Teen Titans #32
Teen Titans #32 marks the first appearance of Gnarrk, a time-displaced prehistoric caveman who would go on to become one of the more unusual recurring members of the Bronze Age Titans roster — a character whose journey from Stone Age exile to modern-day teammate gave the series a vehicle for examining themes of displacement, adaptation, and what it means to belong. The issue also opens a two-part time-travel story that bends the Titans' world into an alternate medieval reality — an early Bronze Age experiment in consequence-driven alternate-history storytelling within a superhero book. Perhaps equally significant from a publishing-history standpoint, this issue is the first under incoming editor Murray Boltinoff, whose tenure would steer the remaining dozen issues of the original series toward supernatural and mystery-tinged territory rather than the socially conscious super-heroics of the Dick Giordano era.
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Steve Skeates had been the book's writer since roughly issue #28, but his tenure ended abruptly mid-script when Dick Giordano departed DC Comics — Giordano's last day on staff appears to have been November 4, 1970 — and the title was handed to editor Murray Boltinoff, who preferred to work with the Titans' original co-creator Bob Haney. According to Skeates himself (quoted in TwoMorrows' The Titan's Companion, 2005), he wrote the first thirteen-and-a-half pages of the issue before losing the assignment; Haney scripted the remaining pages uncredited, while Skeates received sole writer credit in the indicia. The entire issue was pencilled and inked by Nick Cardy — the last time Cardy would have full art duties on a Titans story, as subsequent issues shifted his role — and it was edited by Boltinoff, who would oversee the title through its cancellation with #43 in 1973.
Trivia · 9 facts
- First appearance of Gnarrk (the caveman), created by Steve Skeates and Nick Cardy — though his name is not revealed until the following issue, #33.
- Story title: 'A Mystical Realm, a World Gone Mad!' — a two-part tale completed by Bob Haney in Teen Titans #33.
- Cover date: March–April 1971; on-sale date: January 19, 1971. Published bi-monthly by National Periodical Publications (DC) at a cover price of 15 cents.
- First issue edited by Murray Boltinoff, who replaced outgoing editor Dick Giordano and remained editor through the end of the original series run (#43, 1973).
- The story features Mal Duncan and Kid Flash accidentally killing Gnarrk during a time-travel experiment gone wrong, producing a warped medieval alternate present populated by counterparts of Mr. Jupiter, fellow Titans, and Justice League members — including characters designated Jupiterius, Knight of the Bat, Duke of the Galaxies, Lord of Lightning, and Thane of the Bow.
- Steve Skeates was fired partway through writing the script; Bob Haney wrote the final portion uncredited — a behind-the-scenes production split confirmed by Skeates in TwoMorrows' The Titan's Companion (2005) and corroborated by the DC Database.
- Nick Cardy handled both pencils and inks throughout the issue, making it one of his final full-art efforts on the series.
- The issue has been reprinted three times: in The Official Teen Titans Index #2 (Independent Comics Group, September 1985), Showcase Presents: Teen Titans Vol. 2 TPB (DC, 2007), and Teen Titans: The Bronze Age Omnibus HC (DC, 2017).
- Gnarrk later appeared in the Cartoon Network animated Teen Titans series (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker), though that adaptation reimagined him as paired with Kole rather than Lilith Clay.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in The Official Teen Titans Index #2 (1985), Showcase Presents: Teen Titans #2 (2007), Teen Titans: The Bronze Age Omnibus #[nn] (2017)
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