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.