Cyborg: “Way to go, nark!”

Teen Titans: “Guh-narrk!”

Gnarrk: “Gnarrk, gnarrk.”

Truer words have never been spoken. We’ve already discussed the filler status of this season to death, and once again the creative team behind the series manages to tie what could have easily been nothing more than a sub-par filler episode into the Brotherhood of Evil continuity.

Ok, it is not even addressed until the closing frames, but its there and its far better than any previous season, so we’ll take what we can get.

One thing is for certain, the Teen Titans have a wealth of fringe characters to work with for cameos this season, and the incorporation of Kole and Gnarrk just goes to show that the team behind the teens is dedicated to working these ancillary characters in, somehow or someway.

Rather obscure in Titan history, many viewers will likely chalk both Kole and Gnarrk up as series only characters, created solely to fit the story at hand. Surprisingly, they did actually appear in the comics, even if the circumstances were slightly different.

The first major difference is that Kole and Gnarrk were never a team, although they do share a bond in that their time spent with the Titans was brief and cut short before actually being inducted onto the team officially. This kindred nature, both destined to touch the lives of the Teen Titans before shuffling off this mortal coil, is what brings them together in "Kole." Believe it or not, the whole thing works quite well.

In the comics, Kole Weathers was the daughter of Professor Abel Weathers, a man whose scientific experiments had a detrimental effect, to say the least, on the lives of his loved ones. Note to self: never use family members as test subjects, no matter how tempting this may be. Ironic that this same scenario has been rekindled for Grant Morrison’s Bulleteer revamp over in Seven Soldiers.

Abel exposed his family to a series of chemical tests, in hopes of finding some means to survive following a nuclear holocaust. A noble cause, sure, but his genetic tinkering left Kole with the ability to control and create carbon based silicon crystals and the rest of his family ultimately became a bunch of bugs. Don’t believe me? Check out New Teen Titans #10 and #11 for proof.

Kole’s adventures with the Teen Titans were cut short by a pesky little crossover event called Crisis on Infinite Earths. You may or may not have heard of it. Kole died fighting the Anti-Monitor alongside Earth-2’s Robin and Huntress, but her death has been questioned time and time again. (Though creator Marv Wolfman insists she was created solely to die.) This sort of plays into certain theories regarding the current Crisis, but alas, that is what the forums are for.

Before we jump into how the animated series adapts Kole, let’s first take a look at Gnarrk’s origins. Gnarrk (pronounced Guh-Narc) was a Cro-Magnon man with an affection for the lights in the sky, who somehow found himself imprisoned in ice after a comet embedded a protective crystal in his chest that protected him from extinction. Don’t some people have all the luck?

As you could probably guess, Gnarrk was held in stasis until discovered and eventually thawed in the present day, where he befriended the Teen Titans and helped them on some adventures before kicking the bucket.

If this seems a bit rushed and a bit blunt, well, then lets just say Gnarrk was not really a favorite in some circles. The use of frozen cavemen has always felt like cheap storytelling for some reason or another, so you could say that Gnarrk has always had one strike against him.

As far as the animated series is concerned, well, that is another story altogether. The teens track Dr. Light to the Artic circle, where he is ready to unveil his latest attempt to defeat the team. This time around he’s constructed a gigantic power battery weapon that requires a crystal to enhance his light powers. At this point in the episode, many of our savvy viewers were beginning to see why Kole and Gnarrk belong together in this episode.

Simply put, Kole can manifest crystals and Gnarrk has an affinity for lights in the sky, not to mention a crystal in his chest. Well, the character design for Gnarrk has decided that he no longer needs a crystal in his chest, considering that he is hanging with Kole, who can literally turn herself into a crystal, or create a crystal shield around her in the blink of an eye.

Naturally, Dr. Light’s plan fails miserably and only succeeds in causing the Arctic floor to cave in, sending both the Titans and Dr. Light careening into a prehistoric-like rain forest below the ice. It is here that they meet both Kole and Gnarrk, and it is here that Dr. Light decides to capture Kole and use her as the power crystals for his new weapon.

Why did the image of Napoleon Dynamite saying, “wait a minute, I forgot to put the crystals in” just come to mind?

Nevermind.

A couple of really witty moments transpire here, especially when Starfire actually begins cracking up to a Beast Boy one-liner directed at Raven. Of course, Cyborg’s inherent sexism causing great ire amongst Kole, Starfire, and Raven was pretty funny, even if it never truly came back to haunt him later on.

In the end, the Titans manage to scrape out a win and offer membership to their newfound friends, but not before we are given the inevitable cutaway to the Brotherhood of Evil, waiting, plotting, and eager to strike.

Next Up: Read my review for Hide and Seek, and see if it should have stayed hidden as Raven is stuck babysitting a trio of future superheroes through the Alps with Msr. Mallah hot on her tale. Will she survive the harsh conditions? Will we? Tune in to find out.

Mario Anima