However, according to Dave Wallace at Comics Bulletin, “commercial success didn’t equate to critical acclaim for McFarlane’s new venture, and many found the artist’s attempts at writing to be clumsy, unsophisticated and pretentious” and that “[t]here was a frequent sense - as with many writer-artists - that McFarlane’s scripts were being written in such a way as to give himself something “cool” to draw, rather than to provide a particularly compelling or satisfying story.”^[7] The writing was also picked up by Alex Rodrik at Comics Bulletin who highlights the lack of consistency in the narration (switching from first person to third-person), concluding that “Torment is nothing more than a showcase of Spider-Man’s fluid movement, and while the art is wonderful, it should be noted that pages (at times) are congested and indulgent.”^[8] Even for fans of the series at the time the series has not stood the test of time. Augie De Blieck Jr. confesses that “[w]hen they first came out, I was a mind-numbed McFarlane fan” but reading the trade paperback he found that “the money shots of Spidey over the city and fighting for his life still look as energetic and lively as ever, the rest of the pages feel claustrophobic” and that Parker’s lettering was “awful.”^[9]