Miguel "Mike" Hernandez

Mike is one of the regular characters of **Between Failures**, who is (notionally) in charge of the Megatainment store, albeit in practice Thomas and Carol basically cover a lot of duties for him. He is known to be 24 years old on the first 'day' of the comic.

## Appearance

### **Physique**

Mike is of average height, solidly built and somewhat overweight. He appears Hispanic and has brown eyes, with a relatively rounded face and nose.

He has long, curly hair, a styled beard (which looks rather similar to the Batman symbol) and, like many of the male characters, sideburns.

### **Clothing**

Although he is supposedly in charge, Mike usually wears the slightly less formal short-sleeved polo shirt when at work, similar to that worn by John.

## Job Role

Mike is the Manager of the Megatainment store. However, he is generally ineffective, and relies heavily on the core characters (especially Thomas and Carol) to help him run the store. It appears that he is capable of running most of the 'back-office' and administrative functions, but sometimes struggles to assert himself. He tends to follow instructions issued by the company to the letter.

Mike used to work as an assistant at the Megtainment head office in Texas. Thomas initially believes he has been sent to the gradually-failing Marbleton store in order to build a case for his dismissal. This has seemingly happened to other Managers in the past, with Thomas referring to them as 'Sixers' - Managers with six months left.

Being from 'out of town', Mike is unaware of the reputation some other characters have locally. He seemingly finds the slow pace of trade in the store depressing. This is made worse by the fact his attempts to improve matters frequently backfire.

Mike does seem to hire new staff (something Thomas has otherwise taken over). Unfortunately, his first hire is Wes.

## Relationships

### **Other**

#### Thomas

Mike generally tries to make Thomas comply with official Megatainment policy. However, he is easily duped by Thomas, who often presents any stunts or borderline behaviour as 'teambuilding', using as many buzzwords as possible. Perhaps because of this, he thinks Thomas might actually benefit from or appreciate teambuilding exercises with him.

It seems Mike is aware that he is dependant on Thomas (and Carol) and therefore avoids confrontation with them.

## Personality

### **Behaviour**

Mike tries to assert himself, although with variable degrees of success. He oscillates between working hard in store, and being depressed at its lack of success. He is often late to work (even later than Thomas), often with a ludicrous excuse. However, he later notes that as the only salaried member of staff works more hours anyway.

### **Food, Drink & Drugs**

Mike is known to like chocolate ice cream.

## Trivia

* Although he is a 'regular' rather than 'core' character, Mike actually appears in a strip before Jo does.
* Early on in the comic (when the some of the characters 'spoke' in different fonts) Mike appears to have used Lucidia Console.
* Shortly after the start of the colour comics, Jackie notes that Mike is/was an unpopular character, although one that he still likes.

## References

1. ↑ http://betweenfailures.com/comics1/87-broken-strings/comment-page-1#comment-92107
2. ↑ http://betweenfailures.com/comics1/84-mike-hernandez
3. ↑ http://betweenfailures.com/comics1/88-books-covers
4. ↑ http://betweenfailures.com/comics1/161-will-to-live
5. ↑ http://betweenfailures.com/comics1/165-i-needed-that
6. ↑ http://betweenfailures.com/comics1/187-not-our-way
7. ↑ http://betweenfailures.com/comics1/87-broken-strings
8. ↑ http://betweenfailures.com/comics1/85-fishy
9. ↑ http://betweenfailures.com/comics1/175-good-intentions
10. ↑ http://betweenfailures.com/comics1/333-safe
11. ↑ http://betweenfailures.com/comics1/337-baby-ducks
12. ↑ http://betweenfailures.com/comics1/103-distraction
13. ↑ http://betweenfailures.com/comics1/336-the-teachings-of-history