I've been at this for a few hours now but can't find a good way to solve this.
Basically what i want to achieve is to trough my template.php file completely override the comment modules output of links when displayed on a node teaser.
So i want to remove the "Add New Comment", "2 New Comments", "2 Comments" for example and have it replaced by only one single button saying something like "Comments (2)" instead.
This specifically answers your question on how to override the comment links. The important part is using the value of $vars['comment_count'] to add the count into your altered link title.
function YOURTHEME_preprocess_node(&$vars) { if(!empty($vars['content']['links']['comment'])){ // Get rid of other comment link with counts $vars['content']['links']['comment']['#links']['comment-comments'] = array(); // Override the title of the add a comment title displaying a count if($vars['comment_count'] > 0) $vars['content']['links']['comment']['#links']['comment-add']['title'] = 'Comments ('.$vars['comment_count'].')'; else $vars['content']['links']['comment']['#links']['comment-add']['title'] = 'Comments'; } } 