Although I'm familiar with the character from other titles and media, this is my first exposure to Harley as the star of her own book. It was heaps of fun!
In the mood to get away from everything, Harley is on vacation. And then along comes a Boom Tube to take her to Apokolips, where Granny Goodness wants her to join the Furies. So, a bit further away than she’d planned, then. Sam Humphies seems to have taken some of his inspiration from Robert Loren Fleming and Keith Giffen’s classic Ambush Bug--Jonni DC even shows up!--so HQ is in fine fourth-wall-breaking form. It's a lovely blend of madcap action and humor.
And then …
So this book reprints issues #43-49 of the comic book series. It's Volume 1 because it's the beginning of Humphries’ run on the title. But he didn't actually start until #45. The book reprints issues 45-49, and then has 43 and 44 at the end. This is actually a good thing because, well, they're pretty awful. If they appeared in sequence, it's probable that no one would stick with the book long enough to reach the Humphries issues.
43 and 44 are a mess. Harley’s seeing these green phantom things that are never explained until near the end of the story--apparently they're a holdover from a previous story or two. She stumbles into an adventure, escapes death only because the would-be killer has a last minute change of heart--how convenient!--and triumphs via a ridiculously implausible plan that, in real life, should have taken days or at least many hours to set into motion. But it seems to take an hour or so, tops. And then some associates of Harley’s turn up after it's all over and reveal that the whole thing was a wild goose chase in the first place, LOL. Yeah, right. It's a sad excuse for a story, though I’ll concede that part of what makes it look so terrible is the entire rest of the book.
So what we have is two thirds of an excellent, funny book, and one third of, well, precisely the opposite. Four stars for Humphries, two stars for 43 and 44. Call it three all together. Recommended, provided you skip right from issue 49 to the Variant Cover Gallery at the back. Don't say I didn't warn you.