I think DC is missing a huge market for other issue numbers. Think of all the irrational numbers that haven't had issues yet. Issue π! (that's a 'pi') Square root of two! e! The list is endless (literally!)
And Roy's negative numbers (didn't someone do that?), and then imaginary and complex numbers! You'd never have to reach the (apparently hated) second issue, and you can reserve the complex numbers without real parts, for dreams, hoaxes, and...oh, what's the term...?
It mostly amazes me that they need an entire "gimmick" month so soon to support the new venture. And I find it very amusing, scanning down the page, at how far they needed to reach to make the month work. Some "highlights" that caught my attention as sounding like that scraping sound you heard was the barrel's bottom:
• Jonah Hex’s early life is accounted for...and it’s plenty ugly!
• Where was the Scarab before it merged with the current Blue Beetle, Jaime Reyes?
• What exactly was the Unknown Soldier before the experiments that changed him forever?
• What is the dark truth behind Grifter’s powers? Find out in this issue!
• The horrible curse that unite them is revealed!
• Witness how Andrew Bennett became a vampire!
• Frankenstein meets his maker…literally!
• The New 52 origin of Guy Gardner!
• The introduction and origin of a surprising new Green Lantern!
• Do you really need another reason to check out this issue?
I think my favorite is the Guy Gardner one, not even trying to convince us it's interesting. It's an origin, take it or leave it, I guess.
Honorable mention goes to Frankenstein, where they apparently didn't realize that literally meeting one's maker isn't the shocking development that figuratively doing so might be. Gosh, how will they meet? Will it be an intimate dinner? A dental appointment? A poker game? The suspense is killing me...figuratively!
(It might have worked better if they had put out a mess of collected zero-issues cheaply
before the "new 52" launched. Then the boring origin stories could have been previews of the brave new world, and the numbering would have divorced it from the ongoing/ending universe.)
Talented writers + talented artists = good stories
good stories -direct market + price point + digital download = sales.
Why is this hard?
Actually, that's not even the question anymore. They clearly think (along with many other companies) that they're in a monopoly position with a product required for survival, so no matter how shoddy, expensive, or inconvenient the product, money will apparently roll in, even if that happens to not be a factual result.
The real question I have, at this point, is why there's no competition. An entire industry revolving around recycling last year's concepts for this year's readers (who were also among last year's readers) and making you jump through hoops to spend too much on the product...where are all the wannabes putting out a decent digital download undercutting their prices and without having to sign up for a magic service?
(I had high hopes for Jim Shelley's Flashback Universe books, but that seems to have been more of a hobby to test the waters than a business, and sort of collapsed into another blog complaining about comics/reliving childhood memories of comics. A real shame.)