Today Sony Pictures released the first teaser trailer for its forthcoming Spider-Man spinoff, Venom. Due to hit screens in October, Venom stars Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams.

The trailer itself has generated quite a buzz in its own right. Buzz of the negative variety. Critics have noted the concerning fact that we don't even get a glimspe of the title character. Writing for Forbes, Dani Di Palacio called the trailer "comically underwhelming, like a fan-made mashup of Tom Hardy clips. There’s not even a glimpse of the iconic suit, just a split-second shot of black dribble."

The Telegraph's Zoah Hedges-Stocks, meanwhile, said: "Venom is a gooey alien symbiote that bonds with a human host and imbues them with super strength, shapeshifting powers, and the ability to copy Spider-man's webslinging – but you wouldn't know that from Sony's dull trailer."

The harshest critic of all, though, has been Rob Liefeld. The co-creator of another Marvel character, Deadpool, Liefeld took to Twitter to call Sony out for releasing a teaser that "wasn't ready for prime time", calling B.S. on the would-be defenders of a trailer that he says "sucked".

Sony, stop calling bloggers and expressing your dissatisfaction that they are reflecting the truth. You ran that teaser that wasn’t ready for prime time! Look in the mirror.

— robertliefeld (@robertliefeld) February 8, 2018

BS. Sucked.

— robertliefeld (@robertliefeld) February 8, 2018

 Judge for yourself:

So, we know what Eddie Brock looks like. He looks just like Tom Hardy. As for Venom, well, that's anyone's guess. We'll just have to imagine that he'll look something like he did in 2007, when Topher Grace played Brock/Venom in Spider-Man 3—which is to say, totally fucking terrifying.

In related news, Liefeld's own creation is set to hit the big screen again in May. The trailer for the Vancouver-shot Deadpool 2 also came out this week.