In the world of both Marvel and DC Comics sales, certain trends appear to be sacrosanct: familiar characters on covers sell well, teasing the death of said characters sells better, but nothing moves merchandise like the 1st issue of a brand-new series. The vast majority of the best-selling issues in comic history are almost always new Issue #1's, either for new characters or for existing brands and/or teams. Fitting, then, that DC editors would capitalize on this trend and create a series in which every issue was a new #1...but unfortunately, fans saw right through the charade.
First issues dominate sales charts, especially the overall best-selling comics of all time. Ultimate Spider-Man #1 in 2002 sold over 600,000 copies, and Star Wars #1 in 2015 sold over one million copies (a practically unheard-of number in the age of digital distribution and waning comics sales overall). But the single best-selling issue of all time is undisputedly X-Men #1 released in 1991. With over eight million copies sold, X-Men and the series as a whole has yet to be bested in sales. While the speculation boom of the early 90s certainly played a part, readers overall sought out new #1s as collectors items or simply to start reading a new and exciting series.
Publisher Carmine Infantino noticed this trend in 1975, and realized that first books of new series sell noticeably better than subsequent issues. Thus, he decided to spearhead the creation of a monthly series called First Issue Special, containing nothing but first issues. DC writers immediately saw numerous flaws with the idea, starting with the fact that readers see the "First Issue Special" was the name of a series and not actually denoting a first issue. Writer Gerry Conway of The Night Gwen Stacy Died fame assumed Infantino's pitch was a joke, but it was not, and First Issue Special #1 arrived on store shelves in April 1975.
Roughly half of the issues contained stories about existing characters, such as Doctor Fate, Starman, and eventually the New Gods (for Issue #12). Others contained new characters created specifically for First Issue Special, but unfortunately none of them lasted beyond the series, mostly because of the flaw of the book: even if a character was well-received, they wouldn't appear in a subsequent issue. Fans saw right through the ruse and First Issue Special was unceremoniously cancelled after 12 issues.
Perhaps unbeknownst to him, Carmine Infantino had simply created an anthology series with an added marketing gimmick. First Issue Special was always destined to be forgotten because comic book fans are much more savvy than publisher realize. Taking advantage of fan tendencies to buy first issues can only get one so far in the comic book industry, as DC Comics and Infantino found out with First Issue Special.
