Well, I'm glad someone beat me to the obvious punchline - that the only torment this book has to offer is for the reader. I checked this out from my local library, thank God, as opposed to wasting my money on it. Let's break down everything that's wrong with this book: zero character development. Writing, laughably bad. Art, to be honest, is pretty horrible -- yeah, I know McFarlane's supposed to be la artist supremo numero uno, or something, but his Lizard looks like a toad, all of his regular humans (especially Mary Jane) look more like cereal box mascots than real people, and his rendition of Spidey, at least in my opinion, is just average. Above all else, I get the idea that McFarlane just really doesn't like Spider-Man as a character. Skip it -- get some of Straczynski's brilliant run on the book. Don't waste your time with this faux-Gothic nonsense.