#though he's a bit biased after hearing that the Joker was left in the hospital

[thatrandomsarahchick]

I but imagine if they accidentally become vigilantes? Or worse ... heroes!

They don't even realise at first, so used to vigilantes like Danny and Red Huntress harassing and stalking them, but they end up being so genuine in their love of this music shop that isn't a front for anything that they pass Batman's test and he let's them be.

The area around their shop becomes known as their territory, especially when they start stopping any villain attacks that happen within a five block radius - they can't risk their stuff getting damaged! Skulker finds out one of the neighbours was attacked on the way home and quickly makes her a small, non lethal, weapon to protect herself with. More people from the neighbourhood come forward telling him about attacks that have happened outside their radius and he starts a small section of personal protection devices for sale at reasonable prices.

Red Hood comes into the shop again because a few of the kids in his area have started carrying Ember's Emporium branded key chains that double as blunt knives if you spin them the right way. They're not enough to kill someone, but enough for the kids to hopefully surprise them and have a chance at getting free. Another thing that's been showing up are thick metal balls that expand into a baton if you press a button.

He somehow gets into a discussion with Skulker about Crime Alley, and how the Bats and cops won't even go there. He starts ranting about how he does everything he can, but it still never seems to be enough to protect the innocents from getting hurt. Skulker sees how this Revenant is striving to protect his haunt, and offers to help him out. He incorrectly assumes that the man felt so strongly about protecting his street that he came back to life.

Jason leaves with a signed contract to provide him with personal protection devices at a discount rate. In exchange, Jason will put in a good word to Ember's parole officer if he asks for it, and won't mention any of the fighting they've been doing.

Ember's Music Emporium

When he became King, Danny had not banned the ghosts from earth but asked them to be discreet, so instead of giving concerts that were extremely flashy, Ember decided to open a music store.

It was complicated to find a good location since she wanted to go far away from Amity, but she was aware that not all cities would accept strangers and it could be dangerous for her if they found out she was a ghost.

Money was not so difficult, Ember had collected several things during her unofficial concerts, among them: cash (besides, Danny was willing to sponsor her if that wasn't enough), and musical instruments were even easier to find as Skulker loved to build them and wanted to help her.

In the end, her little music store set up in Gotham (rusty laws, natural ecto, crazies everywhere and lots of people who looked extremely colorful, she assumed they would take her as one).

She and Skulker worked very hard at turning the dusty place they bought into something nice where everyone was welcome; they also made it a sort of temporary home, seeing as they couldn't go to the Infinite Realms every day.

And everything was a success until someone tried to attack their little business; naturally the ghosts protected it and very soon, a rare scarecrow was hit by one of Skulker's bombs.

It didn't cause much damage but it definitely drew attention. Many tried to attack after this and they kept responding (Skulker much more excited than she was about the whole thing).

But Ember was determined to not call Danny, she was sure they would get scolded about attacking people and not going unnoticed as they promised (although the rude people attacked them first and none of them were dead, or Danny would have come).

When some weird guys in bat costumes started trying to sneak into her humble music store (and they didn't even bother to pretend to be customers like the nice guy in the red helmet), she decided that maybe it was time to call the halfa. Things had gotten a little out of hand.

[diloph]

Feels a little odd to hear talk about Robin and Annie, but I agree with what you said. And in fact, this reminds me of how annoyed I was that they just blew up Hagen(and by extension Annie) in Justice League. Yeah, you can argue how sympathetic he is, but I still think Clayface deserved a better send-off. The DCAU honestly did most of the rogues poorly by the time of New Batman Adventures.

Yeah, I won’t lie, I’m sort of biased towards liking BTAS more than The New Adventures even though I think the designs and animation in the latter (including the widely hated Joker redesign) were much smoother, so I’m definitely more interested in a sympathetic monster version of Matt Hagan than “well, guess I’m just a villain now” one that crops up in the Xmas episode. A glorified shoplifting scheme for petty cash? Yeah, that says “was once a man”. If he’s after money to cure his condition, let him hit up a bank or something. Or a chemical lab. No shortage of them in Gotham.

That’s kind of trait that keeps reoccuring within that part of the series. Batman goes from a man who puts up a stern front with those who deserve it, but will laugh and joke and generally be a human being with his friends to a stick-in-the-mud knowitall killjoy around even Alfred and Tim.

Other characters got it too, such as how Mr Freeze gave up on life or the doomed “romance” between Killer Croc and Baby Doll. It was getting a bit too bleak and things like the Ventriloquist finally freeing himself from Scarface once and for all were a bit less prominent.

It comes to a head with me with Annie and Clayface, where she seemingly got lumped (sorry) with all of his sympathy and was immediately murdered by the new, more villainous take on Hagan that gets away with it scott free. That could have been addressed and explored in greater detail in these new comics and it just... wasn’t. For no readily apparent reason, despite slapping her on the cover. No interesting story, nothing.

Much like a certain OTHER series that has an ongoing comic run, I’d expected the new issues to address the characters and scenarios we feel got short-changed with new and exciting stories, through a slightly more mature lens of the new medium. Whilst The Adventures Continue do handle that a little better, it’s still very shallow to what BTAS/The New Adventures’ contemporary comics put out at the same time as the show.

And, considering what happens to Tim at the end; broken by the Joker and unwittingly reduced to endangering hundreds of thousands of innocents thanks to the Clown Prince of Crime’s brainwashing, completely separate from the rest of the Bat family? Yeah, I’ve got an issue with that. I don’t expect a happy ending for everybody, but some characters are just kicked repeatedly when they’re down. Even that thing I pointed out where Annie’s picture seems to reappear on the Batcomputer in Beyond is an easily exploitable thing they could have used to beef up the lore of a main character, a villain and a side character.

Tim could have had one good thing left from his time as Robin. One thing. One person who he both helped and was helped by, knew as a close friend. Sure, Bruce and Barbara pop by in the hospital at the end of Return of the Joker, but in the end I don’t think that’s enough.

Tim Drake might not have the Flying Graysons to mourn, nor being twisted into the Red Hood to strike out against the man he once considered his ally and mentor, but in the DCAU, he’s got more than enough tragedy to match them both and it is never really addressed.

But at least he got to throw a freezy-Batarang at Clayface in those two panels, right? More than makes up for it, I don’t think.