See, It's Okay, Because She's Virtual...

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because G-Men Never Forget.

Ahh, yes, Muir doing the bit where he mixes being sleazy with being self-righteous. Never gets old.

Ahh, The Bit Where Muir Reminds People Of Much Better Works.

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because The Black Widow.

This sort of underlines the problem with this storyline--the cast's incredible plot coupons aren't working thanks to author fiat, yes. But they shouldn't need them to begin with, as Trump has been portrayed as friendly to them, taking calls from and even calling them on occasion. The reason that's gone dark is the same reason Jo won't tell her what her powers revealed--they're both Muir's little power fantasy, and right now, that fantasy has been punctured. He thought he had a president who was his sort, and now he's vaguely realizing that he might not, and so Zed and Sam are suddenly written as being cut off from Trump instead of having a direct line to him.

The Mystery Business(TM) Era; Part 3; Setting the Stage

Day by Day opens with the simplest setup imaginable. Indeed, it is so simple, it's barely a setup at all. Characters are shown, introduce each other to one another, and give their job titles. For the first strip, a weak joke about their jobs is given. For the next, we get a weak effort at political humor. That's it.

As I've noted many times, there's a certain threadbare quality to all this. Muir is putting up the minimum effort in his setup, and the result is a fictional universe that feels like it only just started up when we came in. Of course, that's true of the start of any fictional universe, but a good artist can hide the joins so to speak. Muir doesn't even bother. We start with characters all just meeting, even though it's heavily implied they've all worked at this place for awhile. Even worse, Mystery Business(tm) is clearly not a large firm, and Muir's laser focus on the central cast makes it seem even smaller. And so, we get people who clearly should have bumped into each other before now... just bumping into each other, with no real sense of other people who could have served as insulation. We do not get many strips with unseen coworkers being griped about or briefly appearing coworkers to add a sense of scale. Mystery Business(tm) seems initially to consist of just these four characters, and while Muir will briefly gesture at there being other people there, it will never be for very long. Only two coworkers who aren't main staff will be named, and neither will be given much focus. (Though one will rank a nasty off-screen death that will be mentioned years later.)

Now, part of this is there's a sense that DbD at this stage is as much the strip Muir thinks he should be writing at this point in time as it is the strip he wants to write, and these values are going to jostle each other quite a bit in these early years. But there's a fundamental shoddiness that Muir is never going to outgrow. 

Muir Reiterates He Still Believes In Big Orange Brother. Trust Him, Bro.

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Jesse James Rides Again.

It says something that Muir's statement of faith is something that Trump is definitely lying about.

Muir Insists Up Is Now Down, And Always Has Been.

 It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Son of Zorro.

Interesting bit. Even though I commented on how Muir was quietly reiterating that he is true-true for now last time, I have to note that Jo/Trump's list of "accomplishments" aren't quite the same this time. I suspect most of this is the developing situation--Muir is as eager to declare victory as Trump, but much less able to--and some is Muir's developing oddities.

Watching Muir Decide Just What Brand Of Crazy He Is.

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because The Crimson Ghost.

Through an incredible coincidence, I actually know the online conspiracy theory Muir's referencing, the infamous "Short Trump" theory, and it suggests he's breaking with the likes of Teddy Beale for a little while at least. But as he is still swimming in the waters of other crazy conspiracy theories and shouting that up is down and defeat is victory, who knows how long before he changes his mind on that.

Again, if there's one thing Muir's proven while insisting just the opposite, it's that he's one pliable, gullible man.

POSTSCRIPT--What I assume was tomorrow's strip originally went online at the same time in what was a very confusing manner. The malfunctions keep piling up.

All America Needs Is A Magitech-Creating Whiz Kid!

It's the Day's Day of Days! Because Daughter of Don Q.

I swear, this is like how in Atlas Shrugged, Galt's Gulch works because somehow, they've invented stuff that breaks Newton's First Law.