That Milne cover is gorgeous! I miss his artwork so much. It's nice to see Ratchet with his MTMTE style face again. That figure in the middle has back kibble similar to Legends Dai Atlas, but the rest of the silhouette seems off.

Edit: On second thought, I'm pretty sure that is Dai Atlas. The shoulders and head seem about right too.

 

It looks close to Dai Atlas and I assume it's him, which makes me worry. The side-horns and the wings and everything. We haven't seen him in IDW2 yet so the few differences could be attributed to his design in the new continuity.

Dai Atlas is one of the Great Generals, just as Magnus and Pyra. But Sentinel never asked him for help, which implied he isn't reachable. In one dialogue with him Orion said that Atlas was "gone immersant". The same phrase was used for Codexa IIRC, and Codexa is in a half-dead state fused with the planet, so the same should be true for him and it would explain all those tubes he is connected with on the cover. Codexa had those around her as well.

Though that triggers a ton of questions, first and foremost "why does he seem to be evil"? Because that's what the cover seems to imply. He also seems to be connected to (or leading?) the zombie army or whatever those shadows are. I wonder if it has anything to do with Cybertron changing. It was implied since the early issues that there something mysterious happening with the planet itself, especially during Geomotus scenes. If that's true it makes sense for bots fused with the fabric of the planet to change as well.

The question is why this is even happening. Is it related to Exarchon? Or are the 'Cons doing something we don't know about yet? Or maybe the Autobots even. Though by now I stopped suspecting Sentinel of being a hidden villain, so my money is on a third party or cause triggering all of this. Anyway, it looks like some evil Dai Atlas to me. I might still be wrong though and the tubes and similarities are just a coincidence.

 

Oh man, I’m getting so many feels just looking at Ratchet and Nautica drawn in that classic Milne style.

 

Yellow Hoist? Is this our first look at Swindle maybe?

 

he’s green

 

... And Swindle has a mouth.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!

Always the RI-Cover and always so hard to get!!!??? Milne's covers need to be the regular covers. Period.

 

. . .

Is that Dai Atlas in the center?!  

 

So glad I stopped reading the comics. I understand every artist has there own style, and may want to change things up, but when a character becomes unrecognizable, then to me, that defeats the purpose. Sure you have Prime, Hound, Ratchet, Hoist,  Red Tracks (for some reason), a purple bayformer, and a bunch more ?????????

 

Aww.. Hound has an organic pet! Like Prowl's but a different species obviously.
Hopefully the story's as good as the cover 

 

If we get a mainline Nautica figure that isn\'t a low effort retool or better yet an minisub earthmode figure I\'ll lose my mind.

 

The "Red Tracks" is Road Rage and Nautica doesn't look like a bayformer at all.

 

Hoist is dark green, if this isn't yellow its very close to that color, though I could be wrong on that

 

Swindle already appeared in previous issues, with different eyes, and a mouth. So that's just Hoist.

 

Perhaps you don't recognize them because you stopped reading the comics  

 

I guess I have problem differentiating colors, thank you for correcting me

 

Him or Beast Hunters Starscream

 

Nice, although when The hell did Road Rage become so popular? Strange. 

 

When did Hound?

She got the nice MP, and more to the point has previously had a role in the book this is a cover for, alongside Nautica who is more established but would have been new a few years ago too.

 

That's not red Tracks, that's Road Rage. That's not a purple bayformer, that's Nautica from IDW2005. Road Rage was an e-hobby exclusive toy, a repaint of Tracks written to live up to her name, tomboyish and brash. Dunno much about Nautica, never really got into IDW2005. Also-
AAAARGH I WANT STAR SABER TO BE IN IDW2019! I WANT SOMEONE TO DO HIM JUSTICE! I DON'T WANT HIM TO BE A GODDAMN ROBO HITLER!