i'm still trying to figure out the point of nerd hulk. he doesn't serve much of a purpose as a character on his own or within the context of the story.
your second point is much easier said than done with the sheer number of titles and continuity floating around i think it would be difficult to fit those items into the story organically
is blue beetle a character that anyone outside of comics would recognize? it would take some amount of work to bring in the non-comics audience i would think.
i'm a fan of ellis and his crazy science but i feel that this run has some good ideas but not great execution. i don't know, feels like ellis is kind of phoning it in. the art is also taking sometime to get used to.