If by "good" you mean the quality of the writing, then I think anyone who follows comics SHOULD have had SOME idea. If by "good" you mean how good the $$$ would turn out to be, then no. But there should not have been a question about the writing.
By 'good', I was meaning the whole package. Not only is the writing good, the covers are fabulous, the characters are unique, FSs art is clean, and the coloring is vivid. I agree with you that people who follow comics had some idea the book would be good, but I think it has gone above and beyond.
Ironically, you can look at the Frank Miller example as a sequence of works where expectations and results can diverge.