I do think this issues signals a downfall of the Decepticons in 16 and 17. I spotted prowl in there as well so it looks like mostly Decepticons, and they're all falling. Soundwave and Shockwave are also there and all the seekers it seems.
Regeneration One Blaster! Please... Let his fix be like Grimlock and he gets his original body (or at least head).
Those are silhouettes of pretty much the entire cast, not characters who are going to be killed. So unless Bumblebee, Metalhawk, Prowl, Blurr, Starscream, Shockwave, and Soundwave among many others are all going to bite it...
I'm not sure if it's been pointed out, but one of those Legislators is smiling. Terrifying stuff, right there.
The Arcee cover reminds me of that 80's song by The Weather Girls called: "It's Raining Men" In any case...I WANT IT!
Which one is tha----Oh, yeah, now I see it. That one is mega-creepy when contrasting it to the other Legislators. No eyes and a big-arse grin. Makes a Cenobite version of The Joker look comforting. The subject of the issue cements another confirmed for Overlord survival. The advance of the Legislators confirms that the "Neo-Institute" (the new New Institute) has been unaffected by recent changes in certain individual's personalities, so the question is who is behind it now? Does Brainstorm's non-recognition of Skids' assassin gun (calling it a "binary gun") indicate that he is covering up his involvement in it, or is he genuinely incapable of identifying the purpose of a weapon that he didn't invent?
I always read "dont let them take skids" as dont let the lost light crew take him on board, but it seems like it may be more like 'dont let the 1984 bots take skids back to the institute?" hmmmm.
'looks at BW Sonar' - nope, don't see how Sonar would be a 'she'. BM Night Viper, maybe. But hey, Jhiaxus is back. He can make more femmebots easily. After all, Cybertron needs to be repopulated, and Tramp needs to have his disturbing fanon about femmebots made real. Also, this image is unintentionally hilarious: Megatron has that "come one, were are doing THIS again?" look when Prime is (again) taking his head off... Nope, Bumblebee (and his cane), Metalhawk, Starscream, Prowl are also there. Could be an indication of whom Arcee will or already has killed, which will make her an even bigger Mary Sue than she already is. Man, I wish Barber was taken off RID already. The concept of a post-war world was nice, but he did nothing with the premise and now we are back to full-scale war...
I'm glad their putting a little focus on Blaster in ReGen1, he was one of my favorite characters in the original Marvel run. I also feel he was the most under-rated, possibly because all of his best moments came during Budiansky's run. Nice to see that Monstrosity will be released as individual issues, instead of having to wait for TPB when the series is over. I'm not super impressed by the covers of MTMTE or RID, but I'm sure the insides will be great. There's always the B covers anyways.
Probably not I doubt Hasbro would stick issue 18 of one of their ongoing comics in a toy marketed to kids as opposed to a one shot spotlight like the other ones are getting.