Parenting & Family Quote by Burt Ward

A tiny moral panic hides inside Burt Ward's mild phrasing, and it’s doing real cultural work. “No kids should see” isn’t just concern; it’s a claim of jurisdiction. Ward is staking out who Batman is for, and by extension who gets to define the character. Coming from the former Robin of the 1960s TV era, it’s also a defense of a particular Batman: campy, consumer-friendly, and built to be watched by families without anyone needing to avert their eyes.

The line “that kind of violence” is pointedly vague, which makes it flexible. Ward doesn’t have to litigate body counts or filmmaking style; he just invokes an instinctive boundary. Then he lands the punch: “Batman is killing as many people as the bad guys.” That comparison flips the superhero fantasy into an ethical audit. It’s not “Batman is darker now,” it’s “Batman has lost the one thing that makes him Batman.” The subtext is that when the hero’s methods match the villain’s, the brand’s moral architecture collapses, and the cape becomes a costume for vigilantism.

Context matters: modern blockbuster Batman often trades in “realism,” tactical brutality, and collateral damage as shorthand for seriousness. Ward’s critique resists that equation. He’s not only protecting kids; he’s warning adults about what they’re applauding: a culture that confuses higher body counts with higher stakes, and calls it maturity.