS BELOW FOR LL15
1) Skids isn\'t on this cover because the artist admits to not feeling like drawing him, especially because there was a very short deadline on it.
2) (This is only a theory don\'t take it too seriously) Me and a couple others suspect that Tailgate isn\'t dead, but is actually (somehow, I didn\'t figure this out yet) carrying another \'firstborn\' like Scorponok was. This theory stems from one of Tailgate\'s toys being able to hold a person in its chest, and also the rection from when Fort Max and that crew were looking at Tailgate. Their reaction almost mirrors what the Scavengers had looked like when Scorponok revealed his big plan. (This theory needs a lot of suspended belief, and also the whole \'worst fears realized\' deal to be true in the case of the Lost Light crew.)
Again, this is just a random spiel put together from stuff I didn\'t think all that hard about.

 

What if it's Tailgate in Ten?

 

No original Rewind either.