Uniquely identifying series and issues

Hi folks,  I see the following as intro text to the "ComicIssue" schema:
"All comic issues can be uniquely identified by: the combination of the name and volume number of the series to which the issue belongs; the issue number; and the variant description of the issue (if any)."

Is reliable unique identification a goal?  While you can get fairly close, it is not possible in all cases without pulling in a lot more fields (and even then, probably not).  Also, there's no consistent concept or description of a "volume" among comics publishers.  I can go into more detail but only if unique identification of either series or issues is a concern.
thanks,-henry