Ultimate Gnatrat

by Mark Martin

Gnatrat is a parody of Frank Miller's Batman of the 80's.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels

Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just because I painted the cover of this graphic novel in no way pushed me to highly recommend this awesome, crazy, wacky tomb by creative genius: Mark Martin! So buy it!

[Eli Bishop · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Martin is a very funny guy who can draw like hell, and he tosses off bizarre sight gags and left-field dialogue like nobody's business. That said, I'm pretty sure Gnatrat makes no sense at all unless you're pretty familiar with the Frank Miller comics that it was parodying -- and you might wonder why bother, because parodying Frank Miller is like shooting big square-jawed fish in a dark gritty barrel. However, after shooting all the fish in the barrel, Martin jumps into the barrel and flies it to the moon. Of the ten million silly gags in this comic, my favorites are the ones that have nothing to do with Batman but are just pure surreal Duh-logic in a Goon Show style -- like the arch-villain bankrupting Gnatrat by ordering a pizza in his name every five minutes, or the other arch-villain who, when the police commissioner climbs in the window to arrest him, cackles "Fool! Do you think that is the only window in this place? If they can let you in, they can let me out!" Hee hee.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of the three Gnatrat comics, a parody superhero book, which picks mostly on Frank Miller, but not in a bad way. The main character is an anthropomorphic rat who dresses up like a gnat to fight crime. The main action of the story is based around Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns (Batman) and Born Again (Daredevil). Both are solid choices. These Gnatrat issues came out around 1988 and both of the Miller books were some of the best available at the time. The author also rags on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, their popularity and the host of imitators- ironic as the author went on to work on the series.

The problem with this book is that the action is disjointed, almost stream on consciousness from page to page, and thus you don’t care at all about any of the characters. This is a problem most parody comics have. The story isn’t interesting if you haven’t read the material it’s poking fun at. This is doubly true in Gnatrat where the plot is almost indecipherable unless you've read the previous two books.

[Brent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Martin is the funniest, and this is where I began to pick up on that.
Highly recommended.

[Mark Schlatter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best pastiche in the work is the first one (of Miller's Dark Knight Returns). The parody of Miller's Elektra is fairly muddy. Fortunately, by the end of the work, Martin moves into his signature gonzo style and isn't hampered by trying to follow someone.