Volume 1 is easily the worst out of the series. The first boy friend fight was atrocious.
2-5 easily make up for it though.
The real thing I love about Scott Pilgrim however, is the realistic dialogue. The characters talk in a way that flows like an actual conversation. I'm still impressed at how there will be an entire room of people talking, yet the flow rarely seems like "comic book dialogue".
book 4 and 1 are my favorite, i think.
the fight–and most of the fights overall--are spoofs of anime and kung-fu and video game cliches, anyway. the whole thing was meant to be sort of a joke. but, it's also that sort of high-level parody that works as what it's parodying, too, sort of like how shawn of the dead is spoofing zombie movies, but works as a zombie movie as well. the fights in scott pilgrim are about as serious as the fighting in ranma 1/2.
so, the fight in book 1 being a joke seemed fitting. i didn't like the way it was introduced so randomly at the end, though. i really like the dialogue and slice of life stuff, and book 1 is almost completely that, so i really, really dug that one. if you're reading it for the dialogue and character interactions, i don't see why you wouldn't like it.